Anyone else just pretending to be a grown up?
Anyone??
I wait to be found out by the Adult Police daily! That’s why I made mucking about my job.
Telling stories, playing games, dressing up, blowing bubbles….by society’s standards I should have stopped doing that a long time ago. But I haven’t and I won’t.
Play is a brilliant way to connect with children. A bridge into their world. The wonderful American kid’s broadcaster and childhood advocate Fred Rogers said “play is the work of children” and as children are my audience, it’s only sensible to understand their space, right?
The thing is, at every storytelling session I run, there are adults that become captivated too.
Utterly engaged.
Fully absorbed.
Deeply happy.
And that’s a beautiful thing.
You see, play (and I include storytelling in this) makes us happy, it’s kinda like mindfulness. It stops our busy brains for a while and allows us to focus on something that brings us joy as opposed to producing a result.
Play has no specific outcome.
It’s a glorious and wholesome waste of time.
And yet it can heal, it can help us make sense of the world, it can unlock understanding of past events and process witnessed or lived trauma when used therapeutically.
A German study into adult playfulness (Proyer 2017) identified four main areas of play; lighthearted, intellectual, whimsical and other-directed (playing with other people). I lean heavily into whimsy and intellectual myself and find the whole concept fascinating.
Want to see some simple and silly play ideas? I’ll share some on my stories.
Feel free to let me know what silly little thing do you do that brings you disproportionate amounts of joy?
