How refreshing!
A new study finds that a playful approach to life can help build resilience and lead to better coping skills in stressful and uncertain situations. The concept is called “lemonading” in honor of the adage, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”
“Our study revealed that playfulness and resilience are intimately connected through what we call ‘lemonading’ — the ability to imagine and generate positive experiences even in difficult circumstances,” explained corresponding study author Xiangyou “Sharon” Shen of Oregon State University.
Shen and her colleagues surveyed 503 US adults in February 2021 during the second COVID-19 pandemic wave.
Participants were asked about their infection risk, concern about the future, social support and emotional and behavioral responses to the pandemic. They also rated their playfulness on a scale measuring spontaneity. They shared how inhibited they felt and how motivated they were to seek out fun.
The researchers divided the participants into four groups based on their playfulness.
They found that the highly playful participants were more optimistic about the future, including a greater expectation of a successful vaccine rollout and life returning to normal. But they were still realistic about their circumstances.
“Playful individuals didn’t minimize COVID-19 risks or overestimate the effectiveness of protective measures,” Shen said. “They directed their ‘spotlight’ toward possibilities for positive change and growth, illuminating potential paths forward even in dark times.”
The high and low playfulness groups did not differ significantly in sex, racial makeup, education level or family income, Shen told The Post, but the most playful cohort was slightly younger.
Highly playful participants appeared to be more active, joyful and immersed in their daily lives even as they reported feeling vulnerable and isolated like their less playful counterparts.
Shen credited their flexibility and ability to find innovative ways to cope.
“Highly playful people actively altered challenging situations, found creative substitutes for what was lost, viewed obstacles as opportunities for growth and maintained a sense of control over their responses,” Shen noted.
Her findings, published Monday in Frontiers in Psychology, come as chronic stress continues to be a significant US public health concern that contributes to heart disease, diabetes, depression, anxiety and other problems.
Shen acknowledged that the differences between more and less playful people are probably not driven by playfulness alone, and more research is needed to explore these factors.
“Though we discovered important differences between more and less playful individuals, there are likely other areas where playfulness influences how people perceive and respond to their environment and life events,” Shen said. “Future research should examine these potential differences across life domains to build a more complete picture of the playful reframing effect.”
How to develop a more playful approach to life
“Playfulness is a vital but underappreciated resource for maintaining wellbeing, particularly during challenging times,” Shen praised.
She shared a few ways to be more playful.
- Participate in activities that spark joy and curiosity.
- Be open to new experiences and experiment with new ways of doing your routine.
- Create opportunities for spontaneous, unstructured activities.
- Spend time with people who make you laugh.
- Try to bring a spirit of fun, openness and flexibility to everyday moments.
- Embrace moments of silliness and humor when appropriate.
- Aim to dedicate five to 10 minutes daily for a small dose of solo or shared play.
- Focus on the quality of engagement rather than simply going through the motions.
