“We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.”
George Bernard Shaw
As kids, we were magnificent at having a good time. Somewhere along the way, we put the brakes on.
The trouble is, most of us put fun at the bottom of the list. We hold it off until the work is done or the to-dos are cleared, which they never are.
And when we do show up, we're often performing it rather than feeling it – thinking about how it will look on Instagram, whether it proves we're interesting, living our best life. We're not just at the birthday dinner, we're filming it. The unscripted, organic bit where fun actually happens gets squeezed out.
Real fun isn't curated or performed, but felt. A bit of silliness, surprise or spontaneity – and your energy shifts, your creativity follows, and the version of you that feels wide open to life comes back. We've forgotten that purposeless pleasure is the point.
Are you taking fun seriously?
G O I N G D E E P E R
Psychology
Embodied joy is pleasure you feel in your body, not just your mind. Physical play – like movement and dance – fire up your nervous system in ways that screens and passive entertainment can’t come close to.
Inside the body
Micro-dopamine loops are the quick hits we get from scrolling, notifications and likes. They mimic play for a second, but never give you what real fun does – that full-body reset where everything wakes up again.
Did you know?
Laughter triggers the same neural reward pathways as drugs – a belly laugh releases endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, and temporarily raises your pain threshold.
At work
Fun isn’t just a perk or a nice-to-have; it builds affective trust - the sense that the people around you are warm, human and on your side. A playful moment or sharing a laugh makes teams more at ease with each other - which unlocks better work.