Keeping your feet on the ground is the number one cause of boring, uninspired lives. In addition to taking care of ourselves and our families, we have every right to play and lead fun, fulfilling and interesting lives. It’s one thing to know that and another to figure out how to do it. Especially if your feet have been on the ground for so long you forget how to have fun.

This episode is the introduction to a series about finding a playground that sets you free to really experience the power of play. The last PlayGrounding episode, Escaping Your Cage, was about identifying and plotting a course away from the things that tie us down. But for what? There has to be a second step. Sometimes our discontent is so ingrained, it’s hard to know what to do when you actually get out. It might even seem easier just to go back inside the cage. But there IS more to life (as I might have mentioned).

Finding Your Playground

Over the next few episodes, we’ll talk about how to create the circumstances that make play possible – real play – the kind that can help us burned-out adults rediscover our childlike exuberance for life. We’ll talk about how Dr. Stuart Brown defines transformative play in his book, Play. According to Dr. Brown, play:

1. Is apparently purposeless (done for its own sake)
2. Is voluntary
3. Has inherent attraction
4. Gives us freedom from time
5. Allows us to feel a diminished consciousness of self
6. Has improvisational potential

Now we just need to find a playground that allows us to really experience these things. All of our playgrounds will be different, but I stumbled upon one where I experienced all of these things at once: Burning Man. It’s a huge cultural phenomenon and a healing experience for so many people all over the world, that I thought I’d use it as an example of a playground that truly sets people free.

What will yours playground look like? That’s what we’re going to explore in the next few episodes, so be sure to subscribe!

The Links I Promised You:

• Get the book – Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Dr. Stuart Brown
• Visit the official Burning Man website
• My all-time favorite podcast episode ever – TED Radio Hour’s “Press Play” episode
• The Neverending Story – the novel by Michael Ende
• The Los Angeles Burning Man website – if you happen to be in the neighborhood, come by our monthly Burner meetup on the first Friday of every month.