PLAY Dancing with Life: The Whimsy and Wisdom of a Playful Mindset & Movement

The Essence and Joy of Playful Movement

Ever observed a child in their element of play? They effortlessly run, jumping, and skipping, radiating pure joy. As adults, we often disconnect from this playful essence in our movements. Yet, embracing the pleasure found in movement can profoundly enrich our daily lives, bolstering both physical and mental health.

Rediscovering Movement as a Form of Play

Recall your childhood

Moving wasn’t a duty, a demand, but an adventure, a way to express and explore. From tag games to the simple delight of spinning around, movement was synonymous with fun. As adults, there’s an opportunity to rekindle this enjoyment in movement. It’s not about structure or intensity; it’s about finding joy and a smile in the motion.

Personal Reflection

After many years of competitive sport, one crucial element that helped was keeping a playful mindset. While some of what we did was obviously serious and involved pressure and high expectations, I always maintained a thread of playfulness in my training and certainly in how I would think about rowing. This doesn’t mean there weren’t times when this thread was stretched or tested so thoroughly, but I feel I still have the connection to play.

As a kid, about 8 years of age, I recall running around in the vacant block next to our house and playing imaginary football. I just had a ball and space to move, and I imagined being Robbie Flower, a Melbourne Football Player. I imagined his movements, speed, turning, pivoting, and I would do all this while imagining what the commentators might say. It was hours of fun just doing this in the grass next door.

Robert Flower

Known as “Tulip”, he was a wingman for most of his career[1]. He was characterised by his ability to create space for himself and kick and handpass the ball with extraordinary accuracy. He possessed speed, sure-footedness and unrivalled tactical awareness.
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Flowerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Flower

This kind of imaginary play was in me when I trained, and I would imagine being like members of the Oarsome Foursome after I had seen them win the Olympic Gold in 1992. I loved playing as I trained and imagined moving like James Tomkins and Nick Green. Why these two? That was because they moved in a way that inspired me as a gangly, tall, skinny, young athlete.

The entire crew and their movement was something I loved playing with in my mind and then playing when I went out on the water to try and recreate the rhythm and movement. Just like being in the vacant block as a kid, exploring and playing this way was fun.

The Rewards of Playful Movement

Insights from Cortisol Testing in 2012

In 2012, while preparing for the London Olympics, in the Men’s Four, we were training on the Murwillumbah River and staying at Casuarina, NSW, not far from the Gold Coast. A location we had training leading up to Beijing with Duncan Free in the pair.

Our physiologist, Cath, devised a plan to do cortisol testing during a heavy two-week training block. We wanted to understand our stress responses to all the activities, see what we could learn, and consider improving for the final stages of our preparation. The aim was to better understand our stress responses to training, and cortisol as an indicator was seen as a good measure for this. We did saliva samples three times a day for two weeks. We journaled about motivation, fatigue, effort, and energy levels along with all the activities, from training on the water, in the gym, the ergo, and other activities and other specific recovery and rehab work.

Cath walked us through the learnings and insights when we got the results back. Something was evident, and I just jumped off the page. A particular ergo session was not only challenging, as the whole crew would attest, but it was significant in the lingering effects of stress, and hence, we ended up removing it from the program. We wanted to appropriately stress our systems and build, not damage them, to the point we wouldn’t bounce back.

Two key learnings came from activities that helped our stress response and lower cortisol levels more effectively than expected.

Frisbee was fun

We played ultimate frisbee, and it was intense. However, the insights from the testing were that even while doing this, our long session of running, chasing, turning, diving and moving into space as a team activity was complex and tiring. However, I reflected on it and the nature of how we did it, and it was all just play. Frisbee was just a simple, fun outlet, and between just tossing it around and playing a game like this, it was so much like just being little kids again. When we saw the results, it cemented in my mind that the play, not just with the frisbee, was good, but playing in more of our training would be beneficial.

Difference between Physio and Massage

Long had I believed these methods for recovery and rehab as an athlete were helpful and essential. The results we saw from these sessions and how they influenced cortisol levels for us as a group were strange. At the time, the physio sessions either didn’t reduce or slightly or slightly reduced our cortisol levels, but not quiet like massage. It was weird and had us all scratching our heads. In contrast, our massage sessions clearly benefit from lowering our levels. We started wondering why there were differences in training and testing on this occasion.

Our conclusion focused on whether either method of these practices was better or worse; our thoughts were more about the approaches taken in the physio or massage session. The physio session assessed any problems we had and discussed the pain or the issue. The massage session was very different. It felt more general, and often, the session was more humorous, and stories and laughs were shared. One felt like work, and the other felt like play.

Both sessions were needed, but from those days, I started to think a lot about how our mindset, interactions and approaches can really influence how we feel about them. Important note: I am not suggesting this is a researched effect but just a simple conclusion we drew from the results that linked heavily to the notion of play in what we do or our mindset.

Rewards & Benefits

Stress Relief: Participating in enjoyable activities such as dancing, hiking, or a laid-back frisbee game can notably diminish stress.
Boosted Creativity: Active movement ignites the brain, fostering enhanced creativity and problem-solving skills.
Physical Well-being: Consistent playful movement fortifies the body, augments cardiovascular health, and builds stamina.
Social Bonds: Many play activities are communal, fostering connections and fortifying relationships.

Integrating Play into Everyday Life

Shift Your Viewpoint: See movement as a chance for enjoyment beyond a fitness aim.
Explore Varied Activities: Be open to diverse movement forms, like dance, trail running, or paddle boarding.
Include Others: Sharing activities with friends or family amplifies the fun and motivation.
Focus on Enjoyment: The primary aim is to relish the process, not just the result.

Play and movement are a vital part of life. By weaving play into our daily movements, we can rediscover the inherent joy of simply being active. Let’s challenge ourselves to move for joy and happiness, not solely for health.

Play at Work: Enhancing the Workplace with a Playful Mindset

A playful mindset can significantly boost creativity, teamwork, and overall job satisfaction. Here are strategies to infuse play into the work environment:

Foster Creative Thought: Create an environment where unconventional ideas are embraced.
Apply Gamification: Add game-like elements to work tasks for engagement and motivation.
Build a Fun Environment: Small changes, like communal puzzles or team activities, can uplift the workplace.
Value Flexibility: Allowing flexibility in task completion can spark joy and creativity in work.
Promote Regular Breaks: Encourage short breaks for games, walks, or relaxation to refresh and energise.
Celebrate All Outcomes: Acknowledge successes and view failures as learning opportunities.
Interactive Learning: Make training sessions engaging with interactive, playful methods.
Lead with Playfulness: Leaders who exhibit a playful attitude can inspire the entire team.

The objective is to balance professionalism with playful elements, fostering a motivated, inventive, and happier workforce.

The Wide-Ranging Benefits of Play

Play transcends just human behaviour; it’s observed across various animal species and plays a pivotal role in cognitive, social, and physical development:

Brain Development: Play is crucial for developing young people’s cerebral cortex and neural pathways.
Social Skills: It aids in understanding social dynamics and developing empathy.
Physical Growth: Physical play is vital to developing motor skills and strength.
Evolutionary Role: Despite its energy costs, play has evolved as a critical skill-building mechanism.
Cognitive and Problem-Solving Enhancement: Play encourages cognitive flexibility and innovative problem-solving.
Emotional Intelligence: Play allows for the exploration and understanding of emotions.
Sparking Innovation: Play is linked to creativity and serendipitous discoveries in science.

Play is far more than leisure; it’s a fundamental aspect of development and learning, ingrained in our biological and psychological makeup. It is crucial for humans’ and animals’ cognitive, social, physical, and emotional growth.

The Universal Language of Play

Play transcends human behaviour; it’s a critical aspect of development in various species, shaping our brains, social skills, physical abilities, and emotional intelligence. It’s not just leisure; it’s a fundamental part of our growth and learning throughout life.

Reflective Questions

How can you integrate elements of childhood playfulness into your current lifestyle and work?
How do you react to challenges, and could a more playful approach benefit you?
What opportunities for play and enjoyment can you create in your daily life?

Further Reading

The Importance of Play for Adults

https://psychcentral.com/blog/the-importance-of-play-for-adults