Play is most commonly associated with children and their juvenile-level activities, but play can also be a useful adult activity, and occurs among other higher-functioning (non-human) animals as well. – Wikipedia
Pam Myers looks to identifying LBB’s – little brown birds. Larry Thomas picks up a small steel ball known as boule and aims it at a wooden ball called a cochonnet. And Jody Cain helps others summon their creative muse.
The common thread for these Snohomish County residents? Relaxation — or, more accurately — making the time to play and to pursue passions, something too many adults don’t do but should, experts say.
During summer, few of us fail to schedule warm-weather getaways – but do we remember to set aside regular time for play the rest of the year?
“Play is a very necessary part of being human,” says Dr. Stuart Brown, founder and president of the National Institute for Play. “There’s a lot of evidence in animal studies that play lights up the brain like nothing else.”
For Larry Thomas, petanque is the name of the game he plays to socialize, get outdoors and generate a boost of adrenaline.
“When you’re 70, you need something like that to keep you going,” says Thomas, who is semi-retired and a part-time bus driver for King County Metro Transit. Thomas is always on the hunt for more members to join the Edmonds Petanque Club, which meets three times weekly.
Pentanque is the French version of bocce ball, which is the Italian version of English lawn bowling.
“Petanque is great for stress relief,” Thomas says. “A lot of people say that after they’ve played a few times.”
Pam Myers explores her passion anytime and anywhere. “I bird everywhere I go, whether I have binoculars or not. You can never be bored if you are a birder because there are birds everywhere,” says Myers, a member of the Pilchuck Audubon Society.
A retired elementary school teacher and enthusiastic birder for nine years, Myers took a birding trip to Romania and Austria this summer.
But she also pursues her passion closer to home. Among her recent sightings: Snowy owls in Stanwood, a brambling (rare Eurasian migrant) in Issaquah, and her “most exciting discovery,” three Western scrub jays in her own backyard, a species that was common to her former California home but are showing up more in the Pacific Northwest.
Myers says being out in the woods, binoculars in hand, ears and eyes on alert is not “relaxing in the sense it is calming.” Instead, it’s “stimulating, exciting and taxes the brain. It keeps me engaged in learning, volunteering and active both socially and mentally. It’s a passion.”
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.” — George Bernard Shaw
Participating in recreational activities — be it badminton, birding or bocce ball — is the easiest way to turn around stress and shake off a bad day at work, writes Joe Robinson in his book, “Don’t Miss Your Life,” which took him around the country interviewing experts on the pursuit of happiness.
“Growing up” seems to lead people to forget what makes them happy, Robinson says, adding that society tends to look at adults’ pursuit of pleasure, pastimes and play as unproductive, self-serving and silly.
Studies show leisure pursuits by American men and women have decreased since the mid-1960s, a phenomenon that can’t all be blamed on television, which is not considered an “activity.”
And while technological advances have given us more free time, they’ve also turned us into nonstop workers. When employees are available 24/7 via smartphones and email, it’s no wonder studies find that most Americans spend less than 20 percent of their day socializing with friends, relaxing at play or at other “meaningful activities.”
“It is a happy talent to know how to play.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ironically, employees may now often play more at work than home if they work at tech firms where ping-pong tables, arcade games and other amusements aim to spark creativity.
Inspiration, creativity and triumph are just a few of the emotions rising out of Lake Stevens resident Jody Carlson Cain’s studio when she instructs new and returning students in her art classes. People come after work, from dropping off their kids to spend three hours “challenging themselves” as Cain puts it, in a relaxed, non-regimented atmosphere.
A sixth-grade art and technology teacher at Lake Stevens Middle School, Cain sees differences in her big and small students when they sit down to create.
“Kids aren’t afraid. They’re more able to admit that they’re not experts,” she said. “Once adults get to that place, it’s very freeing. It can be restorative. It can be healing. And they’re usually happy with their finished results.”
Cain has seen Type-A personalities and perfectionists drop their guard and learn to substitute fun for fretting. In short, her students use art to remember how to play.
“I think if you lose the play in your life, you lose a part of your happiness,” she says.
“Play is the highest form of research.” – Albert Einstein
Brown, the author and psychiatrist, became interested in researching the importance of play in the lives of children and adults after interviewing convicted murderers and finding they all had a common trait — they didn’t experience the ‘rough and tumble’ spontaneity of childhood play, which is crucial for developing empathy, coping skills and a sense of self-esteem.
While most of us won’t become homicidal if we can’t ‘come out and play,’ we could benefit emotionally and intellectually by playing our cards right, or sizing up the chess board.
Studies show playing chess stimulates the growth of dendrites in your brain, which basically improves the performance of your own personal computer, your brain. Chess and other games have been found to decrease the risk of dementia, help treat schizophrenia, build self-confidence, and help with rehabilitation and therapy for stroke patients and others.
And if you sat down and played at one of the 19 pianos around Everett at its annual Street Tunes this month, you boosted your brain and connected neurological pathways in ways that few activities can duplicate.
Tickling the ivory keys just a few minutes a day can lower blood pressure, refocus the mind and reduce anxiety and stress.
Add to the play list any musical instrument, ballroom dancing and checkers, and you’ll be participating in activities found to be possible protectors against Alzheimer’s disease.
“The opposite of play is not work — it is depression.” — Brian Sutton-Smith
Brian Sutton-Smith, a developmental psychologist who died in March at age 90, is credited with turning the subject of games and play into a serious academic field now complete with an association, conferences and a scholarly journal. He sought to answer: What is play? Why do human beings engage in it? What psychological, cognitive and cultural functions does it serve?
After six decades of research, he concluded the answers couldn’t be easily defined. But his straight-forward reply, after repeatedly being asked by the media why fun and games needed to be studied and analyzed, cut to the chase.
As repeated in his New York Times obituary:
“Why do we study play?” Sutton-Smith replied on one occasion. “We study play because life is crap. Life is crap, and it’s full of pain and suffering, and the only thing that makes it worth living — the only thing that makes it possible to get up in the morning and go on living — is play.”
So go play.
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