A lawyer, an insurance broker and a scientist … it sounds like the start of a bad joke. I recently came across an old photo, I’d have been 9 at the time. A typical Bermuda-childhood stock picture, everyone crammed on to a canon in St George’s. Fresh, sparkly eyed faces, full of optimism and vitality.

Thirty years on we’re all still all recognisable. I bump into them from time to time: now a lawyer, a broker, a scientist and me … eyes not quite so bright and shiny.

Time brings wrinkles but there’s something beyond the passing of years that dulls our senses and countenance. Turns out the old ‘all work and no play’ adage might be truer than we realise.

As children, the most effective way to learn and assimilate to our world is through play. Apparently this continues throughout life but, too often, when it comes time to ‘put away childish things’ we dismiss play and leave it at the playground.

Perhaps when we realise that ‘playing house’ involves mortgage payments and baby’s college fund, and playing ‘doctors’ requires seven-plus years of training.

But in cutting out play, science shows we could be losing out on its vital benefits and actually doing ourselves harm.

“Play is as essential to our health and functioning as rest,” says research professor Brené Brown. Her bestseller, The Gifts Of Imperfection, looks at common factors among resilient, wholehearted individuals. These findings echo the work of the National Institute of Play (yes, there is one) in the United States, founded by Stuart Brown. The institute maintains that play is vital for keeping brains flexible to deal with change and includes benefits such as producing a sense of belonging and community, boosting immunity, increased personal health and better relationships. It’s also an important factor in lightheartedness, empathy, optimism and adaptability.

“Play deficit at any stage of life can lead to inflexibility and mild, but chronic depression,” Dr Brown warns.

“Who has time to play with all the work we’ve got to do?” might ask the lawyer, the broker etc. But perhaps play should not be considered the opposite of work. The NIFP’s research data on play within the workplace shows that in corporations, play-based practices lead to more adaptable, creative, problem-solving work teams, geared towards innovation. Play might just be the ticket to pass go and head straight to the bank.

“What is play?” those of us who are a little rusty may be wondering. Dr Brown categorises it as “apparently purposeless stuff that’s fun to do and is pleasurable”. Different patterns of play include body play and movement, imaginative and pretend play, storytelling-narrative play, creative play.

What does your play look like?

It might be sport, dancing, acting, drawing, writing, horsing around, word games ... the possibilities are infinite as long as it’s fun.

Improvisation is my favourite play, as I have written about at length. It seems to combine many of the play patterns in one. If you’d like to witness some play in action, come to the show next week Friday at the Bermuda Society of the Arts.

Whatever form it takes, our need for play is no joke. Let’s keep that sparkle in our eyes and the bounce in our step.

As George Bernard Shaw wrote: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing”.

• Julia Pitt is a trained success coach and certified NLP practitioner on the team at Benedict Associates. For further information contact Julia on 705-7488, www.juliapittcoaching.com.