Our bodies like having fun

From painting to Cudd Ball, fun is an essential part of a healthy life

One of the pieces of our health puzzle is fun.

Just fun.

That exhilarating, no-goal-in-mind, no-task-to-complete thing that’s only for the delight.

Think of how your body feels when you are having fun.

Lighter. Happier. Relaxed. Brighter.

Fun is like medicine.

I’ve never seen fun included in a medical exam.

I’ve never had a doctor ask how much fun is in my life.

I’ve never found fun in a medical book.

But having fun is so good for our body.

We adults can sometimes lose access to this portal, the pathway that leads us to everyday spurts of joy.

We can forget when it’s like to doodle for doodle’s sake, or follow the purple thread of our curiosity, or be outright ridiculous. We have Netflix for fun, right? Well …

Maybe us adults sometimes forget how to have fun.

But kids? Oh, kids have not forgotten.

Let me tell you about Cudd Ball.

This is a new-ish game in our house, invented by the youngest.

Cudd Ball involves a stuffed animal named Cuddles, who is a small brown bear with arms and legs drawn tightly to him, so he almost resembles … a football.

Cudd Ball is played with two people. One person stands at the bottom of the stairs and tosses Cuddles up to the person at the top, who must kick Cuddles back down for the other person to catch.

The kick must be just right — a soaring arc that allows the catcher to position themselves and grab Cuddles on the way down.

It is harder than it might seem!

Cuddles, soaring through the air. (Well, use your imagination.)

The excitement mounts when there is a streak in place, when Cuddles has been successfully kicked and caught multiple times in a row.

You can feel the tension rise. The giggles and shrieks increase. 3 in a row! 4 in a row!

Cudd Ball does take some agility. It is not an ideal game if you are in pain or sick, But there are plenty of other options for fun that don’t require much movement. (Bananagrams is another family favorite.)

What do you do these days for no grand reason, no ambition, no end result —  simply because it brings you joy?

Maybe you already value this fun.

Or maybe part of the reason why we adults find fun slipping away is that we lose the reasons why. Kids know the importance of fun intuitively — it’s front and center! But adults are trained to justify our habits and time.

I was struck by the value in reminding yourself of why you do what you do, when I read a newsletter recently by Louise Fletcher, a wonderful British abstract artist who hosts a community for artists and offers workshops.

This particular newsletter was titled, “Why Do I Bother?”

She describes the agony of a fellow painter, who posted on Facebook about their frustration with painting. Nothing turns out the way I want it to! Why do I even bother?

Louisa is sympathetic. She has “bad” days of painting all the time, she says. She might work on a painting and it gets worse instead of better.

But it doesn’t bother her. She has enough experience to be patient and trust it will come out fine in the end.

Painter Louise Fletcher (image used with permission)

More importantly:

Louise is not in it for the final result, but for the process.

She writes:

“… I know exactly why I bother.

I bother because painting is a salve for my tired soul.

I bother because painting gives me a way to access parts of myself that I otherwise don't know.

I paint because I wouldn't know how to navigate my life without painting.

I paint because, when big emotions hit, the first thing I think about is how to express them in paint.

I paint because I feel a lot and I need a way to express it all.

I paint because words often fail me. 

I paint because it always lifts my mood.

I paint because I love the feeling and the smells.

I paint because I love colour.

I paint because I am a painter.”

(You can read the full newsletter by Louise here.)

It is perhaps easy for Louise to say, “I am a painter,” because she has painted hundreds of pieces and sells them regularly.

But I think if you paint, you are a painter.

If you write, you are a writer.

If you dance, you are a dancer.

Perhaps, especially in the era of Instagram-perfect images, this kind of fun feels like it is reserved for an elite club, but it isn’t.

I know why we play Cudd Ball.

We play Cudd Ball because it makes us laugh.

We play Cudd Ball because it brightens a Tuesday evening.

We play Cudd Ball because it is full of surprises.

We play Cudd Ball because it gives us time together, parent and child.

We play Cudd Ball because it brings shrieks of joy when someone leaps and catches the bear. (And manages not to smack into the wall.)

What do you do for the fun of it?

It might be worth taking 5 minutes to make a list of why, to remind yourself of the deep and wonderful rewards of fun, which are not at all what our society normally focuses on. To retrain your brain to value things you do for the process, for the moment, not for the final result.

And our bodies need fun!

Fun floods our bodies with chemical spikes of happiness.

Fun awakens our senses and sharpens our attention.

Fun relaxes our muscles and unknots our tension.

Fun rewires our brain to remind us of the beauty of life.

Fun connects us, to others and to our own soul.

Fun captures our attention, pulling it from the worries of the future to this present moment, all that is guaranteed.

I have a friend who makes art with Kool-Aid. Another friend plays Pickle Ball. Another knits. Another paints portraits of pets. Another reads and reads and reads. (Hmm. Maybe we adults do know how to have fun!)

To let go of any expectation of what something should be, that very modern devilish lure, and simply be right there, immersed in whatever you love to do.

Letting it be radically imperfect and unexpected and wonderful.

Fun is essential to a healthy life.

One last thing. I almost didn’t send this out, because there is so much worry and pain in the world right now, and the crisis in Ukraine is far from over. Writing about fun seems frivolous. It is. But we need both the serious efforts for peace and thriving in the world, and we need the attention to our own health and happiness. And they are interconnected.

I’d love to hear where you find your fun.

To our journeys and healthier days ahead,

Brianne

p.s. If painting lights you up, Louise Fletcher has her annual free 8-day course coming up in May, called Find Your Joy. She also hosts a community of artists with monthly videos and more, called Art Tribe. I joined Art Tribe a few months ago and have found it a wonderful springboard for my own fun with art.