Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan Flashcards
Chapter Two what is play, and why do we do it? what is play? i hate to say
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Engineers are professional skeptics.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
PROPERTIES OF PLAY Apparently purposeless (done for its own sake) Voluntary Inherent attraction Freedom from time Diminished consciousness of self Improvisational potential Continuation desire
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Scott Eberle, an intellectual historian of play and vice president for interpretation at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. Eberle feels that most people go through a six-step process as they play. While neither he nor I believe that every player goes through exactly these steps in this order,
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Anticipation,
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Surprise,
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Pleasure,
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Understanding,
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Strength,
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Poise,
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Once we reach poise, we are ready to go to a new source of anticipation, starting the ride all over again.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Dutch historian Johan Huizinga offers another good definition of play. He describes it as “a free activity standing quite consciously outside ‘ordinary’ life as being ‘not serious’ but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained from it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It promotes the formation of social groupings which tend to surround themselves with secrecy.”
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
there is no way to really understand play without also remembering the feeling of play.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
“In a world continuously presenting unique challenges and ambiguity, play prepares these bears for an evolving planet.”
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
They found that the bears that played the most were the ones who survived best. This is true despite the fact that playing takes away time, attention, and energy from activities like eating,
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
One major theory is that play is simply practice for skills needed in the future.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
But it turns out that cats that are deprived of play-fighting can hunt just fine. What they can’t do—what they never learn to do—is to socialize successfully. Cats and other social mammals such as rats will, if seriously missing out on play, have an inability to clearly delineate friend from foe, miscue on social signaling, and either act excessively aggressive or retreat and not engage in more normal social patterns. In the give-and-take of mock combat, the cats are learning what Daniel Goleman calls emotional intelligence—the ability to perceive others’ emotional state, and to adopt an appropriate response.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
the species with larger brains (compared with body size) played a lot and the species with smaller brains played less.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Play activity is actually helping sculpt the brain. In play, most of the time we are able to try out things without threatening our physical or emotional well-being. We are safe precisely because we are just playing.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Our adult imaginations are also continually active, predicting the future and examining the consequences of our behavior before it takes place.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The genius of play is that, in playing, we create imaginative new cognitive combinations. And in creating those novel combinations, we find what works.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The secret to brain growth for the rats in the original experiments was that they played with an ever-changing variety of rat “toys” and socialized with other rats.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
“The combination of toys and friends was established early on as vital to qualifying the environment as ‘enriched,’”
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Merely changing the surroundings or offering varied challenges was not enough to get dramatic brain development,
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
This solitary, nonplay activity resulted in neural growth in only one area of the brain, as opposed to the whole-brain growth that play provided.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Sleep and dreams appear to be organizers of higher brain function.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Studies have shown that people remember things better if they have a good night of sleep after learning something. We know that REM sleep is most frequent during the periods of most rapid brain development, and the theory is that, during development, sleep and dreams probably contribute to this testing and strengthening of brain circuits.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Play also promotes the creation of new connections that didn’t exist before, new connections between neurons and between disparate brain centers.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
I find it exciting to see parallels between these two major behaviors—sleep and play. It’s reasonable to see them both as essential long-term organizers of brain development and adaptability.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
There is laboratory evidence that there is a play deficit much like the well-documented sleep deficit. And just as a sleep deficit generates a need for extra “rebound” sleep to catch up, laboratory research shows that animals that are deprived of play will engage in “rebound” play when allowed to do so again.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Hindu tradition formalizes play as the ultimate creative source of reality. Lila (Sanskrit) is a concept meaning “pastime,” “sport,” or “play.” Lila is a way of describing all reality, including the cosmos, as the outcome of creative play by the divine absolute.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Chapter Three we are built for play
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
the sea squirt digests its own brain. Without a need to explore or find its sustenance, the creature devours its own cerebral ganglia.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The sea squirt is an example of a basic principle of nature: Use it or lose it. If a capability is not being used, it becomes an extravagance that is jettisoned or fades away. Either we grow and develop or we waste away.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Play creates new neural connections and tests them. It creates an arena for social interaction and learning. It creates a low-risk format for finding and developing innate skills and talents.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The great benefits of play, as I’ve said, are the ability to become smarter, to learn more about the world than genes alone could ever teach, to adapt to a changing world. These benefits are most effective as the brain is growing most rapidly, during the juvenile period. Once this period ends and development slows, for some animals the costs begin to outweigh the benefits.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Along with our opposable thumbs and massive prefrontal cortex, a singular characteristic of humans is that we stretch our juvenile period out longer than any other creature.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Dogs are displaying an adaptive pattern called neoteny (from the Greek for “stretch” or “extend”), which describes the stretching of juvenile periods and sometimes the retention of juvenile characteristics into adulthood. This is a major theme in evolution. Since early development is a time when the nervous system is most “plastic,” an advantage that neoteny bestows is extended openness to change, and sustained curiosity, as well as the ability to readily incorporate new information. A seasoned alpha wolf may be a premier hunter but will inevitably remain bound by narrower and more compulsive behaviors than a domestic dog.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Like retrievers, humans are the youthful primates. We are the Labradors of the primate world.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
This quality of retained “immaturity” goes deeper than our round faces and essentially hairless bodies. The nervous system of adult chimps, if damaged, has less room for repair. We, on the other hand, have much more capacity for new neuron growth, a characteristic of being forever young.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Of all animals, humans are the biggest players of all. We have stretched the juvenile development program to a minimum fifteen years.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Play is a state of mind, rather than an activity.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
We have to put ourselves in the proper emotional state in order to play
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
This “belonging” is an outgrowth of early social play among kids. Getting in sync with local groups of kids, and being able to follow that lead into more complex communal groups is a necessary ingredient for cohesive community life when conflicts and differences of style and opinion must be hammered out.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
“It’s a game. It’s a big, fun, silly, but profoundly moving, human game.”
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
I’ve observed that people have a dominant mode of play that falls into one of eight types. I call these play personalities.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The Joker
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
A joker’s play always revolves around some kind of nonsense.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The Kinesthete Kinesthetes are people who like to move, who—in the words of Sir Ken Robinson—“need to move in order to think.” This category includes athletes,
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
While kinesthetes may play games, competition is not the main focus—it is only a forum for engaging in their favorite activity.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The Explorer Each of us started our lives by exploring the world around us. Some people never lose their enthusiasm for it. Exploration becomes their preferred avenue into the alternative universe of play—their way of remaining creative and provoking the imagination.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The Competitor The competitor is a person who breaks through into the euphoria and creativity of play by enjoying a competitive game with specific rules, and enjoys playing to win.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The Director Directors enjoy planning and executing scenes and events.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
They are born organizers.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The Collector
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
the collector is to have and to hold the most, the best, the most interesting collection of objects or experiences.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The Artist/Creator For the artist/creator, joy is found in making things.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The Storyteller For the storyteller, the imagination is the key to the kingdom of play. Storytellers are, of course, novelists, playwrights, cartoonists, and screenwriters, but they are also those whose greatest joy is reading those novels and watching those movies, people who make themselves part of the story, who experience the thoughts and emotions of characters in the story.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
If we let the play drive express itself well into adulthood, as we are built to do, we find opportunities to play everywhere. The brain keeps developing, adapting, learning about the world, and finding new ways to enjoy it. Many studies have demonstrated that people who continue to play games, who continue to explore and learn throughout life, are not only much less prone to dementia and other neurological problems, but are also less likely to get heart disease and other afflictions that seem like they have nothing to do with the brain.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
When we stop playing, we stop developing, and when that happens, the laws of entropy take over—things fall apart. Ultimately, we share the fate of the sea squirt and become vegetative, staying in one spot, not fully interacting with the world, more plant than animal. When we stop playing, we start dying.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Part Two living the playful life Chapter Four parenthood is child’s play
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
studies of the Dutch “hunger winter” during World War II demonstrate that your IQ, your risk of heart disease, and other health problems are influenced by how well your grandmother ate during the third trimester of her pregnancy with your mother. Researchers have also shown that fetal movements—the kicking, punching, or writhing—can also be thought of as an expression of a play program.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
“attunement.” Their brain rhythms are getting in tune, performing a kind of mind-meld that is a very pure form of intimacy.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
attunement (also called “bonding”) is critical for later emotional self-regulation. Abused children who never adequately experience this end up being extremely emotionally brittle and behave erratically.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Body and Movement Play
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
when someone is having a hard time getting into a play state, I have them do something that involves movement:
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
the periods of greatest play were also the time of most rapid growth of the area of the brain known as the cerebellum.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Object Play
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Imaginative Play
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Throughout life, imagination remains a key to emotional resilience and creativity.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Social Play
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
subtypes of social play: friendship and belonging, rough-and-tumble play, and celebratory and ritual play.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
A critical function of the dominant left hemisphere of the brain is to continually make up stories about why things are the way they are, which becomes our understanding of the world.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
When we engage in fantasy play at any age, we bend the reality of our ordinary lives, and in the process germinate new ideas and ways of being.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
overcontrol by Charlie’s father and the unending abuse directed at Charlie’s mother had been major factors in the development of behavioral problems that ultimately led to what became known in the media as the Texas Tower Massacre.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Jaak Panksepp suggests that depriving young animals of play might delay or disrupt brain maturation.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Without play, Panksepp suggests, optimal learning, normal social functioning, self-control, and other executive functions may not mature properly.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Play isn’t the enemy of learning, it’s learning’s partner. Play is like fertilizer for brain growth. It’s crazy not to use it.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
“Play just lights everything up” in the brains of rats at play.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
He speculates that by strengthening connections between brain areas that might be weakly connected previously, play enhances the retention of knowledge.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Authentic play comes from deep down inside us. It’s not formed or motivated solely by others.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Certainly, parents and mentors are pivotal, but the self that emerges through play is the core, authentic self.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Nature’s design for play is just too strong to be pushed aside completely. They will find their own new ways of asserting their own community, socialization patterns, and individuality. One journalist recently wrote about driving his kids and their friends from one activity to another, when he noticed a strange giggling among the group in back. Upon further inquiry, he discovered that they were all texting one another on their cell phones so that they could “speak” frankly, but secretly, in the presence of the adult. They were creating their own private play zone where they could socialize freely.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
“sophomore,” which literally means “wise-foolish.” In adolescence, kids are pulled in opposite, incompatible directions. They are torn apart. Adolescents are expected to take on adult responsibilities and yet not given adult privileges.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Neuroscientists have shown that during puberty, a whole new set of brain genes that have been silent since birth turn on, creating a flowering of new neural growth and pruning of the cortical neuronal trees at a level unmatched since our early development in the womb. As the neural tangle works itself out, kids can see the world in unique and surprising ways. Studies have demonstrated that adolescents who are shown pictures of various facial expressions will often make very odd (and wrong) inferences about the emotions the people in the picture are feeling. Because of these odd perceptions of everyday stimuli, teens in some ways are living in a different reality from the rest of us. And it doesn’t just happen during the teens. This brain growth continues well into the twenties. This is especially significant as our society extends adolescence out beyond the traditional high school years.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Spark, John Ratey
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Joseph Meeker’s The Comedy of Survival, as a prime text for orienting adolescents (and adults) to a nonidealized world.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
emotion-laden choices, not cognitively laid-out ten-year plans.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
In mythology, the returning hero not only comes back more mature and stronger, but also brings something new that is beneficial to the community.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
For all of us, “entering the forest where there is no path” and discovering our own path is an essential part of the transformative experience.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
So much of parenthood is just getting by, making sure the meals are balanced and the schoolwork is done, trying to teach responsibility and generosity, right and wrong. But there are times when we pass on knowledge about what really matters in life, about how to look someone in the eye and shake their hands with confidence, about how to have vision, set goals clearly, and have the discipline to attain them. As we adults tell kids these things, we sometimes get a glimpse of our own best selves and how we might live our own lives better. Part of the joy and pain of being a parent is seeing our own parents in ourselves, seeing their good parts and flaws repeated in our voices. The joys and pains also come from seeing ourselves in our kids,
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Chapter Five the opposite of play is not work
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
the opposite of play is not work—the opposite of play is depression.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The quality that work and play have in common is creativity.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Play is nature’s greatest tool for creating new neural networks and for reconciling cognitive difficulties. The abilities to make new patterns, find the unusual among the common, and spark curiosity and alert observation are all fostered by being in a state of play. When we play, dilemmas and challenges will naturally filter through the unconscious mind and work themselves out. It is not at all uncommon for people to come back not only reenergized, but also with fresh ideas for work.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
As with many things in life, often the problem is not the problem, the problem is how you react to the problem.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
When one CEO whom I know gathered employees in the company auditorium to talk about a recent bad quarter, he himself took the blame for the company’s performance. He then told the employees that under every seat was a toy dart gun with foam darts, and invited them all to take a shot at him. The air filled with flying yellow projectiles, and the atmosphere of the meeting was completely transformed.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The paradox is that a little distance from a problem, a sense of perspective, a realization that it really matters little in the end if people choose Huggies over Pampers for their kids, can be one of the most important factors in success.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
We talk about working together as a team, but it might be more beneficial and productive to talk about people playing together as a team. When people graduate from working as a team to playing as a team, they will really allow themselves to compete fully and with gusto against other teams inside and outside the company.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
I would say that necessity only sets the stage for invention and innovation. Play is the mother of invention.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
When brainstorming is going well, it is also play.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
On an individual level, your creativity also needs to be protected, not only from outside critics, but also from your own internal critic. Allow yourself to be abundant in your creativity, at first not making judgments about what you think, feel, or do.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Most often, new discoveries and new learning come when one is open to serendipity, when one welcomes novelties and anomalies, and then tries to incorporate those outlying results into the broader field of knowledge.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
“The great performers perform as they do, and do so with such grace, because they love what they are doing,” Hogan observes. “It’s not work. It’s play.”
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The work we do has to be the same way. Part of virtually any job has the possibility to be as enjoyable, as enthralling and creative as when we were kids building sand castles on the beach or flying a kite we created out of sticks, newspaper, and string. The joy has to find its way to us, and us to it.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Most of the time, we have so internalized society’s messages about play being a waste of time that we shame ourselves into giving up play.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
physical activity—movement of any sort—has a way of getting past our mental defenses.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Even a short walk can lift the spirits. The body remembers what the mind has forgotten.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Playing with pets or children also allows us to get past those same, self-censoring impulses that make it so difficult to allow ourselves to play.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
To really regain play in your life you will need to take a journey back into the past to help create avenues for play that work for you in the present.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
If you make the emotion of play your North Star, you will find a true and successful course through life,
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
As James Michener wrote in his autobiography: The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he’s always doing both.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Chapter Six playing together
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Those who played together, stayed together. Those who didn’t either split or, worse yet, simply endured an unhappy and dysfunctional relationship.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
I would claim that sustained emotional intimacy is impossible without play.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Play modulates deep psychological fears and insecurities that threaten emotional closeness.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Jokes are the minimally invasive surgery of a relationship: they penetrate to a deep emotional level without leaving an entry wound.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Play is the lubrication that allows human society to work and individuals to be close to each other.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
there are three separate brain systems involved in sexually oriented love: erotic love, romantic love, and attachment.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Erotic love (what is called “lust”) is the result of the sex drive. It is very nonspecific—we can feel drawn to anyone who is our “type”—and
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
romantic love as being much more specific. In romantic love, we are intensely drawn to one person.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
attachment: the companionate comfort and connection that we feel with someone after the fusion-frenzy of lust, the idealization, and intensity of romantic love have faded. She hypothesizes that attachment has evolved to keep us with a partner long enough to raise children.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
these three types of love are independent of each other.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
when putting people in love into the imaging machine was that the areas of the brain that lit up were the same as those that light up in people on cocaine.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
the word “passion” comes from the Latin word for “suffer.”
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
couples that made a point of doing things that were new and unfamiliar had a much higher satisfaction measure than the couples who spent time doing familiar things.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Chapter Seven does play have a dark side?
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Bekoff describes play signaling in animals as the basis of social trust,
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
surgical residents who played video games were much more accurate and faster with the arthroscopic tools used in minimally invasive surgery.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
the television comes on and play stops. Interaction is no more. The story line is set by the box, and the kids are now merely along for the ride, motionless and mute. Single-player video games are similarly attention hogs and socially isolating.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
The hand and the brain need each other—the hand provides the means for interacting with the world and the brain provides the method. Neurologically, “a hand is always in search of a brain and a brain is in search of a hand,” as Wilson likes to say.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Seems as if we are programmed to “see” more comprehensively in natural settings.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Play also activates reward circuits because it is a beneficial activity. As with endorphins, there are natural regulatory circuits that limit how much play we will engage in. Adults who are healthy and psychologically well balanced will enjoy playing, but after a while they will grow tired of whatever game they are playing and do something else. People who are using the games to escape some other psychic pain, however, will not stop playing. If they do, their pain and anxiety will come rushing back. The arousal and pleasure that provide this escape can therefore become addictive, with disastrous physical, social, emotional, and cognitive results.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
I think that we adults are too quick to step in to stop such play. We see the potential for small hurts,
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
teasing allows people to go to the edge and just beyond, saying things that may or may not be hurtful if said straight out, offering all parties an escape if they have gone too far. Such teasing is a learned-through-play social skill, with culturally understood boundaries. If the intent is to enlighten or just have fun, teasing and joke-making are great elements of social bonding. If the underlying motive is to put down or humiliate the recipient, it’s not healthy.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Play, by its very nature, is a little anarchic. It is about stepping outside of normal life and breaking normal patterns. It is about bending rules of thought, action, and behavior.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Chapter Eight a world at play
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
nations may well rise or fall on the basis of their ability to honor our evolutionary prerogative to play. Why do I say this? Three reasons: social, economic, and personal.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Play sets the stage for cooperative socialization. It nourishes the roots of trust, empathy, caring, and sharing.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Play lowers the level of violence in a society and increases communication.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Play shows us our common humanity.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
For me, a fulfilling life is one in which we live and grow in accord with our true, core selves, in harmony with our world.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
When we get play right, all areas of our lives go better. When we ignore play, we start having problems.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
What he believed was that people should find the path in life that fuels their spirit, that speaks to them on the deepest level. But Campbell also showed that this path is sometimes hard. “If your bliss is just fun and excitement, then you are on the wrong path,” he would say. “Sometimes pain is bliss.”
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
ONE OF THE HARDEST things to teach kids is how to make it past difficulty or perceived boredom to find the
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Making all of life an act of play occurs when we recognize and accept that there may be some discomfort in play, and that every experience has both pleasure and pain. That is not to say that bliss is suffering. My take is that following your bliss may be difficult, demanding, uncomfortable, tedious at times, but not really suffering.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
- Take your play history The primary purpose of the play history is to get us back in touch with the joy that we have all experienced at some point in our lives.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
When have you felt free to do and be what you choose? Is that a part of your life now? If not, why not? What do you feel stands in the way of your achieving some times of personal freedom? Are you now able to feel that what engages you most fully is almost effortless? If not, can you recall when you were able to experience such times? Describe. Imagine settings that allow that sort of engagement. Search your memory for those times in your life when you have been at your very best. (These are usually authentic play times, and give clues as to where to go for current play experiences.) What have been the impediments to play in your life? How and why did some kinds of play disappear from your repertoire? Have you discovered ways of reinitiating lost play that work for you now in your life? Are you able to imagine and feel that the things you most desire and enjoy are really the things that you ought to have? Why so, or why not? How free are you now as you play with your spouse or your family? Or do you treat them as an extension of a dutiful responsibility?
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
- Expose yourself to play Every day, everywhere, there are opportunities to find play:
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
- Give yourself permission to be playful, to be a beginner Probably the biggest roadblock to play for adults is the worry that they will look silly, undignified, or dumb if they allow themselves to truly play.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
“It sucks being a beginner again,” he told me. “But unless you are willing to do that, unless you can let yourself feel okay about going through the awkward stage, you can’t grow. You’ll always be stuck in the past.”
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
- Fun is your North Star, but you don’t always have to head north
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
- Be active One of the quickest ways to jump-start play is to do something physical. Just move.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
- Free yourself of fear Fear and play cannot go together.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
- Nourish your mode of play, and be with people who nourish it, too Practice play. Understand what type of player you are and find ways to engage in your play. It won’t happen automatically.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
They found that comedy and play are a universal language, accessible to all ages in all cultures. It was clear by the end of the day that all had touched one another’s hearts.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
Play is how we are made, how we develop and adjust to change. It can foster innovation and lead to multibillion-dollar fortunes. But in the end the most significant aspect of play is that it allows us to express our joy and connect most deeply with the best in ourselves, and in others. If your life has become barren, play brings it to life again. Yes, as Freud said, life is about love and work. Yet play transcends these, infuses them with liveliness and stills time’s arrow. Play is the purest expression of love. When enough people raise play to the status it deserves in our lives, we will find the world a better place.
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown M.D. and Christopher Vaughan
