This is NPR's Life Kit, I'm Julia Phrylon.

And I have a question for you.

When was the last time you had fun?

Like true fun.

Not like I saw a funny TikTok fun, but like laughing out loud, fully immersed,

playfulness, fun.

I recently went sledding and experienced the unadulterated joy of sliding down a snowy hill

on a piece of plastic.

I love it too!

It was glorious.

Whatever fun looks like for you, it might be time to ask yourself if you have enough of it

in your life. Because those fun feelings can have lasting effects.

Counterintuitive though it may sound, the more you can prioritize fun and hard times,

the better you'll be able to cope with those hard times. It's actually a tool for resiliency.

That's Catherine Price, author of How to Break Up With Your Phone and a new book called The Power of Fun.

Catherine says that we've lost touch with true fun. You know, the sledding type of fun.

And we've replaced it with fake fun, like watching Netflix until it rudely asks you,

are you still watching? Yes, Netflix, I am still watching.

We are out of practice when it comes to fun. And we haven't had much of it, or more precisely,

we haven't recognized or paid attention to fun that much. And as a result, it feels so

foreign that it can feel inaccessible. We don't even remember how good it feels.

But Catherine says fun isn't hard to find. It's everywhere if you start looking for it.

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