[Music]

okay

i love to move without structure goals

or expectations

i love to skip down the street

and jump into puddles

i'm not only doing it because it's fun

but i'm also doing it because it helps

me to stay curious

courageous and resilient

it allows me to think

around the edges

and to fully feel and express my

emotions

being physically playful

helps to maintain a playful state of

mind

and that is a key to being creative

courageous and resilient

being playful helps me to be

undaunted not intimidated by

difficulties or disappointed by

discouragement

it allows me to stay audacious and to

take risks

you might ask yourself how's

playfulness connected to being creative

and resilient

and i will answer that for you today

but firstly
i want to invite you to think back

to time when you were little

and the world was filled with wonder and

excitement

life was about enjoying the little

things

going on adventures

being present with each other you might

have built a tree house or

run for the fields barefield

you might have made up wondrous stories

in your mind

life was full of enchantment and

surprises

we enjoyed the unpredictability the

messiness the risk-taking we embrace the

exuberance of our bodies

as children we instinctively played with

movement sound

and gestures to make sense of the world

around us

we are all born creative

curious and hungry to explore the world

yet when is the last time you jumped

into a puddle

danced under the moonlight

or pretended to rule the world

most of us have forgotten that wildness

within us those creative and instinctual

parts have been put to the side as we

acquired kids jobs mortgages

who hasn't heard stop playing around

there's work to do be serious

there is a common perception that

playfulness is only for children

or worse for the lazy or the idol

but far from being a useless activity

playfulness and thus imagination and

creativity

is a world of understanding both

our external reality

and our internal subjective world

often our most advanced mental functions

like abstract conceptual thought or

problem-solving skills are not able to

resolve problems

instead the earliest glimmers of

understanding emerges images metaphors

and symbols

if we take our imagination seriously and

give it concrete expression we set into

motion a process of understanding and

integrating even the most difficult

experiences

creativity is our ability to come up

with and act upon novel ideas and

solutions

and the reality is in for ever-changing

world like ours we desperately need to

be open to unconventional solutions

lives faster than ever we are under

pressure there will be forever hiccups

setbacks difficulties we need to find

ways to stay open and resilient

times of change and flux can be very

vulnerable experiences and it doesn't

matter whether it's a new job those

unpredictable people around us epidemic

or if we're just asking ourselves what's

next

so how can we keep these abilities open

because effect is if we keep

doing the same things over and over

again if we maintain the same patterns

if we are relying on set routines we

will only and always choose the most

familiar answer and that's usually the

least interesting one

we need to be able to deepen our

thinking so that we can see all the

contradictory multiple possibilities to

grab the most innovative innovative

solution we can find

so how can we

step

into the unknown

and deal with whatever life has to offer

what should i say whatever life throws

at us

play might just be the answer

experiments conducted at the mit

indicate that play is at the very core

of creativity and innovation

yet studies in patient medicine show

that free play time for children has

reduced by over 70 percent in the last

20 years

a lack of free play in early childhood

although

allows us to indicate a susceptibility

to criminal activities and addiction so

children who are deprived of play

whether due to poverty absent parents or

an over-structured childhood are more

likely three times more likely to be

arrested for a crime at the age of 23

than compared to children who actually

had a playful upbringing or attended a

play orientated preschool

it has also led to the common phenomena

that since we kind of reduced play time

and childhood and education that really

innovative companies are training or

teaching the employees to play again in

order to awaken that dormant creativity

so why do research stress so much the

importance of apply for the early

development of the brains on children

children doing play they learn to

calculate possibilities they make

assumptions about their physical

surroundings they adjust their

perception according to the input of

others they develop chronological

awareness play is linked to language

development self-control social skills

and empathy

play also allows children to integrate

and work through

very difficult experiences such as

natural disasters drama grief loss of

violence

and for adults

play is an evolutionary process

it is a profound biological process and

it affects

our outlook on life as adults

so

playfulness for adults is energizing and

it releases our brain from the linear

sensible thinking so we can actually

make all those unconventional

connections

an atmosphere of playfulness allows us

to communicate and express our feelings

to connect to each other in a direct and

honest way
we get to know ourselves and become

present in the here and now

playfulness releases us from

perfectionism because we're allowed to

tinker to experiment and to make

mistakes

playfulness helps us to recover quickly

from stress

remain curious in our work stay open

and have more fun in life during play we

can lose ourselves and find ourselves at

the same time

without play adults might end up getting

burned out or tired from the constant

hustle and bustle

without play adults might become unhappy

without really understanding why

so very often if we are able to reawaken

those playful and creative instincts

we're also unlocking a big positive

change in an adult's life

let me just specify the difference

between play and games for the one in

the audience who go like i play cards i

should be fine there is a difference

between games and play so games have are

priori rules and those rules need to be

followed during the game to make the

game enjoyable you cannot just match

qriket with football

play on the other hand has no rules

it affords us to be present in the here

now we need to improvise and go with the

flow so the brain is forced to come up

with it ad hoc in the moment solution

and that's the creativity in it during

play we

aim to be creative and that's how we

learn

creativity although is like a muscle

if you're not gonna use it you will lose

it

you cannot sit back on your couch and

wait for creativity to strike you like

lightning

you need to build it into your daily

life like a practice

and that process is necessarily

different for each one of you because

creativity like our dna is unique to the

individual

there are although a couple of things

you can do to boost that playfulness and

i want to share some things for you

today to integrate in your life

think back when you were little

what did you enjoy doing as a child what

were those activities where you just in

the moment and you did not consider the

outcome

you want to take those memories and

translate them into sensations now so

find an activity and make it matching to

your current circumstances

if that's a little bit too abstract

practice ambidexterity

ambi dexterity will actually enhance

your ability to use both sides of your

brain to come up with a solution

if you sit in front of your computer and

feel a little bit blur

get up

move in a non-linear abstract way that

connects to your feelings for about 30

seconds to a minute

my office got actually used to my graded

outburst i promise

if you feel stuck with a problem get up

go for a walk don't think about it

focus on your surroundings

feel the wind on your skin

smell the air watch the clouds go by

research has shown that innovative

thinking increases by 58

just after a 10-minute leisurely stroll

give yourself time in the day to do

something without purpose

daydream

stay out of the window

effective people actually do stare out

of windows

the interesting thing is that we're not

staring out of the window to find out

what's going on outside

but it is paradoxically

a discovery of the contents of our own

mind

engage in some form of free movement

during the day that has no structure or

expected outcome

if you're exercising to burn fat you're

actually not playing

free imaginative play

might include fantasies like being

someone else

or something else

or it might just be that you skip down

the road and

jump into a puddle

free imaginative play is crucial

it makes us better adjusted smarter and

less stress

so

to make take time to play and to make

sure you play schedule time in your day

through it

live a creative life

and take time to play

[Music]

you