Play

Summary Written by Jennifer Knighton
"When we play, we are engaged in the purest expression of our humanity, the truest expression of our individuality."

- Play, page 5

The Big Idea

The Opposite of Play Is Not Work

"The quality that work and play have in common is creativity… At their best, play and work, when integrated, make sense of our world and ourselves."- Play, page 127

The opposite of play is actually depression, and as we grow in our careers, it’s far too easy to become overwhelmed by our responsibilities, to miss (or avoid) opportunities for play, and to exist in a state of perpetual exhaustion. The challenge then is to see work and play as mutually beneficial and to find ways to bring a sense of play into our working lives.

The key is to engage our creativity (the part of us that combines imagination with reality) to incorporate disparate ideas with daily work, thereby driving innovation, increasing productivity, and solving problems. By giving ourselves permission to be creative and to play with ideas without self-judgment, we energize our work lives and avoid the trap of depression.

Unfortunately, there is a “culturally supported idea that people who play are superficial, are not living in the real world, are dilettantes or amoral slackers.” But “this is nonsense. We can enjoy our work. We can have fun.” And whenever we feel depleted or lacking purpose, we can trace this type of depression to an ongoing state of work without joy, creativity, or play. So, what do we do about it?

Insight #1

Get Moving

"Physical activity – movement of any kind – has a way of getting past our mental defenses."- Play, page 150

As Dr. Brown reminds us, “Since movement is the first thing that shows up in our own development, it can also be the first step we take back into play.”

In studies of women suffering from depression, Dr. Brown found that routine, regularly scheduled endurance activity proved necessary to prevent a recurrence of their depression. Furthermore, even a short walk improves mood. Not surprisingly, any type of physical activity helps to change our mental state, including walking and playing with our children or pets. And once we’ve opened the door to lighter spirits, it’s far easier to enter a state of play and recapture the joy that is our birthright.

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Insight #2

Heart Play

"When people are able to find that sense of play in their work, they become truly powerful figures. It can be transformative."- Play, page 154

There is a challenge in returning play to its priority status in our lives. Some serious introspection is in order for us to define the kind of play that “speaks to your heart and soul” and to then incorporate more “heart play” into our lives. Dr. Brown advises a series of steps to guide us back toward a life of play:

1. Take your play history. Really examine your childhood, how you played, when you felt most free, most excited, most joyful. Identify the activities that elicited those emotions.

2. Expose yourself to play. Every day, look for opportunities to play. Seek out humor, irony and joy.

3. Give yourself permission to be playful, to be a beginner. Let go of cultural expectations of seriousness and embrace nonsense and silliness.

4. Fun is your North Star, but you don’t always have to head north. When you are engaged in an activity that is personally playful and joy-filled, it doesn’t have to meet any preconceived ideas of what play should be. For you, it’s play.

5. Be active. The fastest way to enter a state of play is to move. Any kind of movement will do, even walking.

6. Free yourself of fear. You can’t relax when you’re anxious, nervous, or afraid. Create or find a safe haven where you can play without judgment.

7. Nourish your mode of play and be with people who nourish it, too. Take the time necessary to play and make it a priority. Seek encouragement. Again, make it a priority.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. As someone who has experienced the type of depression mentioned in Play, I can attest to the destructive effects of a life driven by expectations, demands for production, and never delivering enough. It’s exhausting, and far too often in that state of exhaustion, it’s easy to forget that life is meant to be lived, that joy IS our birthright, and that play is not just a distraction but a necessity to life and health. And for an individual in a high-pressure field, I find that I sacrifice play when it’s the one thing I need the most.

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Stuart Brown

Trained in general and internal medicine, psychiatry and clinical research, he first discovered the importance of play by discerning its absence in a carefully studied group of homicidal young males, beginning with the University of Texas Tower mass murderer, Charles Whitman. He later became founding Clinical Director and Chief of Psychiatry at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center and an Associate Professor at UCSD in San Diego, California. Over the course of his clinical career, he interviewed thousands of people to capture their play profiles. His cataloging of their profiles demonstrated the active presence of play in the accomplishments of the very successful and also identified negative consequences that inevitably accumulate in a play-deprived life.

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