Light Up Your brain

"I wish I had let myself be happier."

This is one of the top five regrets expressed to Bonnie Ware, a nurse who cared for people as they were dying.

Are you old enough to have this regret already? Do you find yourself working because it's familiar, because you're so used to it you don't even question it anymore? And then you take the obligatory vacation and find it takes days to relax? 

Think back to your childhood. Did you know how to giggle? One of my friends told me when she laughed as a child her father always said, "Laughter leads to sorrow." Ouch! What were the messages you got about fun in your family? Do you allow enough play in your life now?

I missed going to Woodstock but later saw it on film, and was envious of people happily sliding down a hill in the rain, covered with mud, and laughing like crazy. OK, they were probably stoned. Nonetheless, it's symbolic of a kind of silliness I rarely allowed myself in early adulthood. 

Apparently, I'm not alone. We're so serious as a culture that even writing about having fun can have a weighty tone. I found this in an article about the transformative aspects of play:  

"Play's domain is by nature paradoxical. Still, much of the confusion and ambiguity around play is less a function of its inherent nature than it is a failure to map its forms in a way that provides a coherent sense of the domains and levels of experience they occupy." 

Huh???

We live in tough times and there's plenty to be serious about, but a sense of play can help us solve serious problems more creatively. In a TED talk, psychiatrist Stuart Brown said, "nothing lights up the brain like play." As important to humans as sleep and dreaming, play increases resilience, intelligence, and adaptability.

Notice how great it feels when you laugh? Pay attention this week to how often you're amused and find ways to laugh more.