As a general rule, we are all pretty clearly aware of the fact that it’s important for children to enjoy play and entertainment. But, there’s a common view that once we grow up, it’s time to get totally “serious.”
While you may well buy your kid toys such as Super Wings Agent Chase, Astra, Flip, and Todd, there’s a good chance that you, yourself, will feel somehow guilty if you aren’t using your all of your time as “productively as possible,” more or less constantly. Well, here are some reasons why play is just as important for adults as for kids.
Because it helps to connect you to your natural enthusiasm for life
When kids are playing games, using their imagination, and running around and having fun, you’ll almost certainly notice that they are extremely positive and enthusiastic about whatever it is they’re doing. This is one of the big factors behind why kids have such a positive energy and such a sense of awe, wonder, and enthusiasm for life in general. As we get older, we all too often end up falling into routines that we find ultimately miserable and draining, and end up becoming jaded as a result, and losing a lot of our natural enthusiasm for life.
Play and entertainment helps to connect you to a natural sense of enthusiasm for life once again, and to experience the positive and light-hearted energy that you probably had when you were a child. Even when it comes to doing your work, the more you can find ways to make it feel like “play,” more enthusiastic you will tend to be.
Because it makes you more creative and insightful
There’s an idea that playing around is juvenile and is a waste of time, and that it means that proper work can get done. In fact, however, many of the most successful and influential people in history came up with their inventions, discoveries, and insights, precisely because they were letting themselves have some fun and play with ideas and things. The famous physicist Richard Feynman, for example, credited some of his greatest breakthroughs to the fact that he was allowed, by the University he worked for, to spend long periods of time unsupervised, by himself, tossing a ball around and letting inspiration flow. Play can actually make you more creative and insightful.
Because it is great for stress relief
Stress is a major problem, and it’s a problem that huge numbers of people experience on a regular basis. Chronic stress is known to increase your risk of all sorts of different illnesses and diseases, in addition to driving up conditions like depression, and anxiety, and costing you your much needed sleep, as well.
Anything you can do that can help to relieve you of some stress and put you back in touch with a more hopeful outlook on life, naturally has the potential to be remarkably powerful.
