Celebrating collective adult play as a remedy for burnout
with Journey to Play
‘Play is less a specific activity than a mindset: openness, imagination, and intrinsic motivation. It is ‘imaginative, intrinsically motivated, non-serious, freely chosen [...] not as a means to an end but for its inherent pleasure.’ (Tonkin & Whitaker, 2016)
In a neoliberal culture, where time is money, states of play are often dismissed as childish or wasteful. This dismissal erodes more than leisure; it undermines our ability to take creative risks and connect with others.
There’s a huge conversation going on within the creative industries about the importance of play in our practices and protecting it… but what if our bodies (therefore minds/selves) are scared to play? What if stress, burnout or trauma have meant that play doesn’t feel safe in the body?
How can we expect humans to play, when the idea of doing so threatens our safety and survival by taking risks, and perfectionism clouds our ability to enter that state of creative flow and trust – both with ourselves and others, in and out of the studio?
For this session of The Convivial, Journey to Play founder, Meg Fry will explore how burnout creates barriers to play for adults, as well as how we might be able to bring more play into our day to day lives as a radical act for collective flourishing. For Meg, the challenge is not simply to encourage adults to play - which places the onus on the individual without recognising the systemic issues surrounding burnout in our culture - but rather to create the conditions (physiological and relational) to make it accessible.
Join us for a sensitive, joyous evening reframing play as an embodied, collective refusal of the depletion on which burnout culture depends.
Speaker
Meg is founder of Journey to Play, a platform to help creatives to access play through prevention, recovery and flourishing techniques / experiences / workshops / talks and soon, coaching (1:1 & group).
She is also a communication designer (research & design), whose practice focuses on adult play and burnout in the creative industry. She worked in the design industry, mainly branding and strategy, before completing her MA Communication Design at Falmouth University with a focus on play and burnout. Meg came to this work after experiences of deep burnout, and is now in the process of training to become a burnout coach in order to help creatives access play in their own work.
What to expect
6pm - arrive
6.30pm - talk begins
7.40pm - dinner (vegan) is served
8.10 - 9pm - Q&A/discussion
9-9.30pm - soft close, socialising
This event is BYOB - please bring along a drink to have yourself and/or to share! There is a SPAR shop just a few meters up the road.
There will be a selection of soft drinks available at a low cost.
Tickets
All tickets include a hot vegan meal. Please refer to the following suggestions when booking your tickets:
No spare income - £1
Low spare income - £5
Medium spare income - £10 (actual cost of producing event)
High spare income - £15
Supporter ticket - £20+