The Power of Play

About a week ago I read a news story about doctors prescribing “play” to children. I thought that sounded a bit ridiculous, but the article said that children need more unstructured play instead of just organized activities; it helps build imagination and creativity. Later that day, I saw a young child skipping on a tiled floor in a shopping mall while trying to avoid the grout lines. It made me smile because I remembered doing that when I was a kid (and playing ‘hopscotch’ with my sisters). 

That made me think about other simple playtime things I used to do as a kid and I realized that I haven’t “played” like a kid in about 40 years. So I decided to change that. I skipped. I played on a swing. I went down a slide. I rode my bike slowly through my neighborhood, not for exercise but just for the fun of it. And guess what happened? My mind started to wander. It helped me to unplug from a lot of things I was concerned about. And it did something else – it allowed my mind to solve a few issues/problems by not thinking about them.

I know that playful exercises work very effectively when I am teaching adults about problem solving tools and methods, but “playing” can be effective in our everyday lives whether we are kids or adults. So pretend that a doctor just wrote you a prescription to play. It will feel good, it will relieve some stress and you might just come up with an answer to a problem you have.