Play Has A Place In The Good Life

Taylor Kreiss, Founder of Oughtology

“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

I have two left feet, so I’m glad Nietzsche wrote metaphorically. With this quote, I think he was saying something true and profound about the importance of play – that it’s an essential part of living a good and balanced life.
What I hope to convey are some philosophical, scientific and personal reasons for why we should all get serious about messing around. I hope that by reading this, you’ll feel compelled to actually pencil in some time for more frivolity.
Philosophically Speaking
Are you familiar with the bestselling book The Top 5 Regrets Of The Dying? As the title suggests, it’s about what dying people wish they had done differently. The information is philosophically valuable because it sheds light on what we ought to do now to ensure we use our time correctly and live our best possible lives.
Here are the top five regrets:
1.“I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”
2.“I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”
3.“I wish I had let myself be happier.”
4.“I wish I’d had the courage to express my true self.”
5.“I wish I’d lived a life true to my dreams instead of doing what others expected of me.”
In America, we have a mild obsession with “success” in financial and status-building terms. There’s a productivity imperative that’s always nagging us to work work work and “make something of ourselves.” But dying people rarely look back at their lives and wish they’d spent more time rat-racing. Instead, we tend to wish we had prioritized enjoyment and authentic pursuits with the people we loved.
With this philosophy in mind, play isn’t just a bit of foolishness or an indulgence. Instead, it’s integral to living the good life. It helps us avoid regrets like “working too hard” and “not being happy enough.” Play facilitates social bonding and keeps us in touch with friends. It can even be an indicator of what kinds of activities we ought to pursue in our work to “express our true selves” and “realize our dreams."
It’s important to get out and frolic a bit or, as Nietzsche would put it, “Hit the dance floor and shake your tail feathers” (which is probably not how Nietzsche would put it, but you get the idea).
Scientifically Speaking
Play is just plain fun, which is a reason enough to want more of it but there are also scientific reasons to believe that play is instrumentally vital for well being.
Psychology has recently gotten serious about play and its benefits for kids and adults alike. Studies suggest that flirting, humor, imagination, sports and other forms of play bolster positive emotions, creativity, engagement, relationships and even achievement.
I’m not going to delve off into the nitty-gritty of any particular studies, as my purpose is more of a philosophical persuasion in favor of more play, but I’ve included links (see bottom of page) that I recommend for further reading. What I’d like to emphasize is that these are not just intuitions or flights of argumentative fancy; the scientific community has much to say about the value of play. Here are some examples:

• It’s been shown that play is generally lacking in individuals who end up in jail. 
• Time for play is often abundant in the lives of those considered to be creative types. 
• Just getting up and wiggling your body playfully can improve your mood. 
• Social play improves relationships.
• Taking time to play can make you more productive.

As Positive Psychology superhero Christopher E. Peterson put it, play is “…a robust predictor of how satisfied we are with our lives.”
Personally Speaking
This isn’t going to be one of those “Hey, I was a schmuck, but now I’m awesome” kind of stories where I discovered play and my life transformed overnight, but I did have a eureka moment that helped me reengineer many of my habits and thought patterns in a positive way.
Back in my university days, I was depressed. I was having trouble getting out of bed to face the day and it seriously sucked. There was at least a full year there where people would say I wasn’t my usual happy-go-lucky self and they’d continually prod me to find out what was wrong.
Thankfully, I was living next to a fascinating woman who helped me out of my funk. Olivia was one of the all-time eccentrics. I would usually run into her while she walked her pet chinchilla through the nearby park (shoeless of course). She’d read me poems she had written about her past lives. She informed me that during her psychedelics phase that she had taken LSD over 200 times. She was 65 years old. She was a hippie, a philosopher, a published author and one of the most authentically caring people I’ve known.
One day I decided to share my life’s concerns with her. Her response? "Have more fun." She said it simply and with the kind of conviction that comes from a lifetime of experience. It was her mantra and I think it’s one of the all time greatest pieces of advice I’ve ever received. It resonated with me and helped me reprioritize my activity in a way that got me up and moving.
There are some compelling reasons to think that play is more than just a good time. Philosophically, scientifically and personally, I think it’s a bonafide necessity. If you agree, take a couple hours this week to “have more fun.”
Further reading: 

• Ted Talk: Play is more than just fun
• Psych today: The power of play
• Psych Today: When work is play

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Taylor Kreiss is the founder of Oughtology, a movement focused on using positive psychology and philosophy to live The Good Life. For more articles like this one and to like Oughtology, go here.

(Sydney Hell's source)

Why Adults Need To Take More Breaks

Somewhere around 10, we can probably all agree we graduate from using the word play in the traditional childlike sense. We tell that light-hearted word to stay swaying on the swings and climbing up the tree houses of our youngest age bracket.
We cement the one-dimensional definition in and tend not to use it unless it's a verb for sports, a live production we buy tickets to see for or something we tell kids to do in the backyard.
Since Adult Land is all about commuting and calendars and co-workers, we need a reason for doing things. A means to an end, a next rung, a monetary reward.
Considering play wants to loan firecrackers to our imaginations and unleash our right to goof off, you can see the conflict.
But play what makes us pause in all the adult hullabaloo to get our blood going again.
The other week, one of my best mates and I blew the dust off of Cliff Nobles, hit the gas and ended up at the beach two hours north. We halted on route to go poke around abandoned farmhouses, take photos by old motel signs, climb into an unsupervised ferris wheel and feast on BBQ in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it town. When we got to the deserted beach, we ran for the swing set. If you're anything like me, you asked yourself, "When's the last time I jumped off a swing?"
So I did.

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." - Khalil Gibran

It wasn't scheduled into a day planner and I definitely didn't make any cash doing it.
Yet, the spontaneous play through the whole day pulled the rug out from under all my regularly scheduled programming and took a defibrillator to my office-weary heart.
I needed it.
I needed it because play has a necessary place in balancing out responsibility and deadlines. Play pulls me back from the cliff of taking everything too seriously and gives my steaming brain permission to take a breather.
When I tally what play gives me - a broader perspective, a well-deserved break, the incredible company of my friends in brand-spankin' new places, a plate full of inspiration to pour back into my work - it's pretty ludicrous that I can be so convinced it's the territory of children.
We all need it.
So the next time you're yawning into a half-cup of coffee in the midst of too many open tabs, you know what to do: go play. (source)
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Dani Kreeft is the one woman force behind paper goods brand Dani Press, currently based in Toronto, Canada. If she isn't scrambling to ship greeting cards and art prints across North America, she's probably wandering around with her camera foraging for a coffee.

 

Kevin Smith

I'M NOT HAPPY...
I've been around 44 years now, and I've been a round boy for most of those years as well. I always imagined thinner people were happier than me - but after losing 80 pounds, I can't say that I'm any happier than I was as a fat-ass. I'm not complaining, mind you: I just imagined I'd feel differently. I imagined I'd know a different kind of happiness than I'd never known before. Instead, I wound up learning what I consider to be the Secret of Happiness.

As an American, I was raised to believe I was entitled to 100% happiness, all day every day, until I died. But in our Declaration of Independence, we’re granted only the PURSUIT of happiness -
not actual happiness. The founders of this country were smart not to promise the tired, the poor and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free too much of a good thing.
The good news is that the pursuit of happiness is way better than being happy any day. The irony is that actual happiness blasts us across our faces, necks and chests all the time - but we’re so busy chasing the elusive notion of what happiness is to us at that moment, we tend to overlook the authentic bliss we create for ourselves and others in the process of simply trying to be happy. And by the time we realize these were, in fact, moments of happiness, it's too late: those moments are now memories.
Happiness can't be bottled. It can't be smoked, swallowed, shot or ejaculated. And there is no end game: you never cross the finish line and are suddenly happy. Even when all your wildest dreams come true, you still pursue happiness.
Thankfully, human beings are at their happiest when they feel they're at their most productive. So the only real happiness is the pursuit of happiness. When we chase happy, we feel our best. Life is about the journey, not the destination - so while the idea of happiness sounds great, it’s actually the pursuit of happiness that provides the most contentment. And in that pursuit, we are ultimately at our happiest.
Forgive my stoner ramblings and sorry for stating the obvious. But sometimes, you just wanna remind people they've already won.

Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen

I always loved this "song", I always wanted to believe that I would follow all of this advice, and end up better for it. We are all really too young and foolish to fully understand how young and foolish we are.