The Amusing Life:

PLAY! 

When we play, our brains light up across the regions of the brain. This connection allows us to see things and feel things that we wouldn't otherwise. It's what the amusing life is all about - engaging in creative activities with one another to light up those neural pathways and give us a beautiful array of perspective. 

What is play? 

Play is any activity we engage in simply for the joy of it and without any practical purpose. It's blowing bubbles, kicking a ball, drawing, dancing, or just watching the clouds float by. It can be many different things, but it's all about the experience, and never about an end result or competition.

I think one of my favorite play experiences as an adult (well, barely an adult) was the summer after my senior year of high school. I was a counselor for Music & Arts week at Camp Sumatanga. Some other counselors and I went to the chapel one night. Lying on the floor, we blew bubbles in the dark and shone a flashlight on them. We talked and laughed and watched the light reflecting rainbows from the bubbles. Now that's some quality playtime. 

Why should I play? 

We know play is important for children's development, but why should grown-ups play? For our hunter-gatherer ancestors, it fostered cooperation and sharing in a setting of dominance and survival of the fittest. I can think of a number of situations where this is still relevant. Play can reduce stress for us as individuals, but it can also diffuse tension in a group. 

You may think of play as a guilty pleasure, a reward for a long week of hard work. However, research shows that play enhances learning, increases productivity, and promotes bonding. Do you ever feel like your brain is full? We need non-productive time to be more productive. Our brains keep processing even when we aren't actively engaged in a task. Scientists call this the default mode network. See, when we take a break and play a round of golf, our brain fires up this default network mode. It connects regions of the brain to solve complex problems in the background while we're working on a putt. Now you know why you often solve all of the world's problems while you're taking a shower, or is that just me? 

If you could get an fMRI of Simone Biles doing a Triple-double backflip vs. me trying to do any kind of flip at all, guess who would show the most brain activity? That's right - ME!!! Our brain works most when we're learning new things, so don't just play one way. Switch it up. Crossword on Monday, dance party on Tuesday, karaoke on Wednesday.... And as always, find friends (or strangers) to join you because you know what's always evolving and the most difficult? People.

How do I play? (I forgot.)

Okay, so play is good for me. Now how exactly do I do it? 

First, we all need to change the way we think about play and stop chaining it to vacation and weekends. Get up from your desk. Go outside and watch birds for 2 minutes. Play can happen anytime. 

Next, think about how you played as a child. Is that something you can translate as an adult? I loved to climb trees. It probably wasn't a great idea at 9, (my mom certainly didn't think so) and it's a terrible idea at 42. But maybe I would like one of those climbing walls. 

Last, but not least, hang around playful people. We all have that friend that we get together with and try to solve world hunger. We also have that friend that is inevitably gonna make you laugh so hard you pee. When that's the same friend, you've got a winner. I have a friend like this. Some years ago, I had just ended a serious relationship and was finding my way and myself again. I spent a lot of time at this friend's house because there were always people there playing. They were building a bonfire or having a rap battle or setting up beer pong or playing a board game. It was refreshing. 

Go play

I admittedly do not practice what I'm preaching here. If you know me, you know that I can play and be silly, but as a rule, I am a serious bitch. I don't have time for your small talk; I want to know if we can nail down a timeline for this project. But what if I stop staring at the formula in that spreadsheet, close my office door, and have a 2-minute dance party? What if we play rock, paper, scissors to determine who speaks first at the next accounting meeting? What if my wife and I stop mid-argument and have a pillow fight? This challenge is about play. What kind of playing are you going to do? What kind of spark and joy can we create if we start to incorporate play into our lives? 

Check out The Amusing Life on Facebook or @theamusinglife on Instagram to see some of my attempts to play this week. Tag me in your play posts. Also, look out for a link for game night on Zoom coming up on Thursday. Happy playing!

Resources/References: 

The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain 

Why Your Brain Needs More Downtime

Why it's good for grown-ups to go play