When you have too much to do, and too little time, over time this can lead to chronic stress, which is harmful to health and well-being.
That’s why the last few years have generated a lot of helpful tips and advice to help us manage our stress better, so we stay well and function at our best.
I remember coming across Cal Newport’s book “Deep Work” over a decade ago and referenced it a lot in my role as a workplace health and wellbeing consultant. It seemed the perfect solution to every boss’s need to increase productivity in the new world of work, where overwork and distraction had become the new normal.
I loved sharing his ideas on how to achieve deep work by setting the intention and either going ‘monastic’ shutting yourself away through seclusion, or ‘bimodal’ where you set yourself a specific and clearly defined length of time for deep work, or ‘rhythmic’, working in concentrated blocks of 90 minutes, or ‘journalistic’ seizing any spare moment within the working day for that lovely deep work.
Today, though, I see the need for a different type of response.
(Though to be fair, a bit of deep work can be cathartic for completing a piece of work you’ve got bogged down in.)
The level of workplace stress continues to rise despite (and in some cases because of ) our increasing reliance on new technologies and the integration of AI.
My coaching conversations are increasingly about helping my clients to find a way to manage it all; work and family and having a life without blowing a gasket.
If your way of managing stress involves collapsing on the sofa in the evening to watch mindless TV or scrolling continuously through your social feed on your phone, STOP!!
Not only is this counterproductive to helping you relax and get a good night’s sleep, but it’s also adding to all that unprocessed worry and stress, which will happily keep you from sleeping and leave you feeling even more exhausted in the morning.
There is something else you can do differently to take back control of your stress, to restore well-being and deliver your best work.
Enter Stage Left, Deep Play.
Deep Play.
“What the heck is that?”, I wondered.
A colleague had recommended our WA-based lifestyle medicine group try a Deep Play session, using the experience to add to our social prescription toolbox.
We use social prescriptions in lifestyle medicine to help individuals connect with others across a variety of activities, depending on what the individual is interested in.
These are especially powerful in helping to reduce loneliness and social disconnection and improve mental and physical health.
The variety of social activities could include joining a painting or singing class, volunteering in a community project or signing up for aquarobics.
Or trying out Deep Play.
Dr Russya Connor also known as the Creative Philosopher, has a background as an award-winning international performer and theatre-maker.
She teaches Deep Play as a way of gaining access to your own creativity and innovation by tapping into a mindset that enables you to let go.
This is not wishful thinking or slacking off. There is a science behind the need for play (at any age) as I describe in my book ‘Thriving Mind’. Play has been shown to help;
- Dispel negativity.
Chronic stress can lead to that terrible downward spiral of negativity, where you berate yourself with negative self-talk that sucks you down towards psychological distress or depression.
- Disrupt the same old, same old.
Play loosens the straps on your imagination and helps you adopt a fresh perspective.
- Create a useful diversion.
We all have those times when things aren’t going well. It could be a relationship breakdown, or losing your job, or coming to terms with a medical diagnosis. Finding a temporary escape-hatch from all our concerns can be a lifesaver.
- Strengthen social bonds.
Deep play is a social activity with others. Spending time in a room where you see each other having fun and being playful brings you closer together. You see each other in a different light, making you more trusting and willing to collaborate.
- Lower cortisol levels.
Studies have shown play lowers cortisol levels and raises endorphins. This also helps you to conserve mental energy so you can stay motivated and energised for longer.
- Increase creativity.
Playfulness stimulates the prefrontal cortex, which handles complex thought, while reducing the fear of judgement of being wrong or making a mistake. Trial and error is now fun!
And this increases productivity.
To learn more about what Deep Play is about, here is Russya, delivering her TED talk.
We enjoyed an amazing two hours of facilitated deep play, and we all agreed afterwards that play is something that can help all of us navigate our complex and complicated world more easily, put a smile on our face and make us feel good.
What do you do to be more playful?
