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Just have fun
Looking for the good life? Play.
Our friend Briony Greenhill is Head of Research and Development at The Fun Fed. She also runs some Fun Fed singing sessions and is doing a year long course in advanced vocal improvisation in France. In fact, she does far too much. Which is why she loves to play. And climb mountains. And do yoga.
Looking for the good life? Play.
Have you ever felt totally exhausted? Had a good moan about how your hours have increased, or how the course you're studying is getting really intense, or that you're living with a partner for the first time? In short, that you're "always on"?
Urban Professional Adult, Always-On!
Goals, deadlines and expectations a-hoy!
Time in the pub can lighten things up but then dong, we’re whacked over the head with some degree of a hangover the next day, making it even harder.
There is another important companion to urban life, all life in fact, and psychologists are now suggesting that it is essential for our Wellbeing: play.
We may think it’s just for kids, but a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that people of all ages can have a play deficit just like we have a sleep deficit: when we don’t play, we suffer.
You know play. You’re carefree, laughing perhaps, absorbed in what you’re doing, unselfconscious, really enjoying yourself. There’s no real point, you’re just doing it for the fun of it.
"I have found that remembering what play is all about and making it part of our daily lives are probably the most important factors in being a fulfilled human being,” says leading US psychiatrist Stuart Brown. “At some point as we get older, however, we are made to feel guilty for playing. We are told that it is unproductive, a waste of time. Sometimes the sheer demands of daily living seem to rob us of the ability to play… Play it is what makes life lively. When people know their core truths and live in accord with what I call their "play personality," the result is always a life of incredible power and grace." (Play by Stuart Brown, 2009)
“Play is not just child’s games,” says Oxford Anthropologist Isabel Behncke. “Play is foundational for bonding relationships and fostering tolerance. Play increases creativity and resilience… In other words, play is our adaptive wild card; in order to adapt successfully to a changing world, we need to play.”
So, what kind of player are you?
And how do you play?
You don’t need me to tell you how to play. It’s in you already. Do try out some of our games though. Or come to the Fun Fed sometime, because it’s great fun. We do Games on Monday nights, Singing on Wednesday nights and Dancing on Thursday nights and the pressure is off, it’s just for the fun of it.
As for me, I’ve had a month Off. I haven’t taken time any away from my commitments, but I’ve spent a month ignoring my goals and expectations. I’ve been experimenting with improvising life instead of planning it, playing my way through my days. Bizarrely, things have still got done, perhaps more effectively and certainly more happily than last month, and I haven’t been sacked yet. Perhaps there’s some profound spiritual teaching in here somewhere…
Happy playing!
Briony Greenhill
The Fun Fed
Singing, dancing and games for grown-ups
