The Importance of Play
Remember when you played?
Remember when you were a kid and you used a hairbrush as a microphone? Remember when you put on concerts and plays for your friends and family? Remember when your best friend and you created a dance routine to your favorite song and then practiced it for hours?
Okay, maybe you didn’t do any of these things, but do you remember when you played?
Play is a huge part of spontaneous singing. The trouble is the older we get, the harder it can be for many of us to play. We have families and jobs and bills to pay and meetings to attend. We have important things to do. We don’t have time to play.
And the truth is we don’t make time to play. We don’t give ourselves permission. We’re afraid we’ll look foolish, or stupid or crazy. But as Tim Brown, CEO at IDEO states, “Fear has no place in play.”
Fear makes us too critical, makes us too cautious, makes us unwilling or unable to take chances. Fear keeps us from being spontaneous.
I love improv because it’s playful. Because I can move from singing a lullaby to visiting an outdoor market in another country (real or imagined) to flying through the galaxy all through playing with music.
Even better, I can take others with me.
