Play: The Foundation of Internal Vibrancy (and The Magic Pill)
Article Published for The Vital Creative Collection, Written by Charlotte Jade Askew
Photo by Jonathan Sanchez
When was the last time you truly gave yourself permission to play? Does that question seem irrelevant to you? Does that word ‘play’ give you the ‘ick?’ Maybe you think play is for kids.
We need to chat.
Integrating play is arguably THE most important thing you can do for yourself as an adult today. Why? Because it is the foundation of vibrancy: energy, passion, flow, and self-connectedness.
Photo by Julia Peretiatko
A Revival
There is so much talk today of ‘work-life balance’ and yet little understanding of how to actionably create it. Work-life balance seems to have become a catch-all term for our overall well-being. We’re told to switch off our devices, leave work at the door, be present with our family, relax, but we’re still stressed (and tired), and those things don’t seem to shift the run-down, dead-end feelings.
What we long for, is revival, and that’s where play comes in.
Here are just a few of the scientifically researched benefits of play:
Improved emotional regulation
A stronger inner locus of control — a sense of agency and self-power
Increased creativity
Improved problem-solving capacity
Better social and emotional skills
Enhanced mind-body connection
Improved physical health
Play reduces general muscle tension, alleviating body aches and reducing fatigue. When we’re playing, we’re laughing, moving happily, or singing; we tend to take fuller, deeper breaths, allowing greater oxygen exchange and improving numerous neurochemical activities and bodily functions.
The coolest part? Play exercises the brain, using both hemispheres, which ultimately keeps us healthier and younger.
Photo by Steven Wilcox
The birthplace of creativity and innovation
Ultimately, play is the highest form of self-care. It encompasses the activity — or activities — that replenish and revitalize us. The birthplace of creativity and innovation. Play is joy and often the highest expression of ourselves.
Do I need to go on? If there was a pill that claimed all these benefits, everyone in the world would be trying to get their hands on it.
Play is essential.
More money, more stuff, more likes
In a study where infant rats and monkeys were deprived of play, it was discovered that the subjects were socially and emotionally crippled by the loss. They could not cope emotionally in new environments and would freeze or lash out when exposed to peers (Grey, 2014).
In children, play decreases the risk and rate of depression and anxiety. I’m willing to extrapolate that to adults as well — let me explain why:
Over the past sixty years, we’ve seen a steady erosion of the freedom and opportunity to play in both children and adults. Our societies are still driven by hustle culture and ridged performance demands — the constant desperation to ‘get ahead.’
Productivity. Ambition. Success.
More money, more stuff, more likes.
In many ways, we are more stressed, more anxious, and more depressed than ever.
Photo by Taisiia Stupak
Our focus has stagnated in the future. There is no white space in our lives anymore. No gaps. No time to be still and present. We fill those moments with our screens and scrolling, or the suffocating ambition for progress. Perpetual thoughts of ‘what next.’ We’ve forgotten (and some of us have never learned) to experience ourselves in silence. We don’t remember what it’s like to sink into a flow state and lose track of time and space, giving ourselves over entirely to the moment.
And it’s because we’ve stifled play from our lives to the point where many of us have forgotten that we possess the ability to play. That we played before we could talk. That it was our first language and our way of experimenting with ourselves in the world. Learning who we are in a somatic sense, connected to each other and the Earth.
Photo by Tetiana Shadrina
A unity of the self
Over the years, our understanding of what constitutes play has been hijacked by our obsession with progress and an insatiable hunger for education. We have steadily weeded out the space for play, filling our lives with work. An ever-present need to make (and have) more.
Play does not necessarily command we wear a uniform on a manicured field once a week. Not for children and not for adults.
According to world-renowned researcher, Brene Brown, play is an activity engaged in for no real purpose other than because we adore the activity itself, and because it helps us lose track of time and self-consciousness (Brown, 2012). What constitutes play is unique to every individual, for the activity that produces this effect will vary from person to person.
Collectively, we have replaced a lot of play with highly-organized games such as football or baseball, and the pre-prescribed structure of phone and computer games. The trouble with these activities is that the purpose becomes skewed — it’s not really about playing so much as it is winning.
Play is not something you try to win at, to receive an award, medal, or outcome. Play is actioned for its own sake because the play-er feels the thrill of undisturbed joy. Play is a unity of the self, mind-body-soul. A fluidity between those facets and absorption entirely in the activity at hand. Time slows, senses heighten, and you are in sync with effortless momentum.
Photo by Matteo Vistocco
Discovering what play means for you
There is a difference between knowing what play is and knowing what it is for you. Knowing what it is for you will take some exploration. A rediscovery of your inner child.
Here are a few prompts you can journal on to help you on this journey:
What activity, when you do it, refreshes and revives you?
When do you lose track of time and feel most connected to yourself? (If not now, when did you feel this way as a child?)
What did you love to do as a child, what were you passionate about?
Which activities do you cut from your to-do list or schedule when you’re busy or feeling overwhelmed? (Often the first thing to go, is play)
What have you stopped doing or never started because you don’t feel like it’s productive?
Photo by Jeremy Bishop
Fuel for life
Careful, let’s not confuse play with numbing.
The danger, when we talk about play, is for us to jump straight to our favourite TV show or scrolling TikTok, and whilst those things help us lose track of time, when we’re using them out of boredom or to take us out of the present moment, they become something entirely separate from play.
Most often, we collapse onto the couch to relax in front of Netflix or a stream of reels, and surface feeling no more energized or refreshed than when we started. What we’re actually doing is not playing, it’s numbing. Using our screens and the stories on them to forget about our current reality. All the responsibilities, the financial pressure, the relationship struggles. We try to numb it all. The trouble is, we cannot selectively numb, so we numb the good too, and then we’re left feeling like a mere shell of ourselves.
Whilst we lose track of time when we play, it is actually a process of tuning in, not tuning out. An experience of inner connectedness that leaves us feeling revived, not resurfacing with a feeling of dread.
Play is fuel for life. The portal to energy and vibrancy. If the activity you’re doing doesn’t leave you feeling this way, it isn’t play for you or you’re using it to numb, rather than to play.
Ways to play:
Cooking/Baking (not for an event or paid assignment)*
Rock climbing
Travelling
Swimming (not training or competition)*
Photography
Painting
Scrapbooking
Hiking (not for fitness)*
Snorkeling
Photo by Julia Peretiatko
Back to its roots
The purpose of the activity matters. I’ve put a few clarifiers on the suggestions above. Some people have turned their play into their profession, which usually pulls it out of the play basket. However, if you can take the activity back to its roots alongside your work, it can retain its benefits in those instances.
Let’s take photography as an example, perhaps photography was your childhood passion; now, you’re a professional photographer. The shoots you do for paid assignments, count as work, but if you take your camera out on the weekends and shoot for the pure joy of the experience (for no one but yourself), that is play.
The activity you engage in should bring you pure joy and be engaged in for this purpose. The above is by no means an exhaustive list, and whatever play is for you, is unique to you. There are no hard and fasts here. Explore. Get creative. Tune in to yourself and get curious. Only you can discover what play is for you — and when you do, you will feel yourself bloom as if you’ve been dormant for years.
—Charlotte Jade Askew, In-House Writer at Casey Jacque
Instagram: @inner_chatter
References
Brown, C. B., & LMSW, B. (2012). The power of vulnerability.
Dr Grey, P. (2014, May). The Decline of Play [Video]. TED Conferences. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg-GEzM7iTk.
