by Haven Logan PH.D

 

Playing is a state of mind, rather than an activity.
--Stuart Brown, M.D., 2009

        
Have you ever wondered why one sibling is an avid sports participant while another spends childhood out in the woods exploring every bend of the near-by creek? In my home my sister loved the competitive game tennis while I was drawn to costumes and make-believe. For me, my father’s weekly family tennis lesson was about as much fun as a root canal. For my sister, it was great fun, especially when she had the chance to win some points off my father. Since my sister and I were brought up in the same household by the same parents, why didn’t we enjoy the same activities? According to the National Institute for Play these preferences are explained by the fact that each person has a “unique play personality.”

While Chief of Psychiatry at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center and Associate Professor at UCSD Dr. Stuart Brown interviewed thousands of people to study their play profiles. He discovered that those who were very successful in life had a history of active play. In 1989 he left his clinical medical practice to study play in greater depth, starting with the observation of animal play in the wild.
Dr. Brown founded in Carmel, California, the National Institute for Play, the purpose of which is to expand knowledge about the benefits of play. The benefits found include: improved health through decreasing depression and stress, increased empathy and sense of belonging leading to less interpersonal violence, and even an alteration of the appetite’s set point, possibly serving as an antidote to obesity.  For more information on the National Institute for Play visit their website at: www.nifplay.org or read Dr. Brown’s book titled Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul.

As a child psychotherapist I am in the fortunate position of spending much of my day playing. While I always spend some of the therapeutic hour encouraging children to talk about their feelings, most soon grow impatient to play. It is in play where most of the healing takes place. Some times this is acting out, in the safe world of the sand tray, the violence they have experienced. Other times it is in the building of their self-esteem as they learn the art of playing pool and the joy of finally beating me. While I ask what they want to do, my own preferences invariably creep in. In my head I am hoping they will choose the challenging card game of Skip-Bo rather the monotony of Candyland.

                            Your Own Play Personality
While your play preferences may have changed somewhat with age, it is likely that they are rooted in what you liked to do as a child. If you are lucky you are still doing something related to the types of activities that have always brought you pleasure. Most of us probably are a combination of two or more personality types. Let’s look at some of these identified by the National Institute for Play.

• The Joker – this person finds humor in all of life and loves to make other people laugh, as we observe in the class clown and the practical joker.
  
  
• The Explorer – is curious about the world and loves the adventure of exploring it. This can be either the physical world or the intellectual world.
  
  
• The Kinesthete – is someone whose pleasure comes from physical activity such as athletic games, dancing or exercising.
  
  
• The Competitor – likes to play games and to win. These games can be athletic, video games or the stock market. 
  
  
• The Artist – admires beauty and creates it in many forms including; art, design, and writing.
  
  
• The Director – gets joy from running things and directing others. This might be a company, a family, a movie, or a country.
  
  
• The Storyteller – loves to create imaginary stories for the pleasure of others.
  
  
• The Collector – enjoys collecting things for fun and sometimes for profit.
  
  
• The Performer – is a person who likes to put on a show for others such as actors, models, musicians and public speakers.
  
  

While it is enriching to expose our children to different types of play, make sure that they have plenty of time to devote to those types which they choose. You may have loved baseball, but it doesn’t guarantee that your children will have the same interest. Each of us must be allowed to enjoy our own unique play personality. As adults, even in the busiest of lives, it is essential that we also find time to play. Play takes us out of the daily world of have-to’s and into the joy of fun. It refreshes and energizes. It is essential for emotional and physical health.

Make a list of play activities you would like to increase in your life. When you’ve finished, do as perhaps your mother might have advised, “Go play!”