Play is the activity, mindset you naturally and are easily able to get into. It’s the activity you lose the most time in. Doing the activity actually re-energizes you, it’s like you could do it endlessly. You are fully engaged in the activity and brings a lot of satisfaction and contentment. It’s a place to get away from anxiety, stress and distractions. There isn’t a moral or value judgment on the outcome or the time spent.
Play can give us some meaningful clues as to what we’re wired for, what we’re gifted at. Where our instincts and intuition are able to flourish. Play can give us insight as to how we receive and process information and how we want to interact with the world. But we tend to dismiss “play”. When we were younger, were we ever told it was a “waste of time” or maybe we assumed what we “liked” to do wasn’t going to be able to provide a living.
But what’s important isn’t the actual specific activity but it’s how we interact with the activity. What are we bringing to the activity that makes our relationship to it special because although there are many play activities that may not be very “productive”, there are many activities that can be “productive” but require the same interaction and relationship from us.