The Art of Play
Written by Linnea Sheneman. Graphic by Linnea Sheneman.
As adults and especially as creatives, play is so crucial but equally so neglected. As a child, you probably played pretend, played with dolls and incorporated whimsy and imagination into your everyday subconsciously. If you are anything like me, this crucial practice of play and imagination has fallen by the wayside outside of my visual arts-based creative outlets. According to an article by PsychCentral, “Playing is just as important for adults as it is for kids” and can help boost creativity, stress relief and overall mood. The first step for bringing play back into your life, as defined by the National Institute of Play, is to determine what sort of play you like, or your “play personality.”
The personalities are defined as follows: “The Collector” is someone who likes collecting items and maintaining a collection, “The Competitor” is someone who likes highly structured games that follow set rules, “The Creator or Artist” is someone who sources joy in making, creating or fixing, “The Director” is someone who enjoys directing and planning, “The Explorer” is someone who accesses their play state by discovering new things, “The Joker” is someone who accesses their play state through humor and improv, “The Kinesthete” is someone who enters
into their play state through movement or dance and last but not least “The Storyteller” is someone who plays through creating and following storylines.
Upon some self-reflection, while I fall under most of these categories in terms of hobbies I have and things I enjoy, “The Explorer,” “The Kinesthete” and “The Storyteller” are my primary ways of accessing that play state or creative, joyful mindset that happens during play. I think for me personally a lot of increasing my access to play and trying to tap into this play mindset relies more on trying not to worry about what others think of me. As an adult who doesn’t play quite nearly enough, I find myself holding back not because I don’t know how to play, and not because I don’t know my play personality, but rather because I worry about judgment as an adult tapping into more stereotypical “child” activities. The most important step is reframing thoughts surrounding play, and this idea of play not being for adults. As a storyteller and kinesthete, I love running around in Forsyth and just getting to dance and move my body, and I absolutely adore playing with dolls and stuffed animals. I think there is this mental block that says that adults can’t engage in play like this because it is “unprofessional” but in reality, play benefits me professionally as an artist and play should be about how it makes you feel engaging in it, not about how you think others perceive you. In this day and age, people are trying to commodify and commercialize everything, but play resists that mindset. I also try and remind myself that expressing joy the majority of the time sparks joy in others, and those who react to my personal play and joy with hate likely have other things going on in their lives that led them to this point.
I encourage everyone to find ways to engage in play this week, whether through video games, personal art or just running around and doing cartwheels. Plan out a time that is dedicated solely to de-stressing and tapping into your inner child and play mindset. You might be surprised how
much you needed it, and how much it benefits your creativity as we finish out winter quarter. I myself am off to lay in the grass, find shapes in the clouds and soak up some much-needed Savannah sunshine!
