Why Having Fun Improves Your Health & How to Have More Of It

‘So, what do you do for fun?’ asked the Occupational Therapist who is helping me recover from Long Covid. ‘Ummm…’ was the best answer I could find. It struck me at that moment – I don’t do things for fun. How awful is that?

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not a killjoy or anything; it’s just making time for having fun hasn’t factored high on my to-do list. I honestly don’t believe I’m alone in this either, which made me think…

Why don’t we make time for fun?

Well, there’s a variety of reasons. Many describe themselves as time-poor; we’re too busy with more ‘important’ things. There’s also a perceived inappropriateness to it: it’s not right having fun when there is so much going on.

I struggle with the ‘guilt’ of it; the perception that having fun is selfish or frivolous, especially when I’m dealing with a prolonged illness and feel any energy I have should go towards my kids, work, or household chores. But to be honest, all work and no play does make for a rather dull existence.

Please don’t choke on your cornflakes when I tell you I was actually prescribed FUN as a means towards my recovery. At first, I thought that was crazy, but it turns out there is science behind it.

Quote on How Fun Improves Health from Catherine Price

What do we mean by ‘fun’?

Fun is any activity we voluntarily engage in that we find pleasurable and free from work demands and other responsibilities.

Dr Stuart Brown, in his book Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, says that to make an activity fun (and reap the most benefits), it needs to feature the following components:

Apparently purposeless
Voluntary
Inherent attraction
Freedom from time
Diminished consciousness of self
Improvisational potential
Continuation desire

It sounds like a lot, but I believe it makes sense. Thinking back to when you last had fun, you could most likely tick each of these things.

How having fun improves your health (according to science!)

A study by Pressman et al. concluded that individuals who spent more time engaging in enjoyable activities had greater physical and psychological well-being. I appreciate this could present as a bit of a ‘well, duh’ moment, but the benefits run far deeper than we may understand. Some advocate that having fun is a biological drive that’s as integral to our health as sleep or nutrition.

Studies have demonstrated how fun can lower depression, give us greater social support, reduce blood pressure and cortisol (the stress hormone) levels, and increase our perceived physical function.

Having fun can improve our relationships by building trust and better communication, raising our energy levels and boosting our vitality. Fun enhances memory and concentration (perfect for my current daily brain fog!) and can even make us smarter.

Quote about the importance of play by Dr Stuart Brown

Did you know? A study by The British Cohort following 17,000 people born in 1970 discovered that reading for fun improves language skills and math ability too. It seems like fun activities that introduce us to new ideas and concepts promote self-directed learning.

Science shows how having fun improves your health; therefore, it’s time we acknowledged that we could take care of ourselves by simply spending time doing things we enjoy.

How can we have more fun?

Unfortunately, as we age, having fun doesn’t necessarily come as easy to us as it did when we were kids. Adults are likelier to zone out in front of the TV or spend time scrolling their social media accounts. These are activities researchers class as ‘faux fun’ with no real well-being benefits to reap (don’t shoot the messenger). Thankfully, there are simple ways to ensure we up the real fun factor again.

Quote about how Fun improves health by Dr Laura Kubzansky

The first thing to keep in mind is that fun is entirely subjective; my idea of fun might be your idea of hell. There are multiple ways to have fun, and each way merely expresses our personalities – there are no rights or wrongs.

Knowing what you find fun may come instantly to you, which is excellent, go out and make time for it. However, if you struggle to know what to do, that’s OK too, especially if what you find fun is too expensive to do regularly or half the world away. There are ways to work it out…

Reflect on it

Take a few moments to think back to the most joyful and playful experiences in your life so far. What made you feel free? When were you having so much fun you lost track of time? It can be anything, but you need to conjure clear images of it in your mind. Then begin to build from the emotion of that as to how it could connect with your life today.

Learn your play personality

The National Institute for Play has identified eight play personalities through thousands of interviews and observations. Discovering our predominant play personality can helpfully steer us towards pursuits we find fun. You can discover your play personality here.

Try out different activities to discover what you find fun

Try things on for fun

Are there times when you’ve seen an activity and thought, ‘that looks fun’? Could you make time to try it? OK, you’re not guaranteed to love everything you try, but you could still have fun in the process.

I recently took my daughter to one of those pottery painting studios, which is an activity I usually avoid at all costs; however, I surprisingly enjoyed it. We had great fun, and each time I look at what we created, I’m reminded of that fun, which is a bonus.

If it’s been a particularly long time since you did fun things regularly, you will need to kiss a few fun frogs to hit the fun jackpot.

Loosen up a bit

Whilst it’s never too late to develop your more playful, fun-seeking side, for some of us, self-consciousness – worrying about how you’ll look and sound to others – limits the amount of fun we can have. I recommend reading: 10 Ways to feel more confident in new situations and 10 Steps to rebuild confidence in yourself to help you here, and also keep in mind that the more you do something, the easier it becomes.

Reignite the spark

If there is an activity you previously found fun but has become a bit stagnant, look for ways to put the fun back into it. I used to find running fun (I know you can judge me, but seriously I did) after hundreds of miles worth of training over the years, it became laborious. I stopped training for big events and put myself in for more enjoyable ones – like running Race For Life with my daughter in pink tutus. I also gave mindful running a try. All you need to do is look for ways to change things up.

Play with people

Hopefully, you’ll look past my slightly dodgy-sounding section title and acknowledge that doing something enjoyable with people you like increases the fun. How often have you been out with friends and loved ones and said, ‘we should do this more often’? Prioritise it in your planners and make it happen.

Good to know: Fun doesn’t need to be expensive or excessively time-consuming – listening to things that make you laugh, or having a Zoom with your friends, or sketching – whatever, really, if it’s something you enjoy, that’s all that matters.

Let the fun begin…

The benefits of having fun on your physical and psychological well-being are astounding. Making time for regular fun can help you live a better, more empowered life. Even in the most difficult of times, taking time out to have fun can go a long way to making you feel better.