Episode 35: Why Do Adults Stop Playing?
SelfHealers Soundboard
The Holistic Psychologist
4.8 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 1 May 2022
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Remember childhood when play came easy to us? It’s like we shift into adults who forget how to have fun, to be spontaneous, or to just let go without hustling to the next thing on our to-do list. In this episode, talk about why play is so important in healing, and how to start doing it more often.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome back to the Self-Healer Soundboard. Today's episode is dedicated to play. |
| 0:11.0 | A practice that we have been integrating more and more into our days as when we peel back |
| 0:16.4 | and really look we see that it very easily goes missing. I actually think, Jenna, that starting |
| 0:22.3 | with a conversation about why it often goes missing for us and probably for many of you listeners |
| 0:28.5 | out there is a really great place to start. I know personally for me, play was largely absent |
| 0:35.2 | in my life for probably about 35 years. Again, the reason being, when we are locked, when our bodies |
| 0:43.2 | aren't feeling safe, usually, again, based on past experiences that we've had, some of us can |
| 0:49.3 | carry that fight or flight mode, also known as survival mode, with us well into adulthood. |
| 0:54.4 | And when we're in survival mode, when our body is primed and ready for the threat at hand with |
| 1:00.4 | its sole focus on survival, very logically, play is not a priority. And for a very long time, |
| 1:06.9 | what I came to realize very early on in my healing journey was how much my body was stuck in that |
| 1:13.0 | fight or flight. And so very accordingly, I really wasn't playful at a hard time, being lighthearted |
| 1:20.4 | and I didn't really have moments of even engaging, I think, in the more typical things that come to |
| 1:26.4 | my when we think of play, like playing games or playing a more organized way. And that, I mean, |
| 1:32.4 | that was largely gone because I was so focused on what I was doing in terms of work and obligations. |
| 1:39.4 | And all of these endless other places that I put my time and attention. So play, I think, |
| 1:45.6 | you know, is a great place to start. And I just want to honor all of you out there listening, who might |
| 1:50.7 | not find playful moments in your day. And again, the reason being when our bodies don't feel safe, |
| 1:56.7 | when we're in survival mode, when we do have an endless list of obligations, we might not actually |
| 2:01.8 | be able to inhabit that that light, that playful space. You could break it down into two sides of |
| 2:08.8 | the fence. There's those of us who are going through our lives without play and without even |
| 2:14.8 | understanding or really having an awareness that there is no play, which is very common and very |
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