How play boosts your creativity and resilience | Katina Bajaj

**Elise Hu** (0:04)
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu.
I have always enjoyed watching my kids play, and as they get older, I think about the fact that most of us don't play enough. I think most of us probably feel this way. What we may not know, however, is what that's actually costing us.

**Katina Bajaj** (0:26)
I know this might not seem like a big deal, like we're just having less fun, but it's deeper than that.
We are living through a play deprivation crisis. We've systematically removed everything that makes play what it is, the spontaneity, the freedom, the wonder from all parts of adult life, and replaced it with efficiency and achievement.

**Elise Hu** (0:47)
Clinical psychologist Katina Bajaj has spent the last decade studying the science of play in people's lives.
What she found reframed everything she thought she knew. In her talk, she shares what play actually is, why so many of us have lost it, and the three surprisingly simple places to bring it back.

**Katina Bajaj** (1:07)
Play isn't something we age out of. It is a lifelong trait, which means no matter how invisible it might feel, we can always restore it.

**Elise Hu** (1:17)
That's coming up right after a short break. And now, our TED Talk of the day.

**Katina Bajaj** (1:29)
When I was eight years old, I had this ritual. After I finished my homework, I'd head upstairs to my room, turn on my favorite Christina Aguilera CD, and sit on the floor, surrounding myself with all this stuff that was supposed to make me playful. I'd take out my Barbies one by one, spread out my markers in every color, and then I'd wait.
And I'd wait.
And I'd wait until something felt worthy enough, perfect enough to make.
That moment barely ever came.
Ever since I was a kid, play felt like something that I had to earn. And when I finally did do it, I took it seriously. My favorite game growing up was Emergency Room Doctor. I'd force my younger brother to scrub in, robes on, beanie babies fully prepped, and I was head surgeon, of course, so there was no room for mistakes in my OR.
Most people don't become play skeptics until they're adults. But for me, even at eight, I was questioning the point of it.
So I ended up doing what any reasonable skeptic would do, and I became a scientist. I got my master's in clinical psychology and spent almost the last decade studying the science of creativity. And what I discovered surprised me because creativity isn't just a talent. It is a core part of all of our well-being. A pillar that I came to establish and become a fierce advocate for called creative health. And one of the best strategies that we have to strengthen our creative health is exactly what I dismissed as a kid, play.
That's because when we play, especially as adults, we unlock this unique type of flourishing. We have deeper fulfillment and stronger resilience and even more original ideas. But the type of play that I'm talking about is probably not what we're all imagining. It's not just being silly or childlike or even starting up a brand new hobby. We've reduced play to be this cherry on top of an already good life. But from a scientific perspective, it is much more fundamental than that.
Play is what happens any time we choose to do something without knowing exactly where it's going to end up. There are no instructions we need to follow or outcomes we need to achieve. Just two elements, intrinsic motivation and the freedom not to know the answer in advance. The problem is we've come to treat that type of play as worse than optional. It's something that we avoid and even punish. So much so that upwards of 70% of adults around the world today have stopped doing it.
I first noticed this pattern as I was interviewing thousands of people about their current relationship with play. And I kept hearing the same thing over and over. They told me they didn't have the time or the talent or the right tools to do it anymore. And when they finally did, it wasn't play. It looked a lot like my emergency room, something that was scheduled and optimized with nothing left to chance.
I know this might not seem like a big deal, like we're just having less fun, but it's deeper than that. We are living through a play deprivation crisis. We've systematically removed everything that makes play what it is, the spontaneity, the freedom, the wonder, from all parts of adult life and replaced it with efficiency and achievement. And in doing so, we're losing the very survival skills that we need the most right now. Things like our capacity to adapt and imagine and even feel alive.