3 ways to boost your Playfulness

In a time where productivity, agility and industriousness are king; the idea of play can sometimes feel trivial, and maybe even devoid of purpose.

Yet in an era that also demands innovation, the ability to approach problem solving with creativity is enhanced by a playful mindset and outlook on the world. Play enables you to see connections that might not otherwise seem obvious or straightforward.

Linked to happiness, extending our lives, enriching our imagination and cultivating the soul; the esteemed research of notable thought leaders such as Jane McGonigal and Stuart Brown (amongst many others) provide a glimpse into the benefits of fostering and inculcating play into your routine.

Here are three small things that I have found helpful in exercising my muscles of play that I'd like to share.

1. Read Picture Books

You don't need to be a parent for this, although if you have young children this task is probably a relatively easy one to achieve.

The wonderful thing about picture books is that they can be enjoyed by humans of all ages. The best picture books are much deeper than the eye would be led to believe on first glance, and layer art and words to have a duality of meaning to both children and adults alike.

As an adult, it can be common to think of picture books as a visual poem; a story told in relative brevity, yet can give you hours of mental stimulation, enrich your vocabulary in surprising ways, and provide visual imagery and fuel for your imagination that you can pore over if you are willing to pay attention to the details.

In essence, I'm saying its basically the same things that children love about them. Oliver and Shaun Tan are two of the most notable authors of children books to have been published in the last decade, and I would recommend as an entry point into picture books.

1.1 Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth by Oliver Jeffers

1.2 Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan

The magical quality of each of these books lie in how they provoke and stimulate the imagination in unusual, sweet, humorous and profound ways.

There are dozens more that come to mind and some obvious omissions, but to start with, these two picture books are a great reference point for more playful thinking.

2. Play games

In this section, I'm going to focus on video games, though 'video' is itself a fairly outdated classifier. At the mention of games, a number of readers may have an anchoring point of Angry Birds, Mario, Sonic, Zelda, Tomb Raider or Call of Duty and that's perfectly fine; all of the aforementioned franchises have been incredibly successful in their own right.

Games have always been an active medium that is fertile in its capacity to provide consequences for your choices and actions; a feat that television, movies and books often don't have the luxury of doing due to their passive nature.

Here are three game suggestions that you can get on your iPhone or iPad (iOS) that will change the way you think about and experience games.

2.1. Gorogoa

2.2. Florence

2.3. Monument Valley

Games provide an exploration space where choices are made, things are tried, and through failure and perseverance, goals are slowly achieved. They are also capable of being surprising vehicles that can approach the sublime and stir the intellect and your emotions in the most wonderful of ways.

3. Listen to comedians

Comedians have incredible wit, timing and delivery to evoke laughter in other people. The question is, how do they come up with these jokes? How do they cultivate humour?

Listening to stand up comedians deliver jokes is revealing because it gives you a very personal insight into a person that sees the oddness and bizarreness of the world worthy of bringing to attention. Noticing the inane that we would otherwise take for granted and telling that as a story that makes others laugh is a fundamentally playful act.

Here are three short Youtube Clips you can enjoy from the Melbourne Comedy Festival of past years.

No doubt you might find other people funnier and/or not have laughed at all of those jokes; but there is plenty of intelligence, playfulness and inspiration to be found in the words of comedians.

Conclusion

Playfulness is a gift that we can often let waste away; a muscle that atrophies over time without concerted use and practice.

It pays to take yourself seriously and to work hard, but just remember that those things aren't mutually exclusive of having fun and seeing the world in a playful way. When you do the latter, you are likely to see the world anew much more frequently, and as a result, be a much more creative, considered and confident person.

Of course, these three things aren't the only activities that embody playfulness. What other ways do you find useful to play? I'd love to hear more in the comments below.

Thank you for reading and remember to have fun.