The Importance of “Play” in Adulthood
When was the last time you let go and let play?!
Play is so important when it comes to childhood development because this helps them to develop cognitive, physical, social, and emotional skills, it helps to foster creativity and imagination, and it allows development of each child’s unique potential. However, once we age into adulthood, the activity of play tends to fall to the wayside as we take on more responsibilities and deal with different life stressors. Because we are taught at a young age how to live within societal structures, we can forget how to imagine and create without structure in adulthood.
We are here to say that continuing to incorporate play into daily or weekly activities, will allow us to further our physical/cognitive/emotional/social development and can foster growth outside of societal norms of the education system. Aging is not just how many times we’ve been around the sun, but rather, aging is the changes in our body caused by stagnation in continuing to practice and continue to develop physical, cognitive, emotional, and social skills.
As we’ve aged into this society, have you noticed how easily divided we are as adults? We fight and argue, we speak at each other to convince and not to understand, we become rigid in our thinking and in our views of the world. When we reconnect with our inner-child and play we have more opportunities to continue to grow spiritually and socially, and even opportunities to work on healing traumas and patterns of limiting beliefs through play. Play may be difficult for some, especially when you feel restricted by time, money, resources, or other restrictions.
Playing as adults can benefit us by relieving stress, improving brain and cognitive function, stimulates creativity, improves relationships and connections with others, and keeps you feeling young and energetic by connecting with your inner child. Play can help you to disconnect from judgement, raise your energetic vibration, and allow you to refocus on joy. Play, without a doubt, is a re-energizing self-care activity.
Here are some adult play suggestions:
Outdoor activities; hiking, swimming
Travel and explore a new place
Geocaching or treasure hunting
Have a living room dance party, with yourself or others
Game night (in-person or on Zoom)
One on one game night with partner or spouse
Arts and crafts; finger painting, sidewalk chalk, friendship bracelets
Allow a child in your life to structure play time; imagination play
Play time with pets
Try a new sport, or activity like axe throwing
Singing, karaoke or lip singing
Try a new recipe; create a new tasty dish
Take something apart and piece it back together
No matter how you choose to incorporate play into your life, the benefits are overwhelmingly positive. By bringing your focus onto joy and laughter, we have an opportunity to release energy that is stagnant or repressed, thus clearing room for a lighter sense of being.
What are you going to do to play today?
Love always,
Karista
Resources referenced for this journal entry: