The importance of having fun
Nowadays it is generally believed that working hard is the key to success and that this is the only way to be productive. We all tend to emphasise the importance of embracing hustle culture (the lifestyle of someone who continues to work and only rests for a short time, feeling a great pressure and thinking that this will make them more successful) and I am sure you have heard or read statements like ‘’no days off’’ at least once in your life. While wisely organising our time table and putting forth our best skills and talents, we should not forget that we need fun, too.
So basically, if you want to be the most successful and productive version of yourself, you have to take some time off! Having fun and experiencing pleasure is truly important, even though experts recognise three main reasons why we tend not to prioritise it: guilt (because others around us are not having fun), perceived inappropriateness (because others around us can not have fun) or, in most cases, lack of time (because we usually spend most of our time working or studying, or doing other activities that occupy the most of our day).
Now, let’s analyse together why fun is so important for human beings!
First of all, having fun makes us relax and that is essential not to build up stress, which can easily lead us to exhaustion and cause a serious lack of productivity. Also, doing something fun that makes us feel happy and relaxed, has positive biological benefits: while doing enjoyable activities, our bodies produce dopamine which contrasts negative feelings, such as stress and hopelessness. In several studies, it was found that spontaneous laughter has a significant stress-buffering effect and that individuals that laugh a lot tend to show fewer negative feelings even when stressful situations increase. As a result, therapeutic laughter programs are now offered as treatments for depression, stress and anxiety. It seems as if there is some truth in the famous proverb ‘’laughter is the best medicine’’.
As a consequence of being relaxed and free from negative emotions, we feel more confident and that makes us more pleasant to be around, so we have the opportunity to create great bonds with others and lasting memories that will bring us happiness for the rest of our lives.
According to science, it appears that fun makes us smarter! Surely, it helps us improve our memory and concentration, which is linked to stress reduction. Experts have recently found that reading for pleasure also improves our language skills and, somehow, our proficiency in Maths as well. Scientists are now exploring if reading for fun can also protect us against cognitive decline as we get older.
Even if we all may have a different idea of what is fun and pleasant, we should really take some time to dedicate ourselves to relaxation. Plato himself once said that life must be lived as a play, and eventually also the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw professed: We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.
