The Constraints of Play
“There is a wall there” … if you are a Emperor’s New Groove fan hopefully you read this with the voice of Kronk in your head. If you didn’t well I strongly suggest/ urge you to invest a portion of your week in watching that film and enjoy the playful spirit of Kronk who might encapsulate playfulness in many ways.
The point of this article though, is not Kronk, (I know what??), but the wall.
Because when you wake up and say “I am going to be more playful today and I want more light and fun in my day”all great. But what happens. How do you turn ‘ I want to be more playful today’ into actual playfulness?
Whilst exploring all the ideas in the world for ‘Everyday Play’. I hit up time and time again against the benefits of constraint. Those tiny little canvas edges or boundaries of ‘how things are done’ type rules’ (Or let’s face it hours I have in my day). And it got me thinking about the role they play in play.
Because the sentence – “you can do anything, just play” is the least inspiring, scariest thing you can hear. I think mostly what happens is our five-year-old self that was bounding out for play time is suddenly stopped in our tracks by whoever our adult self-policing part is and is like woa woa woa. Let’s stop right there bud this looks dangerous. There is a catch there. I like to name my self policing adulting self, at the moment I think she is an Angela. And Angela is ok, but do you know what mostly I am like ‘Fuck off Angela it was play time until you waltzed in here with your worries.’
So, how do we get ourselves out to play without Angela seeing? Simple. Put a giant fucking wall up. Firstly, so Angela can’t see in (That’s right Angela it’s none of your business). And secondly so that it feels safe for our 5-year-old self to run around in. It creates the playground. Because all of sudden when the challenge isn’t ‘you can do anything’ but instead ‘you can do anything that starts with the letter c or anything that is inspired by the Disney classic ‘Emperor’s New Groove’ or anything with a colour palate of blue. Then all of a sudden instead of nothingness in too much space we have possibility jumping off the walls of our imaginary playground. And personally, I can’t think of anything better.
Sold on the idea of boundaries? Great. How do you add them in to create more play?
Pick yourself a theme for the week (could be based on an idea you already have or use a random word generator to find something) and see how you can bring it to life more this week
Pick one activity in your day you want to make more playful (commuting to work (even if you commute to your living room), making breakfast, cleaning your teeth) and hack that
Pick up a white piece of paper and fill it with fun, whatever you want. Your call. See what you do.
Because very occasionally a wall is a good thing – when it becomes a canvas for creation.