Why You Need to Play Today

When was the last time you played? Not a sport or a video game, but just silly, nondirective play without a goal or objective in mind. Play has been shown to contribute to overall health and well-being, but not just for children—adults need play, too (Thompson et al., 2025). Play has been shown to reduce anxiety and depression, reduce stress, promote cognitive growth and emotional resilience, and even bolster social skills (Dodd et al., 2022; Ho, 2022).

Play is not something we “grow out of”; rather, social norms stifle our natural need for playfulness. Cas Holman, author of the new book Playful: How Play Shifts Our Thinking, Inspires Connection, and Sparks Creativity, found that a playful mood improves creativity and problem-solving in adults (Isen et al., 1987). On the other hand, the pressure to be creative actually hinders creativity—the more we feel that we must look good and perform well, the worse we actually do (Amabile & Pillemer, 2012).

Rediscovering play in adulthood can be a rewarding experience. Here is Holman’s advice for adults who are ready to reconnect with play.

Cas Holman, author of the book "Playful," shares how play enriches adult life.

Source: Jenna Jones/Used with permission

Q: Share a bit about your background and the role of play in your own life. How has embracing play transformed your life, personally?

Cas Holman (CH): Like all children, play was formative in my development, and mine was largely outdoors and self-directed. My family had many transitions—divorces, moving, step-siblings coming and going, all while quite poor. Because my mother had to work long hours, I had a lot of freedom and spent most afternoons playing in the woods of the Sierra Nevada Foothills. Without that rich play life, I would have a very different impression of my childhood. This is to say—play got me through what might have been a rough childhood. It helped me cope with stress, process many hard changes, and live with uncertainty. Play is still how I move through the world, and is central to both my work and how I live my life. I’m queer, and in the LGBTQIA community we play a lot! We play to celebrate love, resist oppression, recover from tragedy, and find strength together. I suspect we have an easier time playing because we’ve already rejected social norms about how and who adults should be.

As an artist/designer, my creative practice is play. When I’m in creative flow, that is my play. When I was writing the book with my collaborator Lydia Denworth, our conversations and writing process were playful, which led us to unexpected places in the concept of the book.

Q: What can play look like in adulthood? How do you define play for adults?

CH: I believe that adults haven’t forgotten how to play; we’ve just been taught to not play. Our play instincts are still there, but more often than not we suppress them. We have an inner “Play Voice” that calls to us to play, and an “Adult Voice” that echoes cultural norms around how we’re supposed to act as grown-ups. These are norms learned as we move through adolescence into teenage years—don’t be childish, stop acting silly, hold still, be productive, efficient… all are the opposite of play. We learn to control our play instincts, contain our wiggles and giggles, and “act our age”—which means be serious, still, often silent. By listening to our Play Voice, we can reconnect with ourselves and let ourselves play.

I like the definition of play that I once heard from Stuart Brown, who defined play in an interview with NPR:

“Play is something that’s done for its own sake. It’s voluntary, it’s pleasurable, it’s non-repetitive, it produces a sense of well being, it is flavored by culture, altered to some degree by temperament and gender, it’s a fundamental survival drive that comes out of the deepest centers of our brain and fuels action and activity. When you don't get it, as an animal or human, you pay consequences socially, emotionally, cognitively and physically."

In the book I focus on free play—play that is “freely chosen, personally directed, and intrinsically motivated,” as defined by playworker Penny Wilson. Tinkering with craft supplies or wandering in nature is free play; sports and video games are not.

Here are three things that adults need to do in order to reconnect with free play:

1. Release judgement: Trust those around you not to judge you—and mostly trust yourself. We can be our own harshest critic. Let yourself play.

2. Embrace possibility: Be open to what might happen rather than attached to what you expect or know.

3. Reframe success: Ask yourself what you are really after—do you need to finish the hike in under an hour, or can you chase that chipmunk, notice the moss, and giggle at strange birds instead?

Q: How does our productivity-obsessed culture stand in the way of play from a young age?

CH: The pressure to be productive and efficient and to use time wisely feels related to the idea that “Time is money.” This implies that, by default, we should be earning, rather than just living. This seeps into all parts of our lives and impacts the culture of childhood, as exemplified by our systems of education. Because our schooling is focused on outcomes and assessment, we learn to work toward a “correct answer.” We emphasize mastery over exploration and experimentation, and outcome over process.

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Yet play is in the process! In play, we become comfortable with unknowns, approaching them with curiosity rather than fear that we might not know how to do something “right.” Play gives us a window into ourselves. It’s how we connect with the world, each other, new ideas, new ways of thinking and being. If we value those connections, we need to shift our priorities, and begin to value and prioritize play.

Q: What is one simple way readers can be more playful today?

Source: Penguin Random House/Used with permission

CH: Do something inefficiently. Brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand. Take a new route to work, perhaps the more round-about way there. Take a stroll without a destination in mind, see where the walk takes you. Practice “attention play” by noticing details, natural or man-made ones along the way. Reclaim your attention from your phone and imagine stories about the things around you. Your immediate world is much richer than the digital one in your pocket if you look with curiosity.

Q: What do you hope readers take away from spending time with Playful?

CH: I hope they remember how valuable play is and find tools to reconnect with it, not just what it meant in their childhood but what it might mean to them now, as adults. I’m excited to hear from people about the ways we play and hope the book sparks conversations about play in adulthood. I want adults to find ways to prioritize play not just for themselves but begin to create a more playful culture of adulthood. I want us all to listen to our play voices. If we can play together, we can live together.