Are you having enough fun? Truthfully, when was the last time you laughed hard enough that your eyes welled up with tears and a friend or family member caught the contagion? It's a question well worth pondering. In a recent interview, Catherine Price, author of The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again, dished out her research-backed tips on squeezing more joy into your life—whether you're behind a desk or decompressing at home. And guess what? Fun isn't just good for a few laughs. It boosts your happiness and resilience like a charm.
Fun as a tool. We usually think fun is just the cherry on top of a good day, but really we should be thinking of it more like the Swiss Army knife of the emotional toolkit. Life throws a global pandemic at you? Whip out some fun. Difficulty communicating with the kids or spouse? Whip out some fun. Stressed about a looming deadline? You guessed it! Whip out some fun. It's not just a treat for the good times; it's a lifeline that can serve us when things get choppy, and we can lean on our sense of fun even when we have cares and responsibilities that demand our attention, like, now.
Go with the flow. Ever been so wrapped up in something that you completely lose track of time? That's flow. It's the experience you have when you're totally absorbed by a great conversation, a fun activity, or a hobby or pursuit. It's not zoning out passively in front of the TV—that's what Catherine calls "junk flow." Real flow is one of the key ingredients to fun, and when paired together with the other two components, playfulness and connection, this is where the magic happens.
It takes effort to prioritize fun. Take a moment to reflect on what tickles your fun fancy—is it specific people? Activities? Places? Make time on your calendar for these pursuits as if your health, happiness, creativity and productivity depended on it—because they do! "I signed up for guitar class, and I started feeling this buoyancy and energy that really kept my spirits raised for the rest of the week," says Catherine. "I thought, 'This is really interesting. What is this feeling that I’m experiencing?' And I realized that the best word to describe it was fun."
Start a ‘delight’ practice. If you feel out of touch with your sense of fun, you can successfully reintroduce yourself to it. Simply resolve to notice things in your environment that bring you any delight at all. Share these bits of joy at work or on social media. This spring, we've been capturing our joy in the bounty of nature with our pocket flower presses. Capturing and sharing our tiny floral treasures is contagious in the best way. We love dropping flowers on the desks of our co-workers, and guess what? It's fun.
