In Stuart Brown’s TED Talk from 2008 he asks are we playing enough? That play begins simply attuning brains in mother/child, to creative actions with no specific goal in mind, to working with your hands to solve problems, to social engagement through the chaos of invention. I believe it’s a reset to beginner’s mind, where possibilities exist.
I firmly trust the concept of Beginner’s Mind, as espoused by Shunryu Suzuki. I find in mentoring herbalists and researchers the freedom to play is a great asset that few have rediscovered. This is especially true in multi-disciplinary environments. Here’s an example I ran across recently about the power of trusting in play. Innocentive problem solving website started by Alpheus Bingham, a vice president at Eli Lilly. He asked the public to solve some of the company’s hardest scientific problems by offering a financial reward to anyone who proposed a solution.
When solvers “rated the problem as outside their own domain”, Alpheus noted that they were more likely to stumble upon solutions. They were “bridging knowledge fields” – taking ideas from one domain and introducing them into a different domain. They re-framed problems, combined and recombined ideas, and opened new lines of thinking.
This message echoed my own experience. Pursue your passions outside the explicit area in which you “work”. Embrace your inner renegade. And don’t back down from throwing unusual ideas into the conversation. Have faith in your own unique perspective. You never know when creative people in your sphere of influence will “run with it”.
I want to give a shout out to my best bud, Chas Murray. Whenever we are together, we play. Let me share what I miss the most. He was living in Norfolk and when I’d visit, we inevitably ended up at the beach. Our favorite game was to take a ball or a Frisbee and play catch with a twist. The player without the ball ran into the surf at full speed and the thrower tried to lead them into a full layout just as a cresting wave arrived. You had to trust in what would unfold and that your commitment to the moment was a joyful act in and of itself. And that your bud was willing to drag you out of the surf in case you got pounded.