Why Fun is Necessary for Your Well Being

Have you ever thought about FUN as a necessary component for your well-being?

In today's episode, I give you the real ways FUN is absolutely important for your well-being.

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN

Full Show Notes (Transcript)…

Hi there, I'm Stephanie Leopold and I am excited to welcome you to the Readerly Collective Podcast, where bookworms unite and geeking out is highly encouraged. Join me as we explore the world of books in the reading life, celebrating all types of readers and all types of genres. Grab your favorite beverage, cozy up in your reading nook, and let's dive in.

Hey there readers! Hope you are doing well and reading some great books as always. Guys, today we're going to talk about fun. I am a big proponent of people having more fun in their lives. We, as adults, have so many responsibilities and obligations and things we have to do that it's really important that we make time for fun and enjoyment. And as busy humans, it's easy to get bogged down in those have to's, need to's, to do's, that fun can seem frivolous or childish. When I think of adults not having fun, I think of Ebenezer Scrooge (I almost said Scrooge McDuck - two different Scrooges). Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol; he is super curmudgeonly, worried about the bottom line, worried about, you know, he's just kind of a mean guy. Not that he had a lot of fun, he got scared to turn him around, but, but that's what I think of when I think of adults not having regular fun and enjoyment in their lives. So don't be a Scrooge. We're going to talk about how not to be a Scrooge.

So in today's episode, I'm going to walk you through some ways that engaging in fun and pleasurable activities, (reading - what we're all here for) having fun in those activities is not only helpful, but it's actually necessary for your overall mental health, self care, and well being with some proven scientific evidenced-based reasons. Maybe you are feeling like the word self care is a bad word. It's just another thing you know you need to be doing for yourself; let's just put it on the to do list and get it crossed off so you can go about all your other obligations for the day that you need to be doing. Maybe you have too many responsibilities or obligations and you don't even think about having fun or doing anything for yourself. Maybe having fun feels childish or frivolous or silly and you left that long ago in childhood. Maybe you are the type of person that you really want to make sure that everyone else It's having a good time and fun time that you feel like pressure or you are not even able to step back and enjoy the event or situation in which you're worried about other people having fun. And then after today's episode I'm hoping that you will be thinking about having fun in a different way and engaging in relaxing and enjoyable activities in a different way. I'm going to share with you some of the physical and mental health benefits of having fun. And like I was saying previously, we already have so much we have to do and we should definitely be making time for fun.

So let's get into this! One of the things that engaging in fun and joyful activities does is it increases your dopamine, which is the pleasure chemical. And because it does that, it also enhances your ability to learn and enhances your memory. This pleasure chemical is necessary for motivation, for focus, for learning new things. So participating in fun activities releases the dopamine, and we want that dopamine! Also, when those fun activities also promote learning, (like reading!) your brain is better able to store and retrieve that information. That dopamine chemical makes learning more effective, and you will be able to store and remember that information more easily

All right, so number one, increases dopamine, helps with learning and memory. Number two, engaging in fun activities, particularly those that are intellectually stimulating, like reading, promotes what is called neuroplasticity. I'm not going to go too much into it but basically neuroplasticity is our brain's ability to reorganize and rewire neural connections in the brain. That old adage of you can't teach an old dog new tricks is completely false. You can continuously be learning and rewiring your brain. And so engaging in fun, enjoyable activities promotes this in your brain. It helps not only in learning, but also in in adapting to new information and problem solving. All amazing things for your brain!

Next, reading, or other fun activities, also helps increase creativity (and problem solving-which I mentioned above). When you are engaging in fun and enjoyable activities and situations, it allows you to tap into a type of creative thinking that we don’t always get in our day to day life. Adults who regularly engage in pleasurable activities are more likely to think outside of the box.

Another benefit, necessity you need from having fun, is it reduces mental fatigue. Who doesn't need that? Basically, fun acts as a form of rest for your brain. It can help recover from periods of focused work, which can also help prevent burnout, and I think most of us can use a rest and some things that will help prevent burn-out. Because fun allows ourselves a little bit of rest, it also, of course, reduces stress and anxiety. Fun lowers stress hormones like cortisol. And so by lowering stress and increasing dopamine - it’s a very effective way to calm yourself, and reduce stress, overwhelm, and anxiety.

Lastly, this is not an exhaustive list, but this is the last one for today. It helps with social connections. When we're able to do these activities. like reading in groups, like a book communities, it helps social interactions. It helps us feel bonded and connected to others. We are sharing this experience of fun and joy and that can also increase trust and cooperation among people! There is no downside to having fun!

This was a really super short episode, but I can't stress enough how important fun is. It is absolutely necessary to have fun! And if you want more fun, you need help having fun, or you want to do this activity that we all love, in a group or a community, to help support those social connections and reduce stress and anxiety? Well, my friends, you can hop over to the Readerly Collective membership waitlist, which is open now, at www.thereaderlycollective.com/membershipwaitlist We would love to have you! Be with other members that love and enjoy reading as much as you who are working to make themselves a priority to make fun a priority - we do all of that in the membership. So come join us. And until next week, friends, take care!

Well that closes another chapter on this week's episode of the Readerly Collective podcast. Remember the conversation doesn't have to end here. Connect with me on Instagram at the Readerly Collective or over in our Facebook group. All you have to do is search the Readerly Collective.

Also, if you've enjoyed this podcast, it would mean so much to me if you head over to Apple Podcasts and rate and review this podcast so that other book nerds can find it. And until next time, fellow book dragons, keep those pages turning.