Two doctors took different paths but came to the same place: play—feeling playful—unlocks health and intelligence. Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play, discovered the power of play by studying mass murder. Dr. Mary-Elizabeth Harmon, founder of Village Company 360, honed in on play while on a quest to recover from a career / health crisis.

Having fun—playing—is the healthiest way we can spend our time.*

*After feeding and housing ourselves, that is. That’s the first thing the Nat’l Institute for Play wants the world to know (so do we). The second is that activities that evoke fun feelings are unique to each of us.

But what is play to begin with?

“Play is state of mind that one has when absorbed in an activity that provides enjoyment and a suspension of sense of time. And play is self-motivated so you want to do it again and again.”

—Dr. Brown in his book Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul.

FRIENDS ONE & ALL!
It’s time to get buff by building our play muscles!

Click here for more on three steps on how to start:

Step 1: Find your play personality.
Step 2: Consider how you like to play.
Step 3: Try something that sounds fun.

Village Company 360 also wants the world to know another of the Institute’s gems:

Kids who play more achieve more.

Rather than packing their schedules, let’s allow them free play: activities that they choose.

According to the Institute, free play in children develops the sense of self, as well as motor, emotional, social and cognitive skills. And according to Plato, “You can discover more about a person from an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” Here’s what that means to us:

Big kids (adults) who play more discover more about creating connection, which is essential for our prosperity, or aliveness.

On her recovery journey, Dr. Harmon discovered a paradox about feeling alive:

To feel alive we must feel somewhat alive first.

Would you tune into a rock station hoping for jazz?

No—you’d find the right spot on the dial and enjoy the music.

Getting jazz out of life is the same: finding sweet spots—indicated by how good we feel—and letting pure intelligence like curiosity, vision, inspiration, inner knowing and excitement flow in and guide us.

We can’t access intelligent guidance when gripped by rage, disgust or other emotions that feel bad. Having fun—FEELING playful—is puuurfect for finding sweet spots that produce great outcomes.

The main connection that needs reestablishing is with ourselves.

Dr. Gabor Maté studies addiction, childhood development and stress. He’s said, “Every human has a true authentic self. [Our soul, we would say.] Trauma is the disconnection from it and healing is the reconnection to it.” We believe that reconnection happens by following heart smarts over head smarts.

Intuition is wisdom of the heart, or getting insights from outside the mind. Head smarts—intellect—still has value, of course, but an over-reliance on thinking is disconnecting us from ourselves and each other.

And that’s making us physically, emotionally and spiritually unwell.

Aliveness isn’t a thought, it’s a FEELING.

So doesn’t it seem wise to FEEL FORWARD and follow the fun?!

Click here to pick a path to go on a fun-filled journey if you agree.

Thanks for reading and please share this message by sending folks to PlayIsCare.com.

YAY!!!