Why "Play" Is Important For Your Wellbeing
As children, we would delight in the idea of being allowed to just play for hours. Making up stories with our toys, building dens from the sofa cushions and roaming in the grass outside without agenda.
Yet as we move towards adulthood, the idea of playing seems silly, frivolous or even lazy. It is certainly dismissed by society as something that is just for children. Adults should focus on being productive and serious. They have too many responsibilities in life, both personal and professional, to waste their time playing and are told to act their age. Dr Bowen White, author of the book “Why Normal Isn’t Healthy” observed that, as a society, “the only kind [of play] we honour is competitive play”.
What many doctors and coaches are starting to observe is that play is as important for the development of adults as it is for children.
“We don’t lose the need for novelty and pleasure as we grow up” writes Scott G. Eberle, editor of the American Journal of Play. In fact, play has been proven to improve creativity, problem solving and relationships for adults. Not to mention the fact that it brings us such JOY.
Author Stuart Brown compared it to oxygen in his book Play. He observes, “…it’s all around us, yet goes mostly unnoticed or unappreciated until it is missing.” You might be surprised by this, until you stop to think about the activities that make up play – art, books, movies, music, flirting, comedy and daydreaming.
Having spent decades studying the power of play, Brown has observed everyone from prisoners to business people, and artists to scientists. In his research, he also reviewed over 6,000 “play histories”, which are case studies looking into how play impacts a person’s childhood and adulthood.
Amongst his findings, he discovered that couples who played together were more likely to be able to rekindle their relationship, and that a lack of play was an important factor in predicting criminal behaviour amongst prisoners in Texas. Play has been found to also cultivate healing and build strong connections between strangers.
You may have seen the movie Patch Adams, based on a true story of a doctor who brought fun into the medical world. Dr White, mentioned above, worked with Patch over two decades ago. In addition to being a doctor and a speaker, Dr White is a clown.
Dr White’s alter ego is a proctologist called Dr Jerko, who has a large bottom and a white coat that reads “I’m interested in your stools”. He spends his time clowning at children’s orphanages and hospitals all over the world, and even appears as a clown at corporate presentations and prisons. “Clowning isn’t something we’re doing with kids, we clown with everybody,” he said.
He has even taken his love of play to Russia to clown on the streets of Moscow. He doesn’t speak the language, but that doesn’t matter – in less than an hour, he was juggling and laughing with a crowd of thirty people.
Dr White’s wife and Patch Adam’s son both also work as clowns and visited a bedridden father in Colombia, at the request of his daughter. When they sat at his bedside, one on either side, there were early barriers as they did not speak the father’s language. But they sang songs and played with a whoopee cushion. They laughed and cried together. Later, the daughter told them that her father deeply appreciated the experience. We are transported to a sacred space and can touch people in a deeply profound way when we play.
What Is Play?
As humans, we like to be able to define everything – to put it in a box. But it isn’t that simple with play, as Eberle points out. “Defining play is difficult because it’s a moving target. [It’s] a process, not a thing”. At the start, there is normally anticipation and it will hopefully end with poise. In-between that “you will find surprise, pleasure, understanding – as skill and empathy – and strength of mind, body and spirit.”
Stuart Brown described play as a “state of being – purposeless, fun and pleasurable”. Instead of striving for a goal, the focus is generally on the actual experience. The activity is needless – some might find pure pleasure in spending time knitting, whereas others would absolutely hate it. For Brown, play is walking his dog and playing tennis with friends.
How to Play
We’re not saying that you must play every moment of the day to enjoy the benefits it can bring. In his writing, Brown calls play a catalyst. A little bit of play, he writes, can go a long way toward boosting our productivity and happiness.
So how can you add play into your life? Here are a few tips from the experts:
Give yourself a different message about play. Remember how important it is for all areas of our lives, especially relationships and creativity. Give yourself permission to play every day. Eberle suggested that play could even mean talking to your dog: “I[‘d] ask my dog Charlie, regularly, his opinion of the presidential candidates. He responded with a lifted ear and an upturning vocalization that goes ‘woof?’”
Look into your history. Brown suggests in his book that you can reconnect with play by mining your past for memories of play. What did you love to do as a child? What excited you? Did you play alone or with others? Is there a way that you could recreate that today?
Read aloud with your partner, especially playful authors, such as Dylan Thomas, Richard Feynman and Frank McCourt.
Spend time with playful, fun people. Both Brown and White made it clear how important this step was – and of playing with your family and friends.
Play with children. This helps us to experience the magic and excitement of play through their eyes.
Next time you find yourself dismissing play as a waste of time, or a bit petty, remind yourself of the huge benefits to both you and others. In the words of Stuart Brown, “play is the purest expression of love”.