Day 132 of 365 - Wanna Play? - Part 1
I don't usually consider myself a playful person, seeing myself more as analytical, task completion and goal oriented. Fortunately, my self-assessment changed somewhat when exploring this topic of play from the point of view of four different people.
Firstly, a blog I read yesterday by Irene Lyon, a nervous system specialist, pointed out that play is not just for fun. In her blog she pointed readers to a Ted Talk by Dr. Stuart Brown, psychiatrist and founder of the National Institute for Play, in California.
Here are some of the points made about play by Lyon and Brown.
As humans, we have an inherent tendency called neoteny, which comes from the root words meaning new and stretch. We never outgrow this quality, but our life choices may dampen it. As babies, our first play experiences come in the form of early social interaction with parents, smiling, babbling and cooing. The right brain is engaged.
As young children, we learn through play about taking physical and social risks, learn what feels safe and what does not, learn how to attend to social cues which develop our trust in others. We learn these things through play signals like voice, facial expressions, body and gestural signals.
Brown describes different forms of play: body play which is spontaneous and just feels good; object play which links the brain and hand function; rough and tumble play, which in it's true sense has balletic and curvilinear movements; spectator play, such as the sense of engagement we feel when watching something like sports, or performing arts; and imaginative play, which involves storytelling or creative expression in some way. All these forms of play are important in development.
We are designed to play throughout life. Brown suggests as an exercise, that we think back to childhood and the most joyful memory of play we have. Then, begin to build from the emotion you feel in that memory to things you can implement in your life now.
Lyon emphasizes how chronic stress disconnects us from ourselves and others. She says play can help us to get out of stressful survival mode and into a more restorative and relaxing state. When we are less in survival mode, we can access higher brain centers for learning and creativity.
When I think back to my childhood, one of my most joyous memories of play was swinging on a swing set that our Dad built for us in the back yard. The frame of the swing set was quite tall, the ropes to the swing seats were long. This meant that if you really got pumping hard, you could swing really high. My memory is the joy and delight of going higher and higher. Sometimes I played on the swings by myself. More often there were two or three of us swinging at the same time, seeing who could go the highest.
In tomorrow's post, I'll refer to the insights I got from looking at the writing of two other people regarding play, and linking that to opportunities for play in adulthood. We are never too old to play!
Firstly, a blog I read yesterday by Irene Lyon, a nervous system specialist, pointed out that play is not just for fun. In her blog she pointed readers to a Ted Talk by Dr. Stuart Brown, psychiatrist and founder of the National Institute for Play, in California.
Here are some of the points made about play by Lyon and Brown.
As humans, we have an inherent tendency called neoteny, which comes from the root words meaning new and stretch. We never outgrow this quality, but our life choices may dampen it. As babies, our first play experiences come in the form of early social interaction with parents, smiling, babbling and cooing. The right brain is engaged.
As young children, we learn through play about taking physical and social risks, learn what feels safe and what does not, learn how to attend to social cues which develop our trust in others. We learn these things through play signals like voice, facial expressions, body and gestural signals.
Brown describes different forms of play: body play which is spontaneous and just feels good; object play which links the brain and hand function; rough and tumble play, which in it's true sense has balletic and curvilinear movements; spectator play, such as the sense of engagement we feel when watching something like sports, or performing arts; and imaginative play, which involves storytelling or creative expression in some way. All these forms of play are important in development.
We are designed to play throughout life. Brown suggests as an exercise, that we think back to childhood and the most joyful memory of play we have. Then, begin to build from the emotion you feel in that memory to things you can implement in your life now.
Lyon emphasizes how chronic stress disconnects us from ourselves and others. She says play can help us to get out of stressful survival mode and into a more restorative and relaxing state. When we are less in survival mode, we can access higher brain centers for learning and creativity.
When I think back to my childhood, one of my most joyous memories of play was swinging on a swing set that our Dad built for us in the back yard. The frame of the swing set was quite tall, the ropes to the swing seats were long. This meant that if you really got pumping hard, you could swing really high. My memory is the joy and delight of going higher and higher. Sometimes I played on the swings by myself. More often there were two or three of us swinging at the same time, seeing who could go the highest.
In tomorrow's post, I'll refer to the insights I got from looking at the writing of two other people regarding play, and linking that to opportunities for play in adulthood. We are never too old to play!
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