Stop viewing play solely as a child’s or sport activity; instead, understand it as an exploration of ‘if I do A, what happens?’ to expand your catalog of potential outcomes. This perspective is key to enriching emotional, intellectual, and social lives.
To engage neuroplasticity at any age, return to play, as it is the most powerful portal to plasticity, triggering brain rewiring and growth factors by mimicking natural developmental learning processes.
Adopt a playful stance and engage in play on a regular basis, focusing on low-stakes contingency exploration with attention but without high adrenaline, to benefit from ongoing neuroplasticity.
Engage in play with a degree of focus and seriousness, but ensure the stakes remain low enough to avoid high levels of adrenaline. This balance allows for the liberation of endogenous opioids, fostering a state conducive to neuroplasticity.
When engaging in play, focus on exploring contingencies with truly low stakes rather than worrying about becoming good or proficient. This mindset is crucial for accessing the neurochemical states that open up neuroplasticity.
Cultivate a playful mindset by allowing yourself to expand the number of outcomes you’re willing to entertain and consider how you relate to them, which benefits everyone, especially those less naturally playful. This helps open up prefrontal cortex circuits for exploring different possibilities.
Increase your willingness to participate in low-stakes activities where you may not understand all the rules or be proficient, as this engagement provides information about yourself and others, thereby opening up prefrontal cortex circuits.
Intentionally put yourself into scenarios, like playing games you’re not proficient in, where you might not be the top performer but the stakes are low. This allows for learning about yourself and others, opening up prefrontal cortex circuits.
To best foster neuroplasticity, engage in play involving novel and dynamic forms of movement, including different speeds and angles, such as dance or sports like soccer, provided it’s not taken too seriously.
Participate in activities like dance or sports (e.g., soccer) that involve dynamic, non-linear movements, jumping, and movement at different angles, as these are highly conducive to play-related neuroplasticity, especially when not taken too seriously.
For non-physical play that expands neuroplasticity, choose activities like chess that allow you to adopt different roles and identities within the game, rather than rigidly linear ones, as this dynamically explores different thoughts and roles.
If you already play regularly, expand your repertoire to include new forms of play, especially those involving new groups of individuals. This approach helps your brain learn, evolve, and improve.
Reflect on your past play experiences and current reactions to playful interactions, asking if you take things too seriously or overreact aggressively to playful jabbing or sarcasm. This self-assessment helps understand your social dynamics.
Participate in role play, taking on different roles distinct from your natural world roles, to expand your brain’s capacity to make predictions from various standpoints and learn how to function in new ways.
When you want to signal playfulness to others, adopt a subtle or not-so-subtle head tilt with your eyes open, as this is a universal human play posture.
To engage in play, open your eyelids somewhat (soft eyes) and slightly purse your lips, often combined with a head tilt and a smile. This contrasts with narrowed eyes seen in aggression or sadness.
During playful interactions, unless it’s highly competitive, subtly shrink your body size rather than trying to appear larger. This is a human partial posture that signals non-aggression and willingness to play.