DeBenedet - Playful Intelligence: The Power of Living Lightly in a Serious World

Praise for Playful Intelligence

Playful Intelligence is one of the most important and influential books you will ever read. It struck me on a deeply personal and emotional level. Anthony DeBenedet has written a wonderful and practical guide to being a more effective parent, spouse, friend, and colleague; its a new way to think about what matters most in work and life. Simply put, this book will make you a better human being. Prepare to be inspired!

Tom Rath, best-selling author of StrengthsFinder 2.0, How Full is Your Bucket?, and Wellbeing

Anthony DeBenedets timely work shows us how playfulness makes us better and offers a simple framework for integrating playfulness into our day-to-day lives. An antidote to the pressure, seriousness, and responsibility overload that defines much of adulthood, Playful Intelligence is the perfect prescription for our high-stress lives.

Jonah Berger, best-selling author of Contagious and Invisible Influence

By breaking playfulness down into its component parts, DeBenedet invites us on a delightful adventure filled with compelling research, inspiring stories, and practical steps that makes it possible for us to cultivate this elusive quality and unleash it into our daily lives. In other words, he provides our magical inner child with an escape route through the thicket of our adult conditioning. The world just became a more humane and playful place!

Gwen Gordon, Emmy award-winning creative director and author of The Wonderful W

Anthonys own playful intelligence shines through every page of this delightful and thought-provoking book. His real gift, however, is showing the rest of us how to be more playful in our adult lives. If everyone took the guidance in this book to heart, the world would be a much better place!

Lawrence J. Cohen, Ph.D., author of Playful Parenting

Playful Intelligence is exactly what the doctor ordered! In his new book, DeBenedet beautifully combines his expertise as a physician, behavioral-science aficionado, and fun-loving human being, and writes us the perfect prescription for a happier, healthier, and more playfully engaged life. By breaking down playfulness into its five key components, and sharing ways to incorporate the power of play into our everyday lives, this book gives adults the permission they need to work hard, and play harder.

Meredith Sinclair, M. Ed., lifestyle expert and author of Well Played: The Ultimate Guide to Awakening Your Familys Playful Spirit

It happens only rarely that I come across a book which inspires, gives me goosebumps, and makes me cry. Dr. Anthony DeBenedet has done it with Playful Intelligence. DeBenedet shows us why playfulness should live at the core of our adult lives to balance out the more serious parts. One of the most precious points that DeBenedet puts forward is that playfulness is at the heart of resiliency and our ability to bounce back from challenging and stressful experiences. Insight like this, and so much more, is what makes this book a powerful invitation and permission slip to see life through the eyes of a child, while constantly connecting to the wisdom harvested in our own experiences and throughout generations. Highly recommended and inspiring for all areas of life!

Anette Prehn, social scientist (MA), pioneer in applied neuroscience, and author of Play Your Brain and the Brain Friends series

Playful Intelligence is just what the doctor ordered for so many of us who are living stressful lives. Dr. DeBenedet mixes humor, science, and poignant real-life stories to create a book that reminds us to laugh, to daydream, to live in the moment, and, ultimately, to love.

Sanjay Saint, M.D., M.P.H., Chief of Medicine, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System; George Dock Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan

Copyright 2018 Anthony T. DeBenedet, M.D.

All rights reserved.

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part or in any form or format without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by:

Santa Monica Press LLC

P.O. Box 850

Solana Beach, CA 92075

1-800-784-9553

www.santamonicapress.com

books@santamonicapress.com

Santa Monica Press books are available at special quantity discounts when purchased in bulk by corporations, organizations, or groups. Please call our Special Sales department at 1-800-784-9553.

This book is intended to provide general information. The publisher, author, distributor, and copyright owner are not engaged in rendering professional advice or services. The publisher, author, distributor, and copyright owner are not liable or responsible to any person or group with respect to any loss, illness, or injury caused or alleged to be caused by the information found in this book.

ISBN-13 978-1-59580-793-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: DeBenedet, Anthony T., author.

Title: Playful intelligence: the power of living lightly in a serious world / Anthony T. DeBenedet, M.D.

Description: Solana Beach, CA: Santa Monica Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2017055034 (print) | LCCN 2017058755 (ebook) | ISBN 9781595807939 ()

Subjects: LCSH: Play. | Imagination. | Stress (Psychology)

Classification: LCC BF717 (ebook) | LCC BF717 .D394 2018 (print) | DDC 153.3--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017055034

Cover and interior design and production by Future Studio

Front cover image courtesy of Pongsuwan/Creative Market

For Anna...

and Ava, Mia, and Loladown the road

Contents

A s a child growing up in the 1960s, Marlene Irvin took many trips to Joyland, an amusement park in her hometown of Wichita, Kansas. Goose bumps would sprout on her arms the moment her family drove into Joylands parking lot. The carousel circling at the entrance to the park was always the highlight for me, Marlene said. I could watch the horses for hours.

Joyland certainly made a lasting impression on Marlene, as she got her first real job at Wichitas Chance Manufacturing, the largest manufacturer of amusement park rides in the world at the time. Marlene started in the fiberglass shop, where the carousel horses frames, along with parts for Ferris wheels, roller coasters, and other rides, were pieced together. She eventually found her way to Chances art and decoration department, becoming one of the lead horse artists. Then, in 1992, after working at Chance for nearly fifteen years, Marlene decided to start her own business, focusing exclusively on carousel restoration.

Coincidentally, around this time, Joyland started experiencing a decline in attendance. In 2006, to the heartbreak of Wichitans young and old, Joyland shut down after more than fifty years of operation. Local preservation organizations purchased some of the parks artifacts, and Joylands thirty-six carousel horses were donated to Botanica, a Wichita-owned botanical gardens. Botanica asked Marlene to restore the deteriorated horses, and she accepted the challenge.

As Marlene finished each horse, Botanica displayed them for the public to see. Although they looked different compared to their glory days at Joyland, thanks to Marlenes artistic efforts, the horses impressed observers even more than they had before. When native Wichitans saw them, their most common question was: Will we be able to ride them? Even as adults, they remembered riding the horses at Joyland when they were kids.