Play is becoming serious business. A few years ago the New York Times had a cover story about play in their Sunday magazine titled “Taking Play Seriously?”. The pictures only show children. Where were the adults?

Somewhere along the way we have lost something in our culture.

Play.

It’s time to consciously and deliberately bring play back into our lives and our culture.

And yes, this includes the workplace.

Play has been around since the dark ages. As adults we solo played, body played, had games, taunted and teased, did a lot of rough housing, and the like. Somewhere along the line we lost our sense of play and joy. We got serious. We went to work. We got more serious. All work and no time for play. Life is serious. Yada yada.

It’s like a badge of honor!

“Hey, wanna go play a game of croquette later?”

“You’re kidding right? I have to work. I have no time for play.”

Fuddy duddy camp. Bummer.

All work and no play…creates fuddy duddys. And this can cause serious problems. For example:

A study was done around Charles Whitman. Remember him? I bet he was a fuddy duddy. He’s the one that murdered people from the Texas Tower in the late sixties. It was found that he had a pretty rotten early life and had serious play deprivation. Could the absence of play have lead him to the tragedy of the Texas Tower murders?

And, if you take rats, who are hardwired for play for a certain period in their early life and then you stop that behavior in one group, and you allow it in another group and then present them with a cat odor-saturated collar they ALL run for the hills. Like humans they are pretty smart—they are hardwired to run and hide. They don’t want to get eaten by a cat. But the non-player rats never come out – they die. The players start exploring their environment and began to test things out. They get back out there. Play is vital in cultivating resilience. And it could save our lives.

Seriously.

Try to imagine a life without play – no humor, no flirtation, no movies, no games, no fantasy, no pleasure, no joy.

Yuck.

The opposite of play is depression. You want depressed peeps in your home and in your office?

If you want a more vitalized workplace and a happier home get your PLAY on!

To get YOU started, get up and get moving…

Are you “worth it”?? “I’m Worth It!”

To find out more about the upcoming “I’m Worth It!” retreat go here HERE.

Check out the National Institute of Play: www.nifplay.org

Next time – some tips to play and a fun way to have your meetings and play too!