Play is Wellness, Play is Fun, Play is for ALL OF US!
I love to play, my kids love to play, my husband and so many of our friends all love to play. Play is what keeps us strong, play is what keeps us healthy, play is what keeps laughter in our everyday (well mostly).
Play isn’t all that difficult to describe, its where you’re free to explore your surrounds alongside your imagination with either yourself or your mates, your family or your teachers. Its expression through play, It’s therapy through play, It’s learning to navigating this big old world through play. Most of all it is unstructured, it’s free, it pulls on those creative tendrils and its tugs a little at the unknown, the unexpected.
When was the last time you played? What filled you up whilst all your worries disappeared even if only for a moment? What’s your ultimate idea of play?
Let’s set some healthy boundaries:
Free Play is Not screen time.
Free Play is Not structured after school sports.
Free play is rarely allowed at schools.
Free Play is not with you standing over their shoulders
As I was reading an article from 2022 this morning written by Jackie Mader; The headline reads ‘Want resilient and well-adjusted kids? Let them play’. Being a huge fan, of all things play and fun I was hooked from the opening line. Which I’m sure comes as no surprise, having built my entire natural health clinic, and structured the very way in which I practice, on the ethos of Making Health Fun Again!
I resonated with much of what the article had to say, reinforcing our human need for play, across so many developmental parameters, which is just a fancy way of saying we learn, grow and develop physically, mentally, socially & spiritually through play. It is our basic human right and necessity. I think it’s important to note that whilst play comes in many, many forms, play is something we simply cannot replace. Let me say that again, we cannot replace play. It cannot be substituted with extracurricular; it cannot be found in a bottle of pills; it cannot be simulated through a screen.
Play is Play. Play will always be Play.
This article led me to a new discovery this morning, The National Institute for Play. Founded by the incredible Dr Stuart Brown and his line “we are built to play and built by play!”. What an absolute gold mind.
There are so many great articles and resources on this site, I wholeheartedly encourage you all to spend some time checking it out. Who doesn’t need more reasons and resources to play a little more!
There are consequences for not having enough play. Too many to cover them all here, I’ll leave that up to you, to follow down and along your own rabbit holes. The one I would like to highlight is the one I see so often in clinic.
Lack of play & its strong association with mental health struggles.
I am often dumbfounded at my kids’ school, when teachers are walking around ordering little kids to sit down quietly before school has even started. Honestly, they should be getting them to run around, encouraging them to race to the fence and back, not sit down and be quiet, they have all day in lessons to do that. In fact, if they got them moving, they would likely be able to sit quietly in class a whole lot better.
One morning I witnessed this same old dragon of a teacher, send a little grade one boy to ‘turn the tide’ to run on a treadmill by himself to ‘burn some energy’ instead of letting him run around with his mates before class. What absolute rot! The teacher needed that treadmill not the kid!
We are currently facing a global epidemic of mental health struggles in our children, they are being diagnosed and medicated at a rate never before seen in history, and to what end.
We are stripping our kids of the right to move, to play freely, to learn through play. Their screen time in class has increased exponentially, there are required to sit and stare for longer and longer periods of time. And recently much to my absolute disgust my kids’ school has replaced 50% of the annual physical education time with health and safety in the classroom, are you serious!
We are built to move.
We are built to play.
We are not built by screens.
We are not built to sit and stare.
We have stripped our kids of the basic fundamental right of growing up with play, and we are masking the repercussions of this, often for our own peace of mind. We are messing up big time.
Yet, it’s not too late to change course.
& I believe it starts with play.
- If you’re a parent reading this, focus on play at home.
- If you’re a teacher reading this, please bring back play into your classrooms and encourage others to do the same, let our kids move.
- If you’re an adult, rediscover play and what it means to you, play more.
- If you’re a teen, rediscover play and what it means to you, play more.
- Take a leaf out of your dog’s book, play more, no one ever regretted playing free & living more!
I hate the word anxiety. Not because I don’t believe it exists, I absolutely do, and it’s one of the conditions I treat the most in clinic. I hate the term, because I feel it has eaten up all the other emotions around it; Anxiety, ate up nervousness, Anxiety, ate up scared, Anxiety, ate up shame, Anxiety ate up overwhelm, Anxiety ate up dread, Anxiety ate up worry and self-consciences. You get the picture right.
When a label takes over like Anxiety, it starts replacing all the other emotions, becoming the only word any teacher, parent or child uses; we inadvertently reduce our vocabulary, our emotional intelligence, our emotional resilience and our ability to work through, and overcome these emotions. Emotions that we all feel, emotions that are a big part of life.
Again, anxiety is real mental health condition, and as such deserves to be respected. Too often I see the word touted around and around with no diagnosis and very little understanding of what having anxiety really means. This has the flow on effect of diluting treatment for those who really need it.
Together we can do better.
Enter the incredible world of play.
Play has been shown to reduce anxiety and other mental health conditions in children and adults alike, in numerous studies. Not by just a little, but by a whole lot.
Play builds our emotional intelligence, bolstering our mental health and increasing our ability to relate and connect with one another. Play is truly extraordinary. Play helps us build hope, strengthens optimism and pushes our drive for the future. It is important to note that all these beautiful effects of play, are from regular play. It is not from one-off play. Just like eating healthy for one day doesn’t fix a lifetime of fast food. Playing for one day just isn’t enough.
Playing every day is where it is at. I’ve copied this great table to highlight the importance of a play filled life. Notice I said life not just childhood. Play is vital across the life-span.
Making Health Fun Again
When I talk about health being fun, people often look at me strangely. Health is hard work I hear them saying. Why? I say in return. Why does health have to be hard.
Symptoms can often be a struggle; that headache is no fun, the IBS that leaves you running for the toilet 12 times a day isn’t enjoyable, and that pain in your lower back doesn’t have you feeling overly enthusiastic. Symptoms are a struggle.
Health is FUN! Health is feeling your best, health is confidence in you whole self, health is stability, mobility, flexibility health is vibrancy, energy, playfulness. Health is freedom. Health is fun.
It is my mission to make each and every one of the incredible humans I work with, find more freedom in their health, to make health fun again.
When I ask couples in clinic what they do for fun, I mostly get met with blank stares. Honestly, young beautiful, educated, talented couples with no idea of what they do for fun, what they do to play.
In between our careers, our studies, our families, our partners, our screens, our commutes in traffic; we have forgotten to play, to have fun. We have lost the ability to be free in our everyday. We tick jobs of our list and collapse at the end of the day on the couch. Time slipping through our hands.
So, what to do about it.
Reintroduce play. Reintroduce fun.
If you have a pen and paper, or a crayon handy. Take a moment right now. Even just say your answers out loud, be that guy in a quiet office. & Answer these three questions!
When was the last time you really played? What were you doing?
What is your ultimate idea of fun, free play?
Name three ways you can bring more play into your day.
When you get home tonight, find a way to play, even if only for ten minutes.
Play until you laugh out loud. Make this your daily challenge, or weekly if you are a bit of a stick in the mud.
You do you.
Health & Play go hand in hand.
That is not to say you can’t do one without the other, you can. They just work better together!
When it comes to our children, encourage more play. Don’t think because they have every toy under the sun they know how to play, they likely just feel overwhelmed and will bug you relentlessly till you sort it out for them. Don’t think because they ask for a screen every minute of every day, they are filling their play bucket, they are just putting more holes in that bucket.
There are so many different types of play, and we need as many different ones as possible.
Just like there are many different types of whole foods, we also need as many different types as possible.
When you restrict or limit play, you create diss-ease in the body, the mind & the spirit.
When you restrict or limit whole foods, you also create diss-ease in the body, the mind & the spirit.
It is never too late to recreate play. It is never too late to recreate health. It is never too late to start building the life you want to live.
What you do to recreate play in your homes, is entirely up to you and is (and should be) as individual as you are. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone, just be sure to do it often.
Here are a few things to get you started:
- Walk more. It may sound simple, yet walking together with friends, with family, with partners, with children offers up a greater opportunity to talk, to connect, to laugh, to be silly, to tell stories, and of course to move. Walk more.
- Play Board Games / Card Games. When was the last time you sat down and played an actual tangible (non-screen) game? This is a structured form of play, yet still a good one, especially when it brings laughter to the table.
- Leave the screens at home. Do more without your device. You can strike up a conversation with a stranger, you should. You can eat, sleep, exercise & yes you can even s**t too without being tracked, give it a go.
- Allow yourself to be bored. Allow your kids to be bored. There is play, creativeness and imagination waiting for you on the other side of boredom.
- Go outside and lie down and look up at the sky. When was the last time you gave the sky more than a split second of your time, rest, slowdown be still outside, see what happens next.
- Spend a few hours or a whole day if you can, in nature take some healthy food with you, no toys, no screens, no games. Instead, explore, play, go be free and remember just how much mother nature really has to offer you.
- Hit the water people, ocean, lakes, rivers, streams, waterfalls, backyard sprinklers whatever you have in your local. Swim, play, splash, blow bubbles, jump, throw a ball, float, do them all at once, do them one at a time.
You Do You.
“Researchers & clinicians working with children’s development are rediscovering something that was once understood intuitively: Kids need free play & other opportunities for self-chosen, self-directed activities both for immediate happiness and long-term wellbeing.”
Adapted from https://nifplay.org/play-for-you/prescribe/
I love this notion, that we are rediscovering something that was once understood intuitively. Science is just beginning to catch up.
This I believe can be applied to so many aspects of our lives, and our children’s lives
I have long believed we are being having our intuition squashed and stolen. Let’s reawaken our own intuitive self, lets trust out gut more, lets lead by example so we can encourage the people we love and have around us to do the same.
We intuitively know so much. Don’t wait for science to catch up. Trust your gut. Do More You!
INDEPENDENCE THROUGH PLAY
But wait there’s more.
Independent or free play is going beyond board games and taking a picnic together. Its solo play. Its learning to navigate this big old world on your own, it’s letting our kids learn to navigate it on their own too.
If you haven’t heard of LetGrow.org, you have now, your welcome.
Taking our eyes of our kids as they grow, can be hard, can be excruciatingly hard. But we have to learn to do it, just as they do too.
As a mum, and a health professional it is my mission, along with many of my colleagues, to help reshape the landscape of mental health treatment for our children and our adults alike.
It is my prescription to each and every one of you to have more fun, to play more, everyday!
Don’t worry that’s not my only prescription, I do plenty more in clinic too. It is however, a very big focus in my clinic.
Bolstering independence away from adult supervision, along with the inevitable scraps, scrapes and social turmoil is vital to building social skills, resilience and creativity.
If you are in the education space check this out, please go forth and recreate this for your class or school or club
If you are a practitioner, please prescribe more play, more free time, more fun
If you are a parent, please be brave and start to let your children fight their own battles, within reason of course, knife fights are still out. Give them the tools, to sort things out for themselves, support them, let them know you’re here and encourage them to be free.
Another inspiration list to get your started, write it out in your own style in big fat colourful crayon’s and stick it on your fridge, read it out loud every day until you are living it everyday!
- For every adult directed activity, let the kids direct three.
- For every adult supervised activity, let the kids loose for three.
- Supervise screens much more, supervise play much less.
- Encourage more, rough and tumble play, not fighting.
- Let your kids walk more, ride more, on their own.
- Quit one after school, super structured, overly expensive, activity, and set up a free play with neighbourhood kids’ afternoon instead, let them roll with it, unsupervised.
- Teach them how to take public transport on their own.
There are so many options when it comes to recreating more fun and more play in your own homes and in your own lives, you really just have to start.
So please, let grow a little more.
Play a little harder
Let laughter in a little more.
It is my absolute privilege to write and share with you, thank you for taking the time to read with me today.
Have a wonderful play filled day!
Contact Jessica Bruce Nutrition
Our emotional health is vital to our whole-body health. If you or someone you love is struggling with anxiety, depression, feeling of hopelessness or overwhelm, please reach out for support. Help is available in abundance for you.
Mental health struggles can appear at any stage in life and are unfortunately becoming increasing normalised, finding your ideal relief and support is not always easy. But it is possible.
Thankfully there are many easy, natural steps you can take to support your own mental health and that of your loved ones.
If you’re struggling with mental health concerns and want to know more about natural treatment options, or if you just want to talk more play too contact me @ Jessica Bruce Nutrition.
My Holistic approach to your whole-body health is suitable for all ages and works specifically with your lifestyle, natural health meets you where you are at, healing you from the inside out.
My whole ethos is about making health fun again, I never want it to feel like just another job. We work together, to get the results you want faster. It is YOUR health.
You don’t have to suffer alone any longer.
Contact Jessica today for all your mental health struggles – I can help.
