On the air almost every day, I encourage my audience to play.

I wonder, sometimes, what they think of that.

I can see some people grumbling about time, or money, or both. I can imagine others thinking that they've got much more serious things to think about.

But I won't relent. I really believe that we would be better off if more people kept in deeper touch with the need they have inside them to play like we did as kids.

Like we did at recess. I've been calling it a 'Recess Recap' on the air, because scheduling an hour of time for you to play is not at all unlike the break I used to have in the middle of my day in elementary school.

If you don't play anymore, it isn't your fault. Society has taught us that it isn't important after a certain age. Perhaps it's the age that we start to eliminate it from our daily routine. For me, that was junior high. Once I reached seventh grade, recess was no longer part of the day.

I've never had a job that offered recess, so it has always been up to me to find the time to play.

It isn't easy, especially with a newborn in the house, but I am doing what I can to make it happen.

I looked into it a little bit, to see if what I have been encouraging on the air has any validity. I found a bunch of studies and books that reference the importance of play for adults.

“We don’t lose the need for novelty and pleasure as we grow up,” according to Scott G. Eberle, Ph.D, vice president for play studies at The Strong and editor of the American Journal of Play.

Play brings joy. And it’s vital for problem solving, creativity and relationships.

In his book Playauthor and psychiatrist Stuart Brown, MD, compares play to oxygen. He writes, “…it’s all around us, yet goes mostly unnoticed or unappreciated until it is missing.” This might seem surprising until you consider everything that constitutes play. Play is art, books, movies, music, comedy, flirting and daydreaming, writes Dr. Brown, founder of theNational Institute for Play.

Brown has spent decades studying the power of play in everyone from prisoners to businesspeople to artists to Nobel Prize winners. He’s reviewed over 6,000 “play histories,” case studies that explore the role of play in each person’s childhood and adulthood.

So, that should give you permission to get out there and play something today, and, if you can, almost every day!

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