Can Play REALLY Help You to Regulate?

In this episode, Lauren explores the concept of play as a powerful tool for nervous system regulation. While we often associate play with childhood, she reminds us it's just as vital for adults. Whether you're playing with your kids, goofing around with friends, or engaging in creative or physical activities, play helps shift your brain out of a reactive state. It stimulates feel-good chemicals, calms the body, and promotes connection.

Lauren highlights that laughter, often a byproduct of play, isn't just fun—it’s therapeutic. It can reduce cortisol levels, lower blood pressure, stimulate the vagus nerve, and act like a reset button in times of stress. She breaks adult play into four categories: movement, creative, social, and solo play, encouraging us to consciously find space for it in our lives. Whether you're dancing, painting, joking with a friend, or simply getting lost in a hobby, play is a nervous system superpower we all have access to.

Resources:

Lindsey Gurk
365 Days of Art
Wreck This Journal

Other related resources from The Behavior Hub: 

Blog Post: 

• Polyvagal Theory
• Sympathetic Nervous System
• Fight or Flight: Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS)
• Rest & Digest: Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS)

Podcast:

• Nature's Role in Nervous System Regulation
• Rhythms That Regulate
• Cold Exposure: How the Cold Can Calm your Nervous System
• Beyond Deep Breaths: Surprising Ways to Reset your System
• Sounds That Heal
• Find Your Way Back to the Window of Tolerance
• I Can't Stop Talking about the Nervous System
• 5 Ives episode

Our Online Courses: 

• Classroom Design with the Brain in Mind
• From Conflict to Calm:  How to communicate with kids so they listen the FIRST time!
• 4 Simple Steps to Problem Solving

Do you have a question? I can answer it in a future episode!

• Email questions to podcast@thebehaviorhub.com or send via text to 717-693-7744.
• Subscribe to our mailing list and find out more about the Emotional Brain.
• Check out our Facebook Group – Raising and Teaching Respectful Children 
• The Behavior Hub website
• The Behavior Hub blog

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