Just a little bit of research based incentives for how your play may acutely matter, and how there should be little guilt for introducing more play into your life.
We all know about stress, but we are going to dig a little deeper into the detriments of stress, plus some incentives to make play your stress buster of choice.
Find something good in your life through play, and find ways to add more playfulness to your everyday and beat that stress at its own game.
Resources of research for this episode came from:
http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Consequences_of_Play_Deprivation
Let’s chat for half a minute because I am working on a few new things for the direction of this podcast. So far we’ve covered a lot of productive ground: Play is our groundwork, play history is how we find out how we ourselves play. Play is our creative origin. Play is where we develop our sense of imagination and our sense of social rules. Play is also where we go to work out our troubles, and our trauma. Play is also where adults can dump their stress-load. I am particularly bad at giving up my stress-load, and I think that is common. So, this episode I am hoping to explain 1) the detriment of stress, 2) tell you a little more about the compelling research for playing and then 3) give you incentive to find something playful just for you. Just quick, easy, fast, simple, and hopefully lovable.
Stress. You know how stress creates problems with your body chemistry? Stressors large and small causes your body to create a continual stream of stress hormones, the most common is called cortisol. Heard of it? It’s kind of a tagline lately. We have more and more research being done about how our bodies are under enormous amounts of stress. AND we do not have the adrenal systems to combat the stressors we encounter. Our bodies are attuned to running from danger, and then lean against a tree and quickly recover our sense of safety and allow our body chemistry to acclimate. Instead, we cause our bodies to constantly be alerting to stress all day. We never allow our internal guard to acclimate or revert back to a state of calm, and we rarely stop adding new fuel to the stoked fire. We have more and more research being done about how stress hormones degrade, distress, and destroy the health of our physical well-being, and we are still figuring out what effect it has on our mental state. Enormous research has been done to how to combat stress. You know what the best recommendations for relieving stress are? Sleep, relax, eat healthy, exercise, and laugh. All things we know to do already, but if the majority of people knew how to do these things well enough to offset stress why are we working overtime to combat the stress that is running us over from behind. I know too many people working to be productive, working on their to-do lists that cannot seem to come up with ways to get rid of more stress in their lives. In fact coming up with one more thing to do is actually exacerbating the problem— and causing more stress.
If you wanted to take the time, I bet you could come up with a list of five things that you find relaxing. I bet you could come up with at least five stressors you want to stress less about or you want to eliminate altogether. Maybe your five stress relieving activities offset the five stressors in your life, but I have to say, most likely not. One of my goals for this podcast is to give you some incentives for playing a little harder (meaning more immersively-pretty sure I just made that word up), and giving yourself the pure permission to enjoy playing. Play is one of the underrated stress busters out there. You don’t have to spend a lot of time doing it. (By the way if you need ideas refer back to episode 5 where I give some ideas of where to start) Getting immersed in something that brings you true, pure joy is one way that life is meant to be lived playfully. Creating something of your own OR doing something that sparks pure joy that leaves a smile on your face long after you’ve left the activity is what we are using as our definition of play here on this podcast.
One quality of play is that it is less about the final result and more about the actual process of playing that is the most beneficial, and the most stress relieving. Play is actually undermined by getting a trophy at the end or if a set goal is the objective. Play is about the enjoyment of the process, not at all about the competition. Play is experimentation without need for a specific outcome. In fact not having a goal or outcome is an excellent curiosity practice.
The Institute of Play has a large resource library of play research. Part of of their research is dedicated to play in adults—very minimally, because play in adults is not as easily tracked as it is in children, plus in my experience adults are less likely to call their activities play—and as far as I can tell I seem to be the only one really fascinated by play in adults. Some of the research is quoted as "In many play insufficient adult lives, accomplishments such as economic adequacy tinged with chronic depression may well be the long-term outcome. At the far end of serious major play deprivation, a review of the mass murderers who have either been grievance killers, or potentially those with a psychotic core, has, in the majority, demonstrated that healthy play was seriously missing in their lives.” They go on to say that other factors are also at play in serious play deprivations such as abuse and many other factors, however, they all have the commonality of grossly underplaying.
Now, in episode 13, I gave a brief synopsis of how play is steadily being sliced from the lives of the children in the United States, and childhood play has been ever decreasing since the 1950s. So if you were born in the 60s to now, your play has been detrimentally impacted. Recesses have been shortened, Physical Education has been slimmed to bare bones, and scheduled activities for after school hours have become so widely accepted that children can hardly have a spontaneous social encounter anymore. And that is just the children. The adults are just as over-scheduled, and under-played, we just also are sleep deprived.
I found in a research document compiled by multiple researchers, the following. It is long, but I found it compelling, so I am going to read it to you, and I will link the source in the show notes if you would like to read it yourself later:
"But what of those whose lives have been overwhelmed by the demands of contemporary responsibilities, and who would enjoy more play, have a personal history of healthy childhood play, but now just can’t seem to find time for it? The consequences of prolonged personal adult play deficiencies are privately evident and have been shared repeatedly in my reviews. Though early play may have been their heritage, the consequences of adult play deprivation are: lack of vital life engagement; diminished optimism; stuck-in-a-rut feeling about life with little curiosity or exploratory imagination to alter their situation; predilection to escapist temporary fixes…alcohol, excessive exercise, (or other compulsions); a personal sense of being life’s victim rather than life’s conqueror.
At any age, assessment of play adequacy and the recognition of its deficiency, along with the provision of the conditions necessary for its sustenance are basic requirements for health, wellness and full expression of what it means to be human.”
But, the good news in all this? You were born to adapt.
Play is elementary, which is why I think it’s easy to dismiss. However, Play is imperative, and I feel like instead of feeling like as an adult you are limited to “acceptable” forms of play, or only playing on certain terms and certain circumstances, I would challenge that more opportunities exist for adults to play than children. As adults, we have more resources, more jurisdiction over our time, more life experience, and more opportunities to find our own outlets for play. Play can be as specific as we need it to be, or as broad as we desire. Playful attitudes can also be introduced into all aspects of our lives, mental, physical, spiritual, financial, and relationships, and I hope to expand on those thoughts in episodes to come.
Now, play looks different in each of us. Play means something different to you adult from New York that I know is working their way through episodes, as it does to the adult that I know is listening in southern Utah. That’s awesome. I am not here to tell you how to do it, or tell you what to do, I am just here to remind you, you already know how. Play is exactly what you need to have a five minute pick-me-up on your work break, and play is exactly what can add some variety to that hike that you love to take early some mornings. Play foundations helps us find good compromises, good humor, encourage empathy, and juice up our creativity. Play allows us to be more flexible, mentally mobile, and spiritually attuned for new ideas. And research shows we cannot leave it behind in childhood or we suffer in all aspects of our lives.
Okay, so that was a lot of heavy for one episode, but I hope that it has hit a few things home.
1) the detriment of stress in our lives and how even with the COVID-19 forced break, we still may not understand the effect that stress has until it’s too late
2) the research for playing as adults is hyper compelling. It enforces the ideas that there is little need for more items that do not spark true joy in our lives and then
3) I hoped to not make this about scare tactics as incentives, but it turned into that a little bit. Hmmm, well, I’ll try again another time to make it sound more cheery. But really, play as an adult is for your mental health, call it self-care, call it a break, call it improving your golf game or your gardening game, call it what you will, just put it in your schedule already.
I hope this episode finds you all well and happy! Summer is here for my kids and even though it’s not officially the summer season, I am signing off.
Thank you for listening.
This podcast is fueled by my family’s mission at the Oliver Fund. We send toys to children in hardship all over the world. Because we believe in the value of work, but we also believe in the value of play. It’s a part of our family creed even. You can find out more online at the oliver fund .org or on social media at The Oliver Fund and AT ART of PLAY PODCAST.