Last week I had the strange experience of offering a themed-obstacle course to my older adult class; an offer that received an enthusiastic reception to boot. It came about organically enough, I was telling them about the children’s classes and the neurological and developmental benefits of doing obstacle courses and frankly, how much more fun it is to build skills that way over drilling. From there, we talked about aging bodies and the need to play so that aging adults can continue to be strong and independent. The biggest take away from was that play needs to be a regular part of our lives. Play is one of the best ways to nurture your inner child and to meet a core human need. Play is restoration!
Play in childhood facilitates the development of executive function and self-regulation. If you’ve spent any time with children, especially post-COVID, you can see the lived experience of those who have had sufficient time to play and the limitations imposed through a lack of it. In no way am I looking to disparage parents and caregivers, surviving with small children through COVID was a monumental task and done largely in isolation. For about 10 minutes in each of the classes for children under 12, we spend time in play. Imagination and creative interpretations ensue. Imagine flipping pancakes, squeezing syrup, scrambling eggs, and popping toast with your body. There are no winners in these activities; only the delight of engagement.
These playful activities also facilitate social learning and emotional processing. Children need to wait their turns which is not always easy when you’re having fun. There’s plenty of negotiating who gets to go first and working out whose turn it is from week to week. Some children want to be first all of the time; these games give them a safe environment in which to work that out. It’s a space where they learn emotional processing and how to handle big feelings, including disappointment and frustration. One of my favourite interactions to witness is when they co-create, finding their own ways to engage with the imagined scenario. On the outside, these games may seem silly, but they are doing a lot of heavy lifting developmentally, without being contrived. Children encounter real challenges – physically, emotionally, and socially – but they have the space in which to engage with safety and support.
Declaring that play benefits children is a relatively easy position to hold. More difficult is to help adults see the benefits of play for themselves. Play is one of the most underrated activities for adults. All of the physical benefits apply, with the addition of providing fundamental strength and stability for aging bodies. Play improves cardiovascular health, strengthens coordination, and increases joint mobility – a short hand I’ve learned is “motion is lotion.”
If the physical benefits don’t sell you on the importance of play, perhaps the stress recovery aspects will. There is a constant pressure to perform and produce in our culture. Add to that demands of parents, and/or caring for aging parents, plus economic uncertainty, and suddenly life becomes a constant stressor. Humans were never designed for that level of stress. Play activates joy. It lowers cortisol (the stress hormone). It resets your nervous system. Put that play into a social context, adding shared laughter and you’ve really got a recipe for delight. Play will deepen your friendships faster than small talk because it introduces the kind of vulnerability necessary for meaningful connection. The added bonus is that you don’t have to come up with a random fun fact about yourself! Connection emerges naturally through play. And if those two things aren’t enough, play also develops skills in creativity and problem-solving, so your capacity to contribute to the problems of life you encounter will expand. Letting yourself engage in play frees your mind to connect unrelated ideas and find ways to innovate.
Not sure how to engage in play? Ask yourself “what did I love at 8?” When you nurture your inner 8-year-old, you find a pathway back to your unencumbered self. We all have preferred styles of play. It’s worth finding yours and revisiting it. I don’t imagine I’m the only one whose life is oriented towards a calendared existence, so make play a priority for yourself by scheduling in 20 minutes of play each week. And let yourself off the hook to be productive or even “good” at it. If you are a parent with children, playing alongside your kids provides you both with important opportunities: you get the benefit of child-like engagement and your child sees that play is important in life. It gives both of you permission to fully engage, unencumbered by obligation to produce something. The connection is the reward; the fun the objective. Nothing more, nothing less.
So, this week, I will be setting up an obstacle course for my older adults’ class. They will get to enter an imaginary world where they will stomp, crawl, spin, and jump, and let their inner child explore the world.
If you’ve read this and agreed that you need more play, reach out! We’ve likely got the right class for you!