Inside: Why Adult Women Should Reclaim Their Playtime, Reignite Their Creativity. Collaborative post.
When did you last laugh until your stomach felt ready to split? Spent a day wandering the wilds with only your thoughts for company? If you can’t recall a time in recent memory, you need an adult playdate.
Breakthrough solutions to your problems often occur when you aren’t thinking about them, thanks to the magic of the human brain. It keeps working when you aren’t, and letting yourself play a little bit allows your subconscious to make connections uninterrupted by your internal editor. The result is often a rush of intuition that compels you to the drawing board. Here’s how to use the power of play to reclaim your creativity.
Playing in the Great Outdoors
You can’t beat the benefits of getting outdoors for reclaiming your playtime and reigniting your creativity. Multiple studies show decided health benefits to doing so, particularly for your mind. A veritable symphony of feel-good factors helps you leave the cubicle and its stressor behind as you immerse yourself in nature.
For example, vitamin D benefits your mental health, not just boosts immunity. Plus, sunlight on your skin simply feels good, instantly improving your mood.
A study on forest bathers found that a brief time outside reduces cortisol levels, a stress hormone. In excess levels, this substance causes anxiety and other unpleasant physical symptoms like cravings and weight gain. Another analysis of ten studies found that being outdoors eased depression symptoms while boosting mood and self-esteem.
What can you do to get more outdoor play? Here are some fun ideas:
- Play with your kids: The best part of having kids is the ability to zip down the slide with them without earning questionable gazes from passersby. Don’t sit on the bench scrolling your phone the next time you go — enjoy the time with your kid by playing games and navigating the play structures with them.
- Take your workout outdoors: Bikram? Who needs a sweaty studio when heading outside on a humid sunny day gives you the perfect conditions for hot yoga? Taking your practice outdoors on mild days is equally healing.
- Get off-grid: Camping is one of the least expensive vacations imaginable. Stay at a comfy campground or test your boondocking abilities. You and your littles will learn oodles of new skills, upping your confidence in your ability to survive. You’ll also reap some fantastic forest-bathing benefits.
Playing Around the Homestead
You can’t expect sunshine every day — but what kid ever let a little bad weather keep them from playing? There’s plenty you can do around the homestead to reignite your creative spirit. Here are some fun ideas for rain and snow days you can play with your child or on your own:
- Dance: Moving your body to music can change your whole mood. Try funky, upbeat tunes to generate happiness, perhaps challenging your kids to a dance-off. You can even play with melodies, putting on relaxing music to help you wind down after whirling like dervishes.
- Color: Coloring is a fantastic activity for relaxing and letting the mind wander. Take some blank paper and coloring tools like markers or crayons, or you can use coloring books. They make coloring books for adults, too!
- Make simple crafts: You can make homemade fidget spinners, simple bird feeders with pinecones, peanut butter and seeds or suncatchers to transform your kitchen with rainbows once the sun reappears.
- Go on an adventure: Use your imagination! Make pillow and blanket forts, use pool noodles to create obstacle courses or pretend the floor is a lava moat around your couch castle.
Playing at home doesn’t only provide a necessary brain break. It also teaches your kids resilience, an essential trait in a sometimes harsh world. So what if your favorite 4th of July parade literally got rained out? You can still celebrate!
Playing at Work
Did you know adopting a more playful attitude at the office can accelerate your career? It can. Multiple studies show that people who are relaxed and have fun at work are more motivated, creative and productive.
The effects spread beyond you to your colleagues. From an evolutionary perspective, adult play was essential in building trust and a sense of camaraderie among people, and the same holds today. Playful attitudes improve morale and team spirit.
There are four types of play you can foster in the workplace:
- Light-hearted playfulness: Regarding life as a game and refusing to take it too seriously. For example, proposing a contest to see which group can reduce their paper and printer use the most, with a party and recognition to celebrate.
- Intellectual playfulness: Playing with thoughts and ideas in unexpected ways — like noticing the effect of mold on a petri dish of bacteria and experimenting to see if the fuzzy stuff has a similar impact on different germs. Such playing led to penicillin.
- Whimsical playfulness: Getting interested in the strange and unusual aspect of life, like a taxi ride resulting in Ramanujan’s number — 1729, a seemingly dull digit that is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.
- Other-directed playfulness: While you must tread lightly and act with sensitivity, this type of play refers to positive kidding and minor pranks that build relationships.
A playful attitude can also catch the attention of higher-ups. Try treating your job more like a game and see if that doesn’t give you an edge toward promotion.
Reclaim Your Playtime and Reignite Your Creativity
Many adults take life too seriously. As a result, their creativity suffers.
Adult women may need the power of play the most, given the many demands they face. Use the above tips to reignite your creativity by stepping out of the serious box and seeing life like your toddler does — if only for a little while.