Alison Garwood Jones

Before the sun sets on today, do at least one playful thing. Laughing out loud definitely counts.

If you’ve already laughed, do it again. You’ve got seven more hours to find something funny.

The progress of the world depends on it.

Really.

From an evolutionary standpoint, humans are supposed to be pretty playful creatures compared to, say, raccoons or ladybugs. The smarter the animal, the more it plays, scientists insist. The New York Times wrote about this last fall.

Play-deprived adults are often rigid, humorless, inflexible and closed to trying new options. Playfulness enhances the capacity to innovate, adapt and master changing circumstances. It is not just an escape. It can help us integrate and reconcile difficult or contradictory circumstances. And, often, it can show us a way out of our problems.

Drawing courtesy of my playful pal, Alanna Cavanagh.