"Overseriousness is a warning sign of mediocrity and bureaucratic thinking."
Michael J. Gelb
Many decades ago, there was a man who was world renown for his success. One friend described him this way, "He is capable of great jollity and a most charming companionableness. Yet, although he may at one instant be wholly absorbed in a merry chat with friends, laughing at their drolleries and cracking jokes of his own, in the very next instant he will be as completely buried in some abstruse scientific problem as if the conversation had never taken place and the friends had never existed."
This man was Thomas Edison.
He is not the only creator that has, and does, utilizes the art of adult playtime, then why has this mental exercise fallen out of favor? My guess is that adults tend to get caught up in either their past or future. As children focus on the here and now, let's use their model and see some techniques we adults can use to have some adult play time.
Let's Play Again: Five Ways to Play as an Adult
1. Color with adult coloring books
Some of my favorite memories as a child are connected with coloring Halloween or Christmas coloring books. There was something about opening
a box of crayons and seeing the picture go from black and white to (in my mind) Technicolor! As I've started to reconnect with coloring as an adult, it's still fun to color outside the lines.
2. Painting
An offshoot of coloring is painting. If you are looking for a more technique-based play, try painting. You can use everything from fingerpainting (LOVE the feel of pain on skin) to something more experimental as Andy Warhol's "Piss Painting", there are no limits to what you can create through painting.
3. Read
Butterfly in the sky
I can go twice as high
Take a look
It's in a book
A reading rainbow
Need I say more?
4. Fun Outdoor Games
If you are of a certain age, you remember going outside on the weekends first thing and not coming back until the streetlights came on.
The key to starting these outdoor games again is to remember starting with these rules: when we were kids playing outside, there were basic rules and (generally speaking) no objective other than to be with your friends to have fun. Getting a runner's throat from running was a sure sign that you were having the best of times!
5. Learn Magic
Yes, yes. I know. It seems like something that is a bit out of left field. But unless you are wanting to become a professional magician, the goal of trying this is purely to have fun and learn a new skill.
From coin tricks, rope escapes (don't try unless you have the proper training and people around you to help you should you get into a tight jam) to card tricks, there is no limit to what type of magic you could try.
Play, Play, Play!
The key to Adult Playtime is to remember what it was like for you as a kid: Passing time with no goal to do what you're doing other than to have fun.
So, remember to walk on the grass without your shoes and dance in your living room as if no one is watching.