Do you find it easy to lean into a moment of humour, or does “joining in the banter” feel like a script you haven’t quite learned? For many of us, the ability to be playful isn’t just about being “fun”—it’s about how safe we feel being spontaneous.
While we often view play as a luxury or a distraction, it is actually a vital psychological tool. Our early experiences and cultural expectations act as a blueprint for our relationship with play; if that blueprint was focused solely on productivity, adulthood can start to feel incredibly heavy.
However, playfulness—approaching life with openness, curiosity, and a sense of humour—is a key component of mental resilience. Far from being “childish,” it is a sophisticated way of relating to the world that fosters deeper connection and personal fulfillment.
Key benefits of play
In both children and adults play has a myriad of benefits, both short and long-term. These include:
- Reducing stress – the nervous system works towards lowering cortisol levels and releasing endorphins and other supportive hormones.
- Boosting creativity – activating our imaginations, and promoting constructive thinking.
- Strengthening relationships – contributing to the many small points of contact between people that help build interpersonal knowledge and bonds. Promoting fun, positive connections, openness and therefore intimacy and closeness. It also supports the positive platform of a relationship which allows for more effective conflict resolution and a sense of belonging.
- Practicing reframing situations – This is a key skill in resilience and mental health maintenance, boosting our positive thinking and gratitude.
- Practicing lateral and responsive thinking – leveraging our creativity and imagination to help us think outside of the box and solve problems.
- Mitigating anxiety and depression – redirecting our attention away from negative thoughts and helping us turn toward mindful, engaging pastimes.
- Learning about ourselves – activities that we are internally motivated to take part in often help us to define our innate skills and talents which can guide our learning or professional efforts.
- Sharpening mental acuity – combining social, physical and mental engagement improves cognitive flexibility and memory. Several studies in older adults and dementia patients show a correlation between regular playfulness and slower rates of memory loss.
Rather than something that should be ‘left in our childhood’ or viewed as frivolous, play is a healthy way of exploring ideas, learning new or expanding on old concepts, moving past unhealthy inhibitions and building strength and closeness in relationships. It also allows us to change our view of work and other daily activities, helping us see them as fulfilling rather than dull or overwhelming.
Misconceptions about play in adults
A common idea around adult play is that it is childish, frivolous or gets in the way of productivity. As noted above, play provides proven social, psychological and physical benefits to people of all ages. The diverse sources of playfulness provide us with the flexibility to find our own way and enhance our own experience, and play can be experienced with others and on our own. The method by which we ‘play’ is not as crucial as whether we do or not, and whether our pursuits are satisfying and engaging to us.
Play is also often perceived as something that takes up time or requires excessive resources to be valuable. However, play in its essential form can be as simple as the jokes told to co-workers in a lunch break, or the absent-minded doodling we might do during a phone call or lecture. Even tossing a ball with a friend is considered play and has significant benefits.
We also often devalue play as a waste of productivity, often due to the lack of tangible results. This societal misconception has lead to excessive schedules that feature work/life imbalance and is also part of why we are drawn to electronic devices where we are bombarded with information masked as a ‘break’ from work. This lifestyle structure feeds our brains more stimulus than it is equipped to take, and longer term, leads to higher rates of burnout and lower life satisfaction. It also disrupts our ability to be spontaneous by training our minds to need constant input, but spontaneity is a supportive trait that allows for flexible mindset and adaptive thinking.
All in all, play is about so much more than leisure and fun in life. It helps us to open ourselves up to new potentials, greater resilience and deeper connection to others.
Incorporating Play into life
1. Identify what is play to you
What is at least one activity that you easily get into and lose track of time with? Work can be playful and enjoyable too.
2. Find your play style – Dr Stuart Brown, psychiatrist identifies 8 play personalities which can help people work out what activities might resonate.
a. The collector – having and holding interesting collections of items or experiences, eg: travelling to specific zoos or witnessing solar eclipses, or collecting coins, clothing or cars.
b. The competitor – accessing feelings of excitement and euphoria through playing competitive games like basketball, or boardgames, or challenging ourselves with perfecting our swimming time or even the time it takes us to complete a task.
c. The creator/artist – finds enjoyment and purpose in making or beautifying things. Artistic pursuits such as drawing or painting fulfil this, but also making and restoring furniture, gardening or even renovating a room or restoring an old machine.
d. The Director – planning or running events or scenes. This can be in the form of putting on a play or throwing elaborate birthday parties. Here the joy is in organising and orchestrating the beauty and pageantry of the event, ensuring that others enjoy being part of it.
e. The Explorer – This may be physical exploration of new places, both locally or around the world or may take the form of emotional exploration. Looking for meaning and new understanding of emotions, music, movement or even a newly learned subject are all ways to explore the world, excite our imagination and broaden points of view.
f. The Joker – this may be the most obvious style of play, in that a jokers goal is to find the fun in situations, usually with a view to including others and make them laugh. This may take the form of pranks, humorous banter, traditional jokes or clever (and not so clever) use of puns in day to day speech.
g. The Kinesthete – These are people who relate movement to play and frequently think or learn better when physical activity or actions are involved. For the kinesthete dance, sport, swimming or walking help them discharge stress and feel the joy and openness of play. They may play competitive sports, but their focus is more on the play than the winning.
h. The Storyteller – The key to a storyteller’s sense of play is imagination and the challenge of stretching it. For the storyteller, reading or hearing the stories others have written is a new insight into the world and helps them feel engaged and inspired. Creating their own stories, not just through poetry and prose, but also through dance, play or by writing lectures or articles to educate allows them to open up and connect with others. They also see the narrative in other activities, feeling the drama and tension in a game of chess or turning a day-to-day event into an intriguing anecdote.
3. Embrace a Playful Mindset – Changing your approach to your day and injecting humour, openness and curiosity adds depth and enjoyment, which can also help stave off burnout from the relentlessness of daily life. This is also helpful practice for the mental flexibility that allows people to reframe challenges in life, which is a technique that improves mental health outcomes.
4. Schedule playtime – As adults, particularly if we’ve lost touch with or never been introduced to our playful sides, it can be difficult to remember to inject play into every day. We might also struggle at first to think of what or how to bring our sense of fun out. So as with many new skills, practice and planning makes perfect. Apart from the jokes you might make or stories you may tell with spontaneity, you may want to plan for fun to happen at regular intervals. This could be taking a little time each day to read, paint, play a game or chase the dog around the backyard, or it may be planning a day trip on the weekend with friends to visit a local wine region. It may also involve, as I have recently ‘prescribed’ to clients of mine, spending an hour or 2 at a local indoor trampoline playground, exploring a new activity that brings back the silliness of childhood and lets you really laugh at yourself.
5. Practice Mindfulness – Notice when you’re enjoying something and lean into that feeling.
6. Reduce Inhibitions – Overcome fear of judgment and embrace your inner child.
Ultimately, reclaiming our sense of play is not about regressing to childhood, but about evolving into more resilient, connected and vibrant adults. By identifying our unique ‘play personalities’ and dismantling the myth that productivity requires constant seriousness, we open the door to a more fulfilling life. When we give ourselves permission to be spontaneous and silly, we aren’t just wasting time – we are fuelling our mental health, deepening our relationships and ensuring that the ‘serious business’ of life is actually worth living.
Written by:
Kate Marshall
Counsellor & Psychotherapist – Serenity Counselling
Phone 0482 012 258 or visit
www.serenitycounselling.com.au/bookings to schedule a session.
Resources
Des Marais, Saya. “The Importance of Play for Adults: Tips for Being More Playful.” Psych Central, 10 Nov. 2022, psychcentral.com/blog/the-importance-of-play-for-adults.
National Institute for Play. “Play Personalities.” National Institute for Play, nifplay.org/what-is-play/play-personalities/.
National Institute for play. “The Importance of Play for Adults – National Institute for Play.” National Institute for Play, 2023, nifplay.org/play-note/adult-play/.
“Ontario Psychological Association – Playfulness and Play for Adults.” Psych.on.ca, 2025, www.psych.on.ca/Public/Blog/2025/Playfulness-and-Play-for-Adults.
“Playfulness in Adults | APS.” Psychology.org.au, 2025, psychology.org.au/for-members/publications/inpsych/2020/oct-nov-vol-42-issue-5/analyse-this/playfulness-in-adults.
RELEASE DATE: 05/03/2026
REVISED: 02/08/2026