The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again

The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again

Why are we all so serious?

Or is it just me!

So often, fun and play are discounted as frivolous and unimportant whereas the reality, as we know from the research, is that these activities / emotions are integral to our happiness and wellbeing.

Check out this article by Catherine Price via the Next Big Idea Club for some fun thoughts on this very important topic …

Catherine Price is a health and science journalist, the founder of a platform called ScreenLifeBalance.com, and the author of books including Vitamania: How Vitamins Revolutionized the Way We Think About Food and How to Break Up with Your Phone. Her writing has appeared in the New York TimesBest American Science Writing, and Mother Jones, to name a few.

Below, Catherine shares 5 key insights from her new book, The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive AgainListen to the audio version—read by Catherine herself—in the Next Big Idea App.

1. Feeling dead inside? Fun can bring you back to life.

When’s the last time you felt exhilarated, lighthearted, and free? Or the last time you were fully present? When’s the last time you felt alive? As we approach our second anniversary of pandemic living, those might seem like mean questions. Many of us are languishing, which is a nice way of saying that we feel dead inside. There’s no need to rub it in, but I’m not asking these questions to be cruel; I’m asking them because I have a solution. If you want to come back to life—if you want to flourish—you need to have more fun.

Yes, fun. It might sound ridiculous, or frivolous, or even irresponsible, but hear me out. I’m not talking about “fun” in the cheapened sense of the word. I’m not suggesting that the solution to existential angst is to treat yourself to a pedicure or drink wine while scrolling through memes. I’m talking about fun in its purest, most transcendent form—the type of fun that leaves you feeling joyfully alive. I refer to this as True Fun, and it occurs when we experience the confluence of three psychological states: playfulness, connection, and flow.

By “playfulness,” I mean a spirit of lightheartedness and freedom—of doing something just for the pleasure of it, and not caring too much about the outcome. By “connection,” I’m referring to the feeling of having a special, shared experience with someone (or something) else. And “flow” is a term used in psychology to describe the state of being fully engaged and focused, often to the point that you lose track of time—not to be confused with “junk” flow: the hypnotized state we fall into when we binge-watch Netflix and look up to find that five hours have passed.

Playfulness, connection, and flow are all energizing, happiness-boosting states when they occur on their own. But when we experience these three states at once—in other words, when we experience True Fun—the effects can feel magical. Chances are that your memories of True Fun are some of the peak memories of your life.

I have collected thousands of anecdotes of True Fun from people around the world, and while the details of their stories are different, the energy running through them is the same. When we have True Fun, we are not lonely. We are not stressed. We are not consumed by self-doubt or malaise. Instead, we are focused and present, free from anxiety and self-criticism. We laugh and feel connected, both to other people and to our authentic selves. When people talk about past experiences in which they truly had fun, their faces light up because True Fun makes us feel alive. Prioritize fun, and you will feel yourself coming back to life.

“When we have True Fun, we are not lonely. We are not stressed. We are not consumed by self-doubt or malaise. Instead, we are focused and present, free from anxiety and self-criticism.”

… keep reading the full & original article HERE