Have you gone out to play today? People need playtime. Especially adults. Especially serious adults. Especially serious adults who think they have no time for playtime.
Whimsy (noun) – playfully quaint or fanciful behavior or humor; a whim; a thing that is fanciful or odd.
Some people are apprehensive about playtime because it is not clear what benefits it will bring. The act of playing is one of those things that seems to offer scarce tangible benefit aside from the enjoyment in the moment. It’s purpose is dubious. Our culture is suspicious of play time. That’s why we have expressions like, “Idle hands are the devil’s playthings,” “Time is money,” and “No pain, no gain.” When we want people to get down to work we say, “Playtime is over.” People who spend their days playing rather than working are criticized as slackers, dawdles, shirkers and procrastinators.
Many people feel guilty about spending time on seemingly unproductive activities. But playtime is important time. When we give ourselves permission to play freely, we create an environment that encourages curiosity, free association, and the exploration of new ideas. Free play lets us tickle our interests and uncover different possibilities. It relieves pressure from the logical and rational plumbing that we use so much each day. It opens up new systems of mental irrigation that give rise to new ideas.
Children know this instinctively. When we see children engaged in idle playtime, we see them deeply immersed in the moment and uninhibited in their exploration. They crackle with curiosity. They leap into activities with swashbuckling swagger. They spout spontaneous insights, and spin elaborate narratives out of ordinary objects. They fluidly switch between different roles, improvise to changing circumstances, and flexibly incorporate new ideas.
It is a joy to witness!
Playtime gives children a space where their imagination rules. It’s through spontaneous play that children can supercharge their creativity without restraint, convention or regard for social norms. It’s where they explore the world and make sense of it in their unique way. Playtime helps children to develop important emotional and cognitive skills.
Considering all the benefits, we may wonder, Why do children stop playing? In his book Lateral Thinking – An Introduction author Edward de Bono explains, “It could be because the world changes from an unknown place in which wonderful things can happen into a familiar place in which there is an adequate explanation for everything. It could be this boredom of superficial familiarity that stops children playing. But if one is not content with glib explanations, then things can never be familiar enough to make play boring. It could be that play is actively discouraged by logical adults who point out its uselessness and define growing up as the responsibility to behave usefully. During play ideas suggest themselves and then breed further ideas. The ideas do not follow one another in a logical progression, but if the mind makes no attempt to direct the ideas and is curious enough to pursue them, there will always be enough ideas – often there will be too many.”
We interrupt this blog post for for a game.
A game? Why a game? Because this blog post is about the importance of play, that’s why. Here goes. Find a word that connects these three words:
- Never
- Less
- Master
The answer is at the end of this post.
Here are five benefits of free-play time.
- Free play stimulates the imagination. It allows us to generate new ideas, combining different elements, scenarios, and perspectives.
- Free play encourages divergent thinking, which is the ability to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions. This leads to even more innovative idea generation.
- Free play promotes flexibility and adaptability as we incorporate new ideas or information and navigate different scenarios and roles.
- Free play keeps us open to recognize serendipitous moments. When we’re engaged in unstructured play, we may stumble upon new connections or insights that we might not have encountered in a more structured environment.
- Free play stimulates problem-solving, allowing us to think critically and develop innovative solutions.
And a bonus benefit… To the extent that free play involves interaction with others, it allows us to build on other’s thoughts and enhance social skills, communication and collaboration.
So have you gone out to play today? “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.”
The answer to the word game is, “mind” – nevermind / mindless / mastermind.