There are some secrets that can make all the difference in your life. And when you find a key secret it’s worth cultivating it to ease and abundantly enhance your life experiences. I recently found someone on a mission, devoted to revealing a key secret. Let me include you in what he found.
What is it that enables us to innovate, problem-solve, and be happy, smart, resilient human beings? What allows us to cultivate the skills necessary to handle changing times? Like many secrets, it’s often right before our eyes. But to see it you need to “see it” with “new eyes”.
Now, make sure you’re not looking with “old eyes” or you’ll miss it. And stop long enough to register and experience this amazing influence. Just watch young children and happy puppies and baby animals play with total enthusiasm. They have fun. They play. And in the process they prepare for life.
Dr Stuart Brown, the leading expert in his field in US explains, “play is anything but trivial.” It is a basic biological drive as integral to our health and functioning as sleep and nutrition. That means it is essential to our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
Through play we spark new insight, open new thinking and possibilities. Play joyfully weaves us together with family and friends, and without bonding through playing together we drift apart and lose connectedness. Play allows us to foster relationships that engage individual strengths and strategies into group outcomes, to form communities where all can contribute and thrive.
Play, How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul is a book by Stuart Brown, MD, founder to the National Institute for Play, with science and medicine writer Christopher Vaughan.
Stuart Brown, as well as being a medical doctor, is also a psychiatrist, clinical researcher, founder of the National Institute for Play, former clinical director at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in San Diego, and Associate professor at University of California, Dan Diego. “... The latest advances in neuroscience, biology, psychology, and social science illuminates the role of play as nature’s most advanced process for promoting brain development and social integration across species. … Even the lowest creatures on the evolutionary spectrum have a play mechanism. But humans are the biggest players of all – we are meant to play though out life.”
“Play is the single most significant factor in determining our success and happiness.” Dr Stuart Brown’s research proved that when we play we release dopamine, oxytocin and other reward neurochemicals, and those crucial for regrowth of brain cells.
Norman Doidge in his book The Brain That Changes Itself highlighted the plasticity of our brain. The more we use it the more connections we build in the brain, at any age. The more varied and unusual ways we use the brain the more connections are created. Stuart Brown’s research shows joyful experiences are crucial to the creation of synaptic connections.
Play is as integral to our health as is sleep. Play is a biological drive, opens to possibility and sparks off new insight and lines of thought. Play is the glue for relationships and releases creativity. We are designed by nature to play and flourish. Play is nature’s most advanced process for promoting brain development and social integration in all species. Humans are the biggest players of all and we are designed to play all through our lives. Play is hardwired into our brains.
Notice what happens when you take your dog to the park and let it off the leash. The exhibition of pure exuberance, speed and athleticism of a dog at play, when released from hours in confined space, be it the back yard or the back seat of the car, is a joy to see. The moment is captivating and gleeful. We laugh, our spirit lifts, tension and fatigue drop away, we breathe deeply.
Play is intensely pleasurable, energizes us and enlivens. It eases our burdens, renews our natural sense of optimism, releases stress, and opens new curiosity and interest. It shapes the brain, fosters empathy and encourages socialization. Creativity and innovation often comes out of play.
Play weaves memories and binds us together emotionally. Fulfillment is linked to our ability to enjoy and play, feel a sense of happiness, release creativity and spark solutions. Comedy, irony, daydreaming, imagination, art, music, books jokes, drama played to the max lift us out of the mundane.
Where Did Play Go?
How did we lose our sense of play over the years? When does play become unproductive? When is play relegated to unimportant? When do we consider play as a poor use of our time? When does daily life and responsibility crowd out the spontaneous outburst of pleasure through unexpected happenings? When does the fear of not enough time to do all the necessary and important things consume every thought and plan and action, till exhaustion overtakes us? Where do we find joy if we don’t play?
When your life feels hollow, routine, demanding, pressured, predictable, full of chores, or without value or meaning – add some play, fun, laughter, frivolity, joyousness, exuberance to lighten the load of responsibility, commitment or emotional darkness, to create space for creativity and insight.
The Essence of This Secret
The key secret revealed is that play makes us better people, brings us together in exuberant co-operation, and makes the world a better place for all. It’s there right before your eyes. Adjust the meaning of “play” in your life, re-tune your eyes and ears, and reconsider your beliefs and priorities.
And if you can’t update play on your own, see a Kinesiologist.
Cheers
Anna
anna@annamcrobert.com.au
PS. Science is also exploring the outcome of being “play deprived.” These are the youngsters at risk of isolation, not fitting anywhere, and violence. More on that another time.