Want to perform at your very best? Guess what, it's time to put down being so serious, and pick up being playful

Multiple studies show that playfulness in adults is not only extremely beneficial to our physical and mental health, it is also key for optimal functioning. Studies have found that play relieves stress, improves brain function, boosts creativity, increases and improves connections with others, and to top it all, increases our energy levels. These benefits extend beyond ourselves to our loved ones as we are playful in our relationships. Neuroscience supports the old theory that laughter really is the best medicine

Being Playful is often a huge mind-set shift for people. We tend to be more restricted by our past experiences, than being optimistic about our future because we don’t see ourselves as a work in progress. What we don't realise is that our brain is most agile when we approach life seeing ourselves as a work in progress

Re-learning how to be open, to be hopeful abo...

Do you ever feel bogged down in how ‘stressed’ or ‘busy’ you are? Good news - time to play! 

Sounds crazy eh? It's true, for many of us, the first thing we think about when we wake up in the morning is how much we have to do that day, the last thing on our minds is how important it is for us to find time to play 

Well what do you know, it should be, because a secret solution for this feeling of being bogged down and feeling stressed - is Being Playful!

It's such an unusual idea, to think about the importance of being playful for us as adults, we thought we would share with you some of the ways you can benefit from Being Playful

1. Being Playful helps us replace worry and anxiety with curiosity and passion

Look around and you will see a lot us have a bad habit of worrying. The thing is, we think worrying is a normal - even healthy response - to our volatile world. Actually, this is not the case. We can swap this restricting habit of worrying with releasing beliefs, behaviours and m...

In truth, when most of us spend our time overworking, overstressing, feeling overwhelmed, being playful is the new aspirational

Guess this is why that of the 5 Progressfull Principles, the one which people often find the most appealing, is Being Playful. The very idea that being playful is something which successful, evolved, high performers incorporate into their life is refreshingly new and a real relief, a lot of our clients tell us

As the philosopher Elbert Hubbard once said,

“Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out alive” 

This is because in today’s world of constant change, hyper-visibility and endless choices, many of us end up agonizing over even the tiniest decisions. We can spend hours re-writing emails, overthinking comments, ruminating on conversations - believing that the endless hard work of perfecting every detail of every aspect of our lives is the route to success and therefore the good life

Hubbard reminds us that time is a precious gift we can’t get...

How do you swap feeling stuck for feeling smart and sharp?

Look, listen and learn to be playful, making progress the Progressfull way

Are you pursuing your personal interests and passions? Are you chasing your professional ambitions? Lifelong learning gives us a great sense of purpose, fulfillment and satisfaction, at work, at home – in our whole life. It’s really all about connecting with our innate curiosity and childlike willingness to ‘have a play, have a go’ – learn something new

But in reality, most of us adults definitely don’t have a lifestyle which makes learning easy, so we miss out on all the progress, the passion, and fulfilment and can end up feeling stuck

Stuck because in truth we humans have a natural drive for curiosity – to learn, to explore, to play, and to grow. So if we aren’t learning, we aren’t making progress – we feel like we are stressed, stuck and stagnating – wasting our potential

Learning new stuff, new ideas, new skills, encourages us to improve our o...

I don’t know about you, but don’t you find yourself getting so bogged down in how ‘stressed’ or ‘busy’ you are?

For most of us, the last thing on our minds is thinking about how we can be playful!

The thing is, what if we are missing out on one of the most important secrets to living a long and happy life? Being Playful is about building your ability to enjoy life, and its adventures. It’s about regaining a childlike curiosity, determination and wonder at what is possible, together with a belief in your ability to thrive and bounce back from adversity

Being Playful equips us to understand how we can build our hope and openness to future possibilities - and doing all of this with a genuine, relaxed smile

Being Playful means, we are more resilient, able to adapt to change more quickly, and create a more holistic sense of who we are ...

At home, at work, in our whole life - as a partner, a parent, a team-player, a friend, a leader, an enthusiast for a particular sport or hobby. Loo...

Nearly all successful adults, it seems, tend to be weighed down by the responsibilities of work and life ...

We have forgotten the joy, the delight, the wonder, and awe that we had as children - we have forgotten how to be playful

Have you ever stopped to think about the impact of this on your life, and not just your own life, also that of you children and loved ones? How much fun and joy we miss out on, because we have become 'stuck' - forgetting the joys of being playful, flexible, adaptable

Being Playful is often a huge mind-set shift for people. We tend to be more restricted by our past experiences, than being optimistic about our future because we don’t see ourselves as a work in progress. Our brain is most agile when we approach life seeing ourselves as a work in progress

Re-learning how to be open and see everything as a work in progress is supremely important

Choosing to be optimistic is something that all of us can benefit from, it adds a childlike curiosity, a wonder and...

As adults we can get so bogged down in how ‘stressed about doing things perfectly’ or ‘busy’ we are - for most of us, the last thing on our minds is thinking about how we can do things differently!

The thing is, we know it’s important for kids to try different things – different toys, different activities, different foods, but it is actually even more important for adults to try different approaches. This is because, often one of the reasons we may be so anxious and wound up in the first place, is because we get stuck in our ways - as George Bernard Shaw famously said, 

"We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing"

While our current beliefs, behaviours and mind-sets may be useful in some ways, they are certainly comforting and familiar - they often stop us from growing, adapting and unlocking our potential. Sadly, they can be the main cause of a lot of our anxiety, lack of energy and our feeling of being stuck and wonky

An often unknown solution f...

At a time when we are faced with political and economic turmoil, rising prices and ongoing climate challenges, play may well be the last thing on our list of priorities...

It’s true that we’re living in a world that’s more conducive to anxiety than playfulness. In the endless to-do list of being an adult, play really does feel like a waste of time. We burn ourselves out with anxieties, worries and tasks we should or have to do, rarely believing we have time or energy for activities we actually want to do 

The thing is, we know it’s important for kids to play, but it is actually even more important for adults. This is because, often one of the reasons we are so anxious and wound up in the first place, is because we struggle to adapt to all the change around us, we get stuck in our ways - as George Bernard Shaw famously said, 

"We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing"

While our current beliefs, behaviours, and mind-sets may be useful in some way...

On first sight, I thought I was looking at a pile of rock

– the ocean backdrop so hypnotic with it’s crashing waves, the cliffs so mesmerising it was hard to see the iconic outdoor theatre

And yet – there in full sight was the Minack theatre, the extraordinary legacy of Rowena Cade. The story of how this rocky Cornish headland transformed into a world-famous theatre is a story of one woman’s creative vision, fearless dedication, and sheer hard graft

Rowena Cade was born in 1893 and moved to Cornwall where she built her home, Minack house on the Minack headland, following World War 1 and the death of her father

Rowena was passionate about theatre and offered her garden to a local production company who wanted to stage Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’. To help them, she decided to create a stage and somewhere for people to sit. What is incredible, is that Rowena didn’t use heavy machinery to create the seating area and the stage, she and her gardener - Billy Rawlings - used hand tools and...

If Roald Dahl hung out with Charles Darwin, what advice would they give us today?

They would say that sometimes, when the going gets tough, the best thing we can do is lighten up and play a little!

I don't know about you, but it's still all a bit much isn't it?  This time of year is always a bit tricky, often with cold, flat grey mornings, the festivities over, New Years resolutions less of an exciting new start to a new you and now either in the bin or proving a bit more of a grind than most of us optimistically signed up to on the 1st of January - and don't let's get started on 'the Covid' as the postman refers to the unrepentant global disruptor which seems to ruthlessly bring heartbreaking tragedy on one hand or a mild cough on the other. For some of us, it's hard to find a chink of light when we gaze uncertainly out of our windows each morning

What both Roald Dahl and Charles Darwin would recommend is, the ultimate rebellion; the real disruptive solution when faced with so much...