The Art of Play – How Playing Makes You Happier

Hey, this video is all about play. Just the other day, I was on my way to Virginia to speak at a conference, and I was being a good cow in the airport, moving through the lines and then security. Even though I get front-of-the-line access because I fly so much, security broke down. Their metal detector ceased to work, and I was like, “Oh my goodness, what am I going to do?” You could hear the groan through the people of the lineup. Somehow, I had this reflexive position to put my earbuds in, and I put on a song I’m really digging these days, called “I Need You” by Jon Batiste. Immediately, I felt this little buzz. I felt a little joy. I was dancing with my head and my shoulders, and I had a little, “Oh, you know, this is a bit inappropriate. I’m in a public place. What am I doing, dancing in a public place?” Then, I realized it’s fun. I felt good, the music was fantastic, and what a good way to pass the time! So, I became a little playful, and I actually started dancing in the airport, in the security line. Guess what? I was a happy cow. This video is all about play and how you can be a happy person too. Stay tuned.

As a coach, public speaker, and best-selling author, I teach topics just like this one all around the world. So, stay tuned, and I’ll give you practical tools that you can use to make both yourself and those around you both happier and more successful. Hey, there’s a cool psychologist from the University of Pennsylvania who, all he does, is study play. His name is Brian Sutton-Smith, and he said an interesting thing. He said the opposite of play is depression. Now, we would think on first blush that the opposite of playing would be work. If I’m not working, then maybe I’m playing, and if I’m playing, I must not be working. But no, the observation he had is that, if we’re not joyful and filled with spontaneity and creativity, then we’re in a depressive state. Whether that’s 100% accurate or not is beside the point. The learning in it was that play is so good for our happiness. And as adults, we’re often pretty bad at this. We sort of get conditioned out of play. When we’re kids, we do it reflexively. We know how to play. We just automatically get creative, fantasize, and do all kinds of things. Give us a ball, set us free, and we’re playing. This video is about how important it is for us to play, how to be guilt-free because of the benefit we get from it, and what is play? Well, it’s all kinds of things. It’s just being goofy, it’s picking up almost any sport or any physical activity, it’s dancing in the kitchen or the airport, as the case may be, it’s flirting, it’s all kinds of things that just take us out of our normal everyday space. Almost always, it has this creative element where you’re getting to be a different person than who you are in your regular work-life. And when we get in those states of play, it’s hugely beneficial for us.

There are so many advantages, including the obvious, that we’re decreasing stress. You get engagement, creativity, social bonding. Play is so often with other people. It improves the quality of our relationships, we get a sense of achievement, and in fact, if we’ve got a playful attitude about things that are important to us, we may, in fact, be achieving things that might be quote-unquote “work”. Obviously, in addition to all these things, like I so often say, it’s just fundamentally good for our physical health. We literally live longer if we’re somebody who likes to play. So, if play is not only just spontaneous fun but also this fundamentally good for us thing, well, how do we as adults get into a state of play? What kind of things can we do? Well, here’s a list: join a sports team, have a dance party in the kitchen, play puzzles, do an improv class, just be silly, hang out with a five-year-old, put a puppet on your hand, anything at all with a ball. Imagine that you’ve got a magic wand and you can be anything you want, and just go with that fantasy. Keep a balloon from landing on any surface, plan a safe, fun prank, get a mask, wear a costume, color, doodle, paint. You name it, you can do it. You can play, and you can have fun. And remember, more than anything, playing is a state of mind. It’s not so much the activity, it’s the approach that you bring to the activity. And so long as you’re making it fun, you’re being silly, and you’re just saying, “I want to be myself at the most expressive, uninhibited way,” you’re probably at play. And that’s a fun, excellent state of mind. If you like this kind of content, click the like button, share with your friends and family, and we’ll talk to you next week. Thanks for watching.