Richard Hogan: Play relieves stress, improves brain functioning and boosts creativity

"As a psychotherapist, I have always known the importance of play for a child’s healthy development. If you ever stand back and watch how a child falls naturally into play, it’s fascinating. They devise their own world, with their own rules."

Wed, 17 Jul, 2024 - 20:00

Richard Hogan

Family Psychotherapist.

I spent a fair amount of my childhood grounded: Watching the trees in the back garden bend and shift in the breeze; at night, lights of passing cars flashing flecks of white across the ceiling.

I made a game out of those lights, the shadows of those trees terrifying. In those protracted moments of punitive solitude, I leaned on my imagination, building great worlds in my bedroom, reading the lyrics on the back of Beatles albums, playing some sort of tennis hybrid with snooker balls against my wall, getting lost in poetry or some novel, trying to traverse the hall landing without standing on carpet, linen basket, over door, down wall, onto banister and leap to toilet.

Play was such a huge part of my childhood. Most of my play was the traditional stuff: Tennis, golf, football, hurling, table tennis, snooker, etc. I loved all games. I still do. I remember the tennis played on a beach in Normandy, in France. We had to come up with a rhyme for our tennis persona: ‘My name is Björn Borg, and I put my opponents in the morgue’. The court was etched into the hard, damp sand.

My favourite player was Boris Becker, and I spent hours trying to perfect his languid walk while he bounced the ball. I acted more like John McEnroe. ‘You can’t be serious, there was sand flying up when I served, it was on the line’ my eight-year-old voice would howl into the windy beach. My brothers used to torment me because I was so competitive. I still am. What’s the point of playing, if you can’t win or lose?

But as I grew, like most people, my relationship with play became estranged. All those games I loved decreased, except for the odd game of golf. I resigned myself to adult logic, which doesn’t permit ’childish games’.

I often caught myself standing outside the tennis court in Malahide, watching teenagers whack the ball trying to beat their rival on the other side.

I’d be smiling, thinking about all the games I played down in Rochestown College over those golden summer days of youth, with my friend at the time, Shane O’Connor, who was always just that little bit better than me. So, on the odd occasion when I beat him, it meant something. I was improving.

As I aged, I missed play. Adult life and all it demands got in the way. But when I had children, I was excited to be allowed back in to that world of play. In every little activity, there was a game: Brushing teeth, eating dinner, even going up the stairs.

I made a game of it all. My daughters will shout, ‘hippopotamus and the hare’ and wherever I am in the house, I have to stop what I’m doing and chase them and try to touch their feet before they reach the top of the stairs.

I created characters that they loved: Drexel is this bad dude who hates children and Reginald is their best friend. My eldest daughter, Hannah, loved this programme called Mia and Me, where the characters travel to a magical world called Centopia, when there is a full moon.

Hannah used to shout with excitement on seeing a fat moon outside. I would attach a water glare or some other aspect of the cartoon I had ordered from the internet to her arm. In the morning, the screaming woke the neighbourhood, as she realised she had been to Centopia and fought with Mia against the deplorable Panthea. The magic of play.

As a psychotherapist, I have always known the importance of play for a child’s healthy development. If you ever stand back and watch how a child falls naturally into play, it’s fascinating. They devise their own world, with their own rules.

They learn about themselves and how they are with others. They often roleplay adult life; it seems like they are preparing themselves for their potential future self. Play is crucial in those early years, but also crucial in the adult years. We so easily forget this fact.

The Irish government has recognised the importance of play by creating ‘National Play Day’, from July 13 – 21, with the theme, ‘Time to Play’. Recent research by Virgin Media, in partnership with Ipsos B&A, shows that play is not just for children, it’s equally as important for adults. Virgin Media say that, “The research aims to open the conversation on Irish people and their playtime habits and to highlight and encourage the importance and benefits of adult playtime.”

When we are chronically stressed, receptors in the brain associated with dopamine production decrease, therefore when we think about the future we can experience a lack of excitement or joy; no dopamine fires.

However, when we are engaged in play, neuroscience shows that those receptors grow back. Play relieves stress, improves brain functioning, and boosts creativity. Therefore, adult play is essential for healthy wellbeing and has a medicinal aspect to it.

Play is not just for children, it is something we should all be doing throughout our journey in life. This August I’m taking on the Tom Crean challenge down in Kerry. It sounds like it could be a bit of fun! Or hell. Play on.