When it comes to happiness, says Elisha Goldstein, there’s a simple but important tool we often forget: play.
Over the years I have been studying what helps us create more resilience and happiness. I looked at my life, the lives of my clients and students, and psychological and neurological research. I have discovered that each of us has a core set of natural anti-depressants. When we intentionally use these resources, our brain activity changes in a way that can contribute to the formation of an anti-depressant brain. One of the natural anti-depressants I have found helps break a bad mood and create positive neural activity is Play!
U Discovering Happiness: Overcoming Depression with Mindfulness and Self-Compassion I describe play as “a flexible state of mind in which you are currently engaged in some freely chosen and potentially purposeless activity that you find interesting, enjoyable, and satisfying.”
Here’s a great video showing the adults playing and the results. Take a look and see what you notice.
When adults were placed in an enriched environment where prompts triggered play, they became more engaged, open, and most seemed to genuinely enjoy themselves.
Research from Marion Diamond from the University of California, Berkeley shows that rats that had a more enriched environment with toys and playmates showed growth in the cerebral cortex. This is the part of the brain involved in cognitive processing, and these rats actually ran the mazes faster than others who had a less enriched environment. This type of research has been repeated over and over with similar results. (Note: rats that had a debilitating environment without toys or playmates showed a reduction in cortical thickness).
The reality is that engaging play reduces stress, promotes creativity, productivity, openness, and invigorates our sense of life. It is literally a natural antidepressant.
The question for us is how can we create a more enriching environment?
One answer lies in understanding how our brains respond to signals. Most of the time, our brains make decisions automatically below our awareness, and cues in our environment influence those decisions. If we are often alone and our environment lacks nourishing things and people, it is more likely to lead to depression and anxiety. On the other hand, if our environment is more attractive and we have access to more playmates, it creates more resilience. So, we have to think: does the gaming environment we live in now evoke at home and at work?
If so, it’s good practice to become aware of these cues. If not, how can you create more cues in your environment that trigger a more playful neural response?
Encourage games at home and at work
Many companies are starting to create a more supportive environment because research clearly shows that it leads to happier, less stressed, more loyal and productive employees. If your workplace doesn’t allow it, you can take it into your own hands, create a joke board, or take small breaks where you intentionally watch a short video like the one above, or spend time with good people as a source of connection.
At home, you might think, what does the game mean to you? It’s usually something you thought about doing, but your mind thought was unimportant. Maybe you want to pick up your camera more, reconnect with old friends, read a good book, or make a weekly 2-hour date with yourself and do something in your routine that nourishes you. That’s how I got started.
In our culture, we see this as a luxury because we value work over play, and our minds often say that “play is unproductive.” This is one of the biggest lies our brain tells us. The research is clear: those who integrate play into their lives are more likely to complete mazes faster and more efficiently.
There are other tricks to discovering a more playful life and even finding playmates, but the first step is to listen to your cues and start creating a more enriching gaming environment. Then we need to actively create it for ourselves, despite the voices in our head saying, “I don’t deserve this” or “There are more important things to do.” U discovery of happiness I call these “negative unconscious thoughts” or nuts because we often feel crazy when they are around.
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Paying attention to play and bringing it into your life can act as a natural anti-depressant, creating positive neural shifts that, with practice and repetition, can contribute to an anti-depressant brain.
Take a moment and tell us what the game means to you? How do you incorporate this into your life? Your interaction creates living wisdom for all of us.
Adapted from Mindfulness and psychotherapy
