When was the last time that you remember having fun? If you can’t quite remember or it was more than a week or two ago, you may not be living life to your fullest potential.
Making the effort to regularly have fun can have a huge positive impact on your health and overall well-being. Let’s take a look at how making some time to relax and enjoy life can indeed make it better.
How to Have Fun in Life
Having fun looks a bit different for everyone, but there are two types of living creatures that we can look to for guidance in fun. Those two are children and dogs!
That childlike wonder that we all experience slowly seems to go away as we get older and face adult responsibilities. So, keeping that innocence about you is important throughout life to have fun!
Our furry friends are another great role model to look towards for happiness. Dogs don’t hold grudges and are always being silly, and having fun with whatever that they do.
Some ways that you can add a bit of fun into your everyday life include:
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Having a weekly game night with family and/or friends! Be social, be silly, and have fun.
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Have fun outdoors. This can be through playing outdoor sports, games, having a picnic with friends, etc.
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Try for fun nights out with friends and co-workers: Think karaoke, bowling, mini-golf, or dancing to name a few.
Making a point to have more fun in life can have some amazing benefits for your health and wellness. Today, we will be looking at 10 (of many!) major benefits.
10 Benefits of Having Fun
1. Reduced Stress
Some play a day keeps the doctor away! When we are having fun and laughing, a lot of feel-good hormones are released into the body.
This means that the high-stress hormone, cortisol goes down. A reduction in cortisol and overall stress long term means a lessened chance of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke to name a few.
2. Better Quality Sleep
Less cortisol and more production of those feel-good hormones such as serotonin help to improve sleep quality.
Having less stress means less racing thoughts at night, and higher quality, sounder sleep.
3. Increased Creativity
Did you ever notice that children learn through play? So, why can’t adults do the same? You can learn a task more quickly if you are having fun and are relaxed.
You may also be inspired to tackle a new project or create something in the process. So, get that imagination going with some fun new activities or games.
4. Keeps You Feeling Youthful
You are only as old as you feel, and having fun keeps you young. Going back to keeping that childlike wonder about yourself.
Play games, goof off, have fun with life! Having fun has also been shown to ward of disease, which in turn keeps us youthful and rejuvenated.
5. Improved Social Skills
When you choose to have fun, you most likely won’t always do it alone. A lot of playful and fun activities allow for team building skills and improving social communication.
You can also lessen social anxiety.
Sometimes you have to act silly or step out of your comfort zone while having fun, and this can allow you to build confidence and decrease social anxiety over time.
6. Can Help to Heal Emotional Wounds
Having fun helps to create new and positive memories. Whether while having fun with yourself or with others.
Over time, this allows your views and struggles with something to improve and change. Having fun can also remind us of the important things in life.
Things that you may have found yourself worrying or stressed over may not seem so bad after taking on your new and more fun lifestyle.
7. Better Memory
Lower cortisol levels will mean more head space and an overall clearer mind. You will find yourself sharper and in a clearer head space.
Having fun also allows us to be present, which is a key factor for happiness. Keeping ourselves present allows for better concentration so our mind doesn’t drift off.
8. Enjoy More Energy
When you have fun, you decrease your negative emotions such as stress, anxiety, and depression.
These things can be both mentally and physically draining.
The less you experience these, the more energy you will have for the happier (and more fun) things in life.
9. Increased Productivity
Having fun at work allows you to take a break from your stressful work tasks and let your mind run free for a while.
This break will leave you feeling refreshed for the next work task at hand and will most likely boost your creativity.
You will also find that you will most likely have increased energy which will help to prevent burnout.
10. Improve Your Love Life
Playing around with your significant other can put a lighter tone on your relationship. It can also teach both of you to not be so serious all of the time.
I think we all have seen those 80+-year-old couples who goof around doing normal everyday tasks.
We yearn to be them because they know the secret to a long-lasting and healthy relationship. It’s having fun, and not taking life too seriously!
Why Having Fun is Good for You
Having fun is good for you because physiologically, it helps to balance out our stress and feel-good hormones, preventing diseases long-term.
It helps to boost our creativity, energy, productivity, and overall cognition.
It’s like our brains revert back to being a child again. Children are simply amazing with their sense of curiosity, creativity, and overall happiness.
So, just because we hit a certain number, why does that have to change? It doesn’t.
Final Thoughts
Let’s not forget about our canine friends and how they aide us in having fun! From hearing a crinkling
Looking to them for inspiration when you feel you are lacking fun can be the perfect cure to a not so good day!
If you don’t have a dog or other animal of your own, consider volunteering at an animal shelter or even just stopping at the pet store to get your dose of animal fun.
Think about your weekly schedule. Figure out where you can add in some fun.
Is it having a weekly game night?
Taking up a new outdoor hobby?
Learning to loosen up a bit and be silly with your friends?
Smiling at a stranger?
We all can add a bit of fun into our lives. Who would have guessed that simply taking the time to relax and have some fun would be the secret to a healthier, better you?