“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; We grow old because we stop playing.” —George Bernard Shaw

During a recent stress management training I was reviewing some go-to methods for stepping out of old habitual patterns and referenced play as an important element for overall health. To make the point on how we often think of play, and therefore fun, as something we leave behind in childhood I quoted the following lines from a poem by Rabindranath Tagore:

Child, how happy you are sitting in the dust, playing with a broken twig all the morning.

I smile at your play with that little bit of a broken twig.

I am busy with my accounts, adding up figures by the hour.

Perhaps you glance at me and think, "What a stupid game to spoil your morning with!"

Child, I have forgotten the art of being absorbed in sticks and mud-pies.

This prompted a discussion on how we often grow up thinking we have to take life seriously and suffer the consequences of playing the “stupid game” of adulthood. What followed was a discussion on the psychotherapeutic approach of play therapy and its reflexive connection to working with children.........

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