Play At Home!

As the weeks of stay-at-home orders have turned into months of social distancing, many of us have exhausted our lists of activities to keep us positive and behaviorally activated. We’ve cleaned, we’ve exercised, we’ve explored the depths of social media, we’ve Zoomed everything from baby showers to bar mitzvahs and a lot of us are running out of activities that bring us pleasure and mastery. Interestingly, research indicates that these two seemingly simple constructs are actually powerful behavioral antidepressants. Indeed, an entire intervention called Behavioral Activation was developed just to help people with acute depression by systematically increasing values-based mastery and pleasure activities - and it really works! Although in most cases we wouldn’t think of the listlessness and sadness that naturally arises out of forced social isolation to be “clinical depression”, it is likely that similar psychosocial forces are at work in the low mood that many of us have experienced in response to social distancing. So what do we do about this? Well, we’ve gotta get creative in brainstorming activities that we can do at home every single day that speak to our highest values and/or naturally elicit pleasure. In the spirit of helping with ideas, I present to you Play at Home. Specifically, Play at Home is an initiative that I heard about this morning during my own pleasure/mastery routine of savoring a latte and listening to NPR. In short, Play at Home is collaboration of playwrights who have submitted short plays for small groups of people that can be performed at home or over any group virtual meeting platform (like Zoom). While listening to their news story about the Play at Home initiative, I thought how this could be one activity that speaks to several of my clients. So basically, if you are someone who values creativity, performing, artistic endeavors, or just plain socialization, this could be a mood-elevating activity for you. Listen to the wonderful NPR news piece I mentioned above for a more complete description. Just remember, use your mindfulness skills when doing activities like Play at Home - practice throwing yourself in fully to the experience, slow down and savor any possible emotions that might arise, and if none do, or if negative emotions worsen, notice that and try a different activity instead. Happy acting!