Playfulness is our original state

Aptitude and capacity come from your parents’ brain development; it’s inherited, epigenetic, and shaped by early modeling; your nerve patterns are laid down in a morphogenetic field so your innate ability is guided from birth; pattern recognition grows through hard wiring, practice, and experiential play; athletes, musicians, entertainers all build neural efficiency in their unique areas, and some people just naturally track patterns better than others

Gender differences exist on averages—women often excel at empathy and multitasking, men at serial processing and spatial reasoning—but individual play and training change everything; my research at NYU over nineteen years explored how behavior reveals latent capacity, and what shows is playfulness is our original state; in play, we are flexible, learning fast, integrating emotion, memory, and problem solving, and developing social and cognitive resilience

Playfulness keeps you in your original state behind ordinary time, activating whole-brain function, enhancing stress resilience, boosting endogenous opioids, increasing dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, lowering cortisol, and supporting immune health; it strengthens prefrontal networks, bridges hemispheres, and allows complex problem solving, creativity, and emotional regulation; leisure, exploration, and outdoor play are not optional—they are central to cognitive development, social power, and lifelong health; the takeaway is simple: reclaim your play, integrate it daily, and your brain, body, and spirit thrive