7 Ways To Explore The Benefits Of Play In Your Adult Life
Somewhere between the societally-constructed lines of childhood and adulthood, many of us learn to repress our playful, creative nature. While many still allow time to zone out in front of the TV or engage in other leisurely activities, engaging in playful, creative, interpersonal stimulation is far less likely.
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” – Richard Lingard, “A Letter of Advice to a Young Gentleman Leaving the University Concerning His Behavior and Conversation in the World.”
1. Dress Up
In my book, the season of dress-up isn’t reserved for Halloween. Metaphorically speaking, each piece of clothing, every touch of makeup, every piece of jewelry represents parts of a different persona. Dressing up gives us a platform to explore different modes of being and breaks up the monotony of adult life. Perhaps within the persona we’re trying on, we find pieces of ourselves previously unseen, triggering us to more fully embody and explore the person we are in all walks of life.
2. Dance
Dance is a platform for emotional expression, a vessel for releasing previously stored emotions and memories. As the popular book on trauma goes, “The Body Keeps the Score.” Previous memories are held in our physical system before awareness can reach our conscious mind. These underlying subconscious experiences feed into the expression of our shadow. This often plays into self-sabotaging behaviors and mindsets. Through giving our body physical permission to release through expressive movement, we activate our subconscious mind and release old patterns to obtain space for our empowered self to take stage.
3. Improv
The practice of improv leads to the development of skills at handling uncertainty and seeking connection—both within ourselves and other people. Through the successful resolution of acting out various characters, we develop confidence in our ability to creatively problem solve. Putting our own ego on the sidelines for a bit and temporarily stepping into someone (or something) else’s shoes, we develop compassion for the way other people act and present themselves. We may leave a scene feeling more confident in our ability to handle situations as we learn which methods of self-expression feel most authentic to us. We might even pick up on parts of a character’s expression to help us in the unique embodiment of our own.
5. Archetype Exploration
Similar to improv, exploring various archetypal expressions—the king, the queen, a goddess, a beggar—helps us to understand our unique personal expression. Through learning to look at our lives, personalities, and behaviors through the lens of symbolic insight, we create space to form less judgemental opinions about ourselves and other people. As we explore what role the victim archetype might be playing in our life, for example, and where it might be showing up, we more effectively understand what light elements this archetype has to help us adjust our behavior in a more empowered fashion. There are light and shadow qualities to every archetype, and because these characters are universal (or part of the collective unconscious), we take back our power every time we explore them in more conscious ways.
6. Vision Boards
The act of creating a vision board helps our brain form new neural pathways. Making a visual representation of our goals, intentions, and aspirations helps our brain narrow its focus and learn to identify signs of these elements in our everyday life. Our subconscious mind is constantly scanning our environment to support currently held beliefs. Through intentionally shifting our focus to what we want to be, feel, create, have, and experience, we look to find opportunities in which these qualities express themselves in our everyday life. It’s almost like we’re playing fantasy detective. Similar to how professional athletes often visualize themselves winning a competition prior to performances, setting a vision board allows us to set the stage for accomplishing personal goals before they actually happen.
7. Expressive Writing
Writing is a tool that makes parts of our subconscious, conscious, as well as expresses emotions in a therapeutic manner. This is true whether or not we choose to share our written work with other people. The act of writing serves as a vessel to map out where we’re currently “at”—emotionally, symbolically, mentally, physically. This practice helps channel new insight to help us explore creative problem solving and allows for emotional release. This cathartic practice helps us learn to see ourselves as the direct observer of our experience rather than as the victim to it. As the old saying goes, the only way out is through. Writing allows us to tap into the depth of our experience in a way traditional conversation or solo thinking often lacks.