Why We All Need to Play More
Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Children’s Games
“Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do,” noted humourist and novelist Mark Twain. “Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.”
Twain hit the nail on the head with this statement. As a writer, much of his work celebrated childhood, innocence and play. Reflecting his own carefree, experience-rich upbringing in Hannibal, Missouri. But he was also aware of the sorrows and disappointments of the adult world. And the darker side of life in the Deep South at the time.
It’s a sad fact that many of us lose the ability to play as we grow up. We become sensitised to the opinions of others. Embarrassed at appearing ‘immature’. And strive to adopt the mantle of adulthood as quickly as we can.
What a shame. Play is fun. It contributes to our physical and mental wellbeing. It makes us feel good about ourselves. Because, at the centre of play, is a sense of spontaneity, subversiveness and indiscipline.
Not only is this life-enhancing. It also stimulates our imagination, increases our creativity, and lifts our spirits. It even increases social cohesion. And boosts team building and productivity in the workplace.
No wonder employers are keen to use various forms of play to stimulate innovation, improve organisational effectiveness and boost profits. But that’s getting into transactional territory beyond the scope of this article.
What interests me is how play can stimulate our creative juices, expand our intellectual horizons and open new doors.
Precisely because it appears to lack practical goals or benefits, it allows us to be in the moment, connect with the wellsprings of our being and cultivate inner peace.
Play is a free space outside reality
But what is play? It’s has been defined in all sorts of different ways over the years. Freud viewed play as a form of catharsis which helps us replace negative with positive emotions.
Cultural theorist Johan Huizinga defined play as: “a free activity standing quite consciously outside 'ordinary' life as being 'not serious' but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it.”
Influential Russian psychologist Lev S. Vygotsky believed that play helps us develop cognitive powers, encourages abstract thought, and helps children develop self-regulation skills as they interact with their social environment: “A child’s greatest achievements are possible in play, achievements that tomorrow will become her basic level of real action.”
Biologists argue that play not only generates pleasure but increases our chances of survival. Our very ability to play emerged as natural selection favoured the development of the physical and mental skills we need to survive as a species. Skills that developed as we extended our experience of the world around us by using play to explore unfamiliar objects, investigate new physical activities and experience untried sensory impressions in novel ways.
Educator Eva Balke said, “Play is exactly the opposite of a goal-directed activity. Play is spontaneous. This spontaneity is its essence. An activity for and of itself. Its meaning lies in a state of mind characterised by humour or intense concentration, something that is fun in itself, here and now.”
Happily, all this means we can learn and have fun at the same time. As Albert Einstein observed, “Play is the highest form of research.” What’s not to like!
And what the different theories all have in common is the recognition that play is essential for a child's cognitive and emotional development. Children use play to learn how to understand and interact with their world. Exploring their own feelings, expressing themselves, developing self-discipline and building the social skills needed to interact with others. In turn, this feeds into their development as healthy, happy adults.
And regardless of age, indulging in play fuels the imagination, stimulates creativity and enhances our problem-solving abilities.
The urge to create comes from the impulse to play
Research indicates that being playful opens the door to a state of mind where we can dispense with ordinary rules, feel comfortable taking risks and have the confidence to explore the unknown.
Play engages the creative side of your brain and silences those internal voices that over-analyse things or filter out novel ideas and approaches. This helps you reframe questions, embrace unusual perspectives and think laterally about creative challenges.
And, you might argue, the more complex the environment, the greater the need for the simplicity of play.
Play is spontaneous, expressive, joyful. It also provides the opportunity to experience newness, develop self-discipline and share fresh ideas with others. Unsurprisingly, avant-garde artists and musicians often demonstrate a greater propensity for playfulness than their mainstream counterparts.
Erik Satie, the late 19th/early 20th-century French composer, was noted for his playful and provocative wit. His contemporaries spoke of his childlike nature. Marvellously illustrated by the humorous titles used in pieces such as Le Chant Guerrier du Roi des Haricots (The Warrior Song of the King of Beans). And the instructions he would give a pianist to play a fortissimo piece, ‘As light as an egg’. But his subversive approach also had serious intent. And many saw him as one of the originators of modern harmony.
20th-century artist and sculptor Marcel Duchamp described his motivation in terms of play rather than any conscious artistic expression. And remarked, “It was always the idea of ‘amusement’ which causes me to do things.” Though you might ask yourself whether he was being a tad disingenuous given his love of controversy and lifelong commitment to épater le bourgeois!
Fast-forwarding to the avant-garde and free jazz that emerged in the 1950s/60s, it’s evident that jazz musicians working in these areas often used the playfulness associated with improvisation to develop and express their ideas.
Challenging jazz conventions, playing around with melodic techniques and pushing boundaries, they were using improvisation to explore new musical freedoms and develop new musical forms.
But they never forgot their jazz history. “Learn everything,” noted Charlie Parker, one of the founders of bebop, “then forget it all.” The more you understand musical language, the more freedom you have to improvise.
The ability to create something out of nothing is the key to successful improvisation. Taking chances, exploring the new musical directions that emerge in the moment and engaging creatively with other band members.
Let the music happen
This playfulness seems to help the process of subverting existing melody or chord structures, breaking away from established patterns and creating new musical motifs. Arguably, this facilitation of creativity is enhanced by the intense concentration that characterises serious play.
But there’s something else going on here that is worth exploring.
Jazz musicians often talk about getting in ‘the groove’ when they play. Definitions of groove vary. But many reflect that psychological state where musicians flow together as one, totally focused on the act of playing their instruments, and the positive feelings that derive from shared musical creation.
There’s a parallel here with athletes ‘being in the zone’. The mental state characterised by an absolute focus on their sporting performance. A total involvement in the moment, without any distractions.
The intense concentration on the musical task at hand demonstrated by jazz musicians appears to be linked to a heightened sense of mental clarity about musical goals, a transformation of the experience of time and an amplification of the sense of curiosity.
Some forms of creativity require logic, rational assessment of issues and concentration. Others, such as playing music, appear to rely on parts of the brain becoming less active, particularly where improvisation is involved. In fact, actively over-thinking something appears to interfere with the creative process.
What appears to be happening is that the brain is suppressing the internal filters that might inhibit creativity. It’s allowing you to be spontaneous, take risks and experience the moment.
Research indicates that the successful application of the improvisation that defines these forms of music is underpinned by the experience of ‘flow’. Popularised by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, flow is a state of consciousness typically characterised by a deep sense of enjoyment, creativity and total immersion in a situation.
As he describes it’s, “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”
Understandably, flow is a key component of the skilled musicianship required to play jazz. Though not usually defined in those terms in the jazz world, the concept is implicit in a lot of the discussion amongst musicians about their ability to create great music. Providing musicians with both the freedom to express themselves in a way that touches the inner core of their being as well as the opportunity to contribute to a feeling or experience that reaches beyond individual identity.
No wonder there’s often a mystical or spiritual element to their musical expression. As saxophonist, singer and composer Albert Ayler said, ‘Music is the healing force of the universe.’
Play is a serious business
Creativity is central to the human experience. We are hard-wired to seek the intellectual and emotional satisfaction that creative or artistic endeavours provide us. Play provides us with an opportunity to ‘let go’ and explore our creative side.
As jazz musicians know, to improvise successfully, they have to cede some of the power exercised by their conscious mind and surrender to the flow of the music.
If we want to create a better world, where we become more fulfilled human beings, we need to understand that too much control stunts our imagination and inhibits flow. And provide everyone with a licence to play; as something that makes life worth living and as a pleasure for its own sake.
Play allows us to understand both ourselves and wider society. It allows us to express ourselves. It is what we do as human beings. And once we grow up, it helps us maintain an open channel with our childhood.
As Heraclitus, the Ancient Greek philosopher, understood, “Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.”