Imagine a world without play

Top three reasons we do not take play seriously

A Baby Universe

13.7 Billion years later

Everyone Plays

Time to study some rats

Benefits of playfulness

• coping skills• divergent thinking• problem solving• physical activity• emotional regulation• Imagination• Longevity (10 years)

The Super Food of behavior

• Cognitively• Emotionally• Physically• Socially• Culturally• Mentally• Spiritually

Cognitivebenefits

Reading the subtle nuances of relationship!

Play...• Creates a sense of safety• Instigates “Approach behavior”• Normalizes risk• Delights in uncertainty

I’ve totally got this under control

Surprise!!!

Nothing enhances our well-being more than marinating in joy sauce.

• Every organ benefits from it (expect maybe hair)

• People who are play-deprived have a life expectancy 5-10 years lower than people who play

• Play deprivation is a greater risk factor than smoking & obesity

Laughter

• 100 – 200 laughs a day are equivalent to 10 of minutes jogging.

 • It deepens

breathing, improves circulation and releases natural painkillers in the body.

• Children laugh an

average of 400 times/day. Adults laugh about 17 times/day.

And that is not funny

Stress relief

Creates social bonds• Self-handicapping• Sensitive

attunement• Cooperation• Morality

Genuine, pure play is one of the main bases of civilization.

– Johan Huizinga

Intellectual Benefits

Play is the highest form of research. - Albert Einstein

It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative…and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self. –D.W. Winnicott

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“The truly great advances of this generationWill be made By those who Can make outrageous connections, and only a mind which knows how to play can do that.

–Nagle Jackson

The retention of juvenile characteristics into

adulthood

Neoteny:

So what happened?

Interpersonal Neurobiology

Differentiation and Linkage

Developmental Perspective

• Complexity science: Sensitive dependence on initial conditions

• Neuroscience: the experience-dependent brain

Attachment Theory

Attuned Play

Engagement as Play

Internal Working Models

• World as Playground• World as Proving ground• World as War Zone

World as Playground

• Image of Child at adventure playground?

World as Proving Ground

World as War Zone

Internal Working Memes

Playground

Proving Ground

War Zone

An Insecure Society

Playfulness

• Physical Spontaneity

• Social spontaneity

• Cognitive spontaneity

• Manifest joy• Sense of humor

”“

Spontaneity

In spontaneity, personal freedom is released, and the total person, physically, intellectually, and intuitively, is awakened…Every part of the person functions together as a working unity, one small organic whole within the larger organic whole for the agreed environment. - Viola Spolin

Playfulness isour original design and our evolutionary potential

Evolving through Play

• Image of polar bear and husky

Play literally becomes a functional therapeutic model that exercises the neural regulation of the face, creating a sense of safety, playfulness, and joy!

-Steven Porges

”Play is the exultation of the possible.” – Martin Buber