Childhood may be over, but playtime doesn’t have to be

Osnat Lustig just shared three articles with me on the value and importance of play throughout people’s entire life spectrum, and I encourage you to read them. Here is why:

• They are well-written and well-researched: Humans need play to keep our brains flexible, ward off depression, sustain optimism, and sharpen our social-emotional skills.
• You may learn a few things of interest to you: Play has a different function for us as we age and is just as pivotal for adults as it is for kids. Many studies have confirmed a strong link between playfulness and well-being. It helps keep our minds sharp and our outlook positive.
• They are inspirational: and motivational: Playful Adults are upbeat – cheerful, optimistic, enthusiastic people. The playful adult also builds more resilience to weather the inevitable hardships and heartaches that life brings.

Here are the articles:

• Let Us Play: Childhood may be over, but playtime doesn’t have to be.
• The Importance of Play in Old Age
• Can You Come Out and Play?

My only personal comment on these articles that the author does not point out is that while we can all play on our own, you get exponentially more benefits when playing with others. Happiness does not come from taking but rather from giving.

Recommended next steps

• Reading is excellent, but doing is better! See the list of 20 games you can play with loved ones at the bottom of this article.
• If you love to laugh, you will love this how to guide!

There are, of course, LOTS more games you can plan anytime, anywhere, and with pretty much anybody on the soft skill games website, which is by a long shot my favorite on this topic.

A Pedagogy of Play, by David Ramsey

• Play is freedom. It is democracy in action, a revolution, and a challenge to systems, structures, and dynamics that subjugate and oppress.
• Play is optimism, the generative space and time that sustains all that is most positive in the world.
• Play says that the world doesn’t have to be like this- the world doesn’t have to be the way it is today- play says that the world can be bigger, smaller, scarier, safer, happier, or sadder- it can be any of these things, or all of these at once, and infinitely more.
• Play is possibility in its purest form. Play is hope. Play is change.
• Play is shaping the world in the image of our dreams and fears, instead of allowing the world to shape our lives.
• Play is power.
• In play we are able to take ‘the world as it is’ and create ‘the world as it could be’…should be…would be…
  If.