4/22/2024 0 Comments Disco bubble letters font![]() That's "yielding to the nothing," he says, and is a deceptively easy escape from feelings of boredom or discomfort. Pay attention to how much of your leisure time is spent scrolling on a phone or passively watching TV, Rucker advises. brought five women together who happen to have the same sense of humor and just plain enjoy each other's company," she says. They call themselves "The Fabulous Five" or "The Mahvelous Mahjongg Madams." Now she plays every Monday with a group of women she met in that class. NPR reader Nancy Lomini-Perretta decided to try a beginning mahjongg class for seniors at her local college in 2019. ![]() For herself, she regularly jams with a group of musicians. One Fun Squad friend said that a Taco Tuesday night she held with her friends was the highlight of her week, Price says. When Price was working on her book during the height of the pandemic, she recruited a virtual group of people - a Fun Squad - to bounce ideas around with. Scheduling fun doesn't have to be arduous or expensive. These moments can improve mood and lower stress levels, which can reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes. When you put something fun like a hike on the calendar, you open up to moments of " awe and wonder," like the surprise appearance of a deer on the path, for example, Rucker says. People who take a vacation return to their work less stressed and possibly more creative, and the benefits could extend to smaller adventures. "You need to light some candles, set the scene."īut it's well worth it. "It's like romance," she says of scheduling fun. Sometimes people you could have fun with are waiting for an invitation. When you're older, you don't find yourself in the kind of unstructured environments conducive to fun, like a playground full of kids you don't know. NPR audience member Nancy Lomini-Perretta has developed tight friendships with her mahjong group: "We meet every Monday for an afternoon of play and lots of laughs!"īut fun comes more easily when you're young, says Price. Price, who also is the founder of, defines fun as a state in which we experience playfulness, connection to others, and flow – that feeling where you lose track of time because you're "in the zone" and not worried about how you look or how well you perform.Ī game night - especially something as absorbing and mentally challenging as mahjong - can be a bright spot in the week. Flying trapeze is the hardest, scariest, most exciting and most fun thing I've ever done." NPR audience member Lynn Braz found that when she started taking flying trapeze classes at age 42: "Now, at age 61, I am flying every weekend throughout the warmer months. But Rucker writes that fun generally involves doing something active and intentional (as opposed to mindlessly watching TV), often includes other people, is something you choose for yourself, and can give a thrill that transcends the ordinary. Science has just begun to study the importance of fun and play, so there's not a strict definition. I wasn't happy, but I was really enjoying the jokes." ![]() "For me, it was certainly going to comedy clubs. "Even if you're not happy, you can have fun, even if that's just having coffee with a friend," he says. For Rucker, seeking lighter moments helped him through his loss. In contrast, fun is relatively easy to achieve yet many adults are conditioned to believe that it isn't important, and experience very little of it. People who highly value happiness may end up feeling "disappointed about how they feel, paradoxically decreasing their happiness the more they want it," wrote the authors of a 2011 study in the journal Emotion. ![]() "We really trivialize fun and we are so casual and sloppy about how we use the word," Price says, but it is "essential for our happiness and health." (She took a break from her latest interest, online blues piano lessons, to take my call.) If happiness is a mirage, fun is your backyard oasis."Īnd science journalist Catherine Price, author of The Power of Fun, published in 2021, has a similar view. ![]() It doesn't require education, money or power. "Happiness is a state of mind," Rucker writes. In The Fun Habit: How The Disciplined Pursuit of Joy And Wonder Can Change Your Life, published in January, psychologist Mike Rucker makes the case that pursuit of fun experiences may be even more valuable than seeking the sometimes abstract goal of happiness. Two recent books argue that making room for more fun in your life could counteract both the stress and the tendency to escape it by zoning out online. But the antidote may be hiding in plain sight. ![]()
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