marbles you put up your hand if you want
to yes you can
who remembers knuckles that you actually
got from the butcher’s and that weren’t
plastic hi yes look some of you are my
age who remembers the awesome awesome
awesome pogo stick anybody have one of
those or who remembers this yes I did it
the teacup and saucer my husband
reckoned that was just a sugar bowl um
but you don’t know how long I’ve been to
this has been the hardest part for me to
remember if you had an imaginary friend
anybody have imaginary friend my
imaginary friends name was Debbie and I
did tell her all the time that the
chocolate biscuits were really for Santa
and that they weren’t hers but she
insisted on doing it all the time maybe
your imaginary friends here today I
welcome them to the TEDx talk today I
want to talk to you about how you can
improve your creativity how you can
increase your memory how you can reduce
pain how you can rekindle relationships
and we all want to do that and also just
to UM feel young again oh yes I’m going
to do that all in ten minutes will nine
and a half now and it starts now
oh yes oh go go whoo throw it into the
yes you can do it oh yes a little bit of
play ah finally
thank you so much some of you thought oh
my god what’s that um some of you might
have thought damn I really wanted to hit
that into the audience I wanted to whack
that and I feel ripped off
that’s like a you get a chance later on
but you know what that is a hard word
learned behavior that we have that is
called play some of you actually know me
and here it’s lovely to see faces that I
know but my day job is as an adult
educator and I work with students with
their academic skills and I really love
my job it’s a great job to her but you
know secretly I’ve always fancied myself
as an international woman of mystery so
I want to share with you a couple of
little secrets are you ready for the
secrets yes look you’re already together
with it
secret number one you know apparently we
have got as adults we’ve become really
really good at being serious and being
productive now that’s not a bad thing
but it is because apparently we have
actually trade it in our spontaneity fun
and a little bit of play so according to
the Oxford Dictionary play is actually
an activity that gives us pleasure but
it’s really for recreation and it
doesn’t really have any serious purpose
seems a bit rough doesn’t it but I want
you to think of these things I want you
to think of divert occupy leisure fun
spontaneity even more titillating
cultish elfish fay frolicsome gamble
romp cavort caper it goes on those
things to me are far more attractive so
I just want us to have a little test of
our pulse for play I give you banana
cough any of you that have ever played
this game before will know what it is
all these variations on a theme so what
I want you to do throughout my
presentation I have hidden in slides or
just here or somewhere around in the
audience totally non TEDx I want you to
yell out
yes doesn’t matter if you yell out in
unison or just once I want you to yell
out run on a car alright so we’re going
to practice you ready you don’t have to
say banana car old Holden by the way it
can just be whatever that is you know
dr. Stewart Brown of the Stanford
Institute of play yes there actually is
a thing called the Stanford at Stanford
an institute of play um he said you know
adults we’ve abandoned play for more
serious pursuits like career building
working on relationships and basically
looking after our families but you know
I think that we really need to connect
to an intrinsic feeling that we have I
just want you to think a little tiny bit
about when you hear children cackling
and giggling and screaming in the
playground tell me you’re not attracted
when you look out and you see a swingset
or you want to see if you still fit on
that slippery slide or you want to when
you’re in in the beach all those people
making sandcastles you want to run in
and jump on them well maybe that’s just
me um or if you see a hopscotch chalked
I don’t see them very often anymore
but I don’t pay you but I what I do is I
just look over my shoulder and see that
nobody’s looking and off I go you know
those things are really important to us
and that feeling we have connects us to
who we are but can you find that
connection with your everyday life I
want to introduce the concept of this I
know a lot of you are here at this great
University
and please don’t think I am an academic
language learning educator I haven’t
misspelled that I want you to think
about plagiarize the idea of play you
know it’s a very serious sin to
plagiarize copy someone else’s work but
today I want you to jump out of that and
I want you to copy I want you to emulate
I want you to cheat I want you to think
about the essence of play and I want you
to do it
– go wild I’m giving you permission and
I’m probably going to lose my job so
it’s not just me by the way no word of a
lie this morning I’m on the train going
over my thing doing my little um string
idea and everybody’s looking at me go
whoo
what’s that weird lady doing um and they
wouldn’t be wrong but it’s catching on
Groupon sent me a little invitation on
jump for fun adult bouncy castle I’m
going there later on if you want to join
me please – whoo but it’s global in
Brooklyn they actually have day centers
for office workers they can go and
finger paint they can go and play with
crafts and they can show and tell and
only for three hundred and thirty
dollars a class what am I doing here
also in ER in London and that’s what
these photos about in London now they’re
doing pop-ups of little bouncy castles
in parks and also adult play centers in
India I love this one in India they have
laughter clubs so the people who are big
cranky and disgruntled can go along and
have a good old belly laugh and guess
what
Amazon last summer the best-selling
books were yeah that’s it he said that
you get a prize if there was one but
I’ll get you another um maybe you can
have the ball ah it is it was adult
coloring in books but even better than
that Australia has pumped it and I’d
like to say this is from Brisbane but
it’s not Perth base company has
reinvented play-doh for adults and
they’ve called it dough luxe and they’re
no no joke you can you can google it and
basically it’s all organic of course and
it’s it’s infused with essential oils
like peppermint so that you get in
figure ated it’s lavender color so that
you sleep are my staff done you know my
buddies don’t know it but I’m ordering a
set for our next staff meeting so that
people here will know what I mean by
that
oh thank heavens I wasn’t sure that that
was going to work now interestingly in
all TED Talks you need a bit of science
don’t you otherwise you don’t feel like
you actually had a TED talk according to
the Journal of development psychology
play releases endorphins I like to think
of them as little dolphins bouncing
around in my brain that’s how I
remembered endorphins by the way to
remember dolphins and weird you should
be in my brain
um this now for those I met a boy here
earlier on that was I am he’s a imager
digital yeah there he is
you can sit down now it’s not your show
um this this idea is they found that
play in adults actually lights up the
brain as you can see here it lights up
the frontal lobe and the executive
portion of the brain it stimulates B D
and F brain derived neurotrophic factors
doesn’t that sound wonderful you don’t
know how long it took me to remember
that neuroscience is really the rock
star of all science world so they’ve
done this 3d modeling and they’ve proved
that it play actually stimulates
creativity it helps for us to UM to feel
better on any number of levels and it
keeps us young secret number two I’m
actually 80 years old no no I’m not
enough laughter for that I don’t think
look if it I really I want to keep
playing until at least I’m idea maybe
well into my eighties and I hope that
you do too with people are so quick so
what I want you to do now is just to
we’re gonna do a bit of visualization
cuz that’s what I like to do
so let’s um just shut our eyes everybody
shut you I can see you so shut your eyes
okay breathing through the nose don’t go
to sleep I want you to picture your
first ever moment of real play was it
with a sibling was it perhaps with a
favorite toy that you probably still
have in your bag was it with mud pies
was it with just outside running around
or with your bicycle or was it the best
thing at all the cardboard box that you
could be a spaceship or that you could
go anywhere I’m making you a cubby house
you can open your eyes now I need you to
look at me thank you um that feeling we
need to connect that feeling it’s really
important and it helps us to to go on
and do the serious work we do but to do
it in the best way possible and that’s
why adults need playtime to do you know
what even Plato oh that’s no coincidence
is it
Plato you don’t think he was onto
something
he said you discover more about a person
in one hour of calm of play than you do
in a year of conversation man I’ve
wasted a lot of my life but Plato even
says it in he’s an amazing you know
philosopher so it has to be right ah you
are so good at this so ladies and
gentlemen I really want to get you to
think about this idea of play as George
Bernard Shaw said he said we don’t stop
playing because we grow old we grow old
because we stop playing
why have we rekindled and why have we
relegated play into only playing with
our kids if we have them or maybe to the
board games that come out at Christmas
time or maybe we just
I think we should cuz we’re worried
about looking silly or we’re worried
about not having enough time you’ve got
enough stuff to worry about or money but
it can’t be money because play doesn’t
have to cost money it doesn’t have to
take time
it doesn’t need anybody else it doesn’t
have to be competitive and you don’t
have to do it on technology all you need
to do is give it some attention and give
yourself permission to do it Shakespeare
said all the world’s a stage and you and
I are merely players and let’s not
forget that fantastic old adage that all
work and no play makes Jack or Jill
extremely dull what I need you to do and
what I’d love you to do and join in with
me
is we really need to be purposeful about
play we need to get back the habit of
play we need to just indulge a little
bit employ and this wasn’t rehearsed
very well this bit let me put this in my
pocket again yes something simple like
this yes look at you oh my god there we
go so I just thought I have this right
at this point I’m sorry you people
that’s the nerves kicking in there what
I want you to do is think about how you
can recharge revive and rethink your
current state of play by the way well
done new banana kaaya shinato’s in your
sample bags are some stars that you can
put on the back your hand man now I need
you to get into your sample bags and I
need you to find a balloon come on man
with your hands crossed join with me yes
there’s a balloon in there somewhere it
doesn’t matter what color I couldn’t be
psychic and work that out so I want you
to find your balloon ah and yes we’re
going to blow it up anybody ask matic
watch out for that okay I want to blow
it up two breaths let’s go and again and
let’s you know what I want to do play
[Applause] thank you very much thank you