WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A GROUP OF ADULTS DEDICATE THEMSELVES TO PLAY FOR FOUR DAYS?
There is a lot of talk about Play at Work, but I don’t think we have fully realized the importance of a playful and inclusive approach where everyone is seen, has a voice and has fun.
The opposite thinking often dominates: obligations, restrictions, little trust and social rules make us shy and fearful. We live in a culture that takes itself too seriously. I for one often felt a heavy heart with a serious face, or simply didn’t feel much.
💡 When I realized this, I recognized that it was a feeling common to many other people too. It was a cultural issue and I wanted to propose an alternative.
I wanted to create the conditions so that a group of people could express themselves and concretely experience the culture of play, of a ‘healthy’, simple, engaging game that is good for the soul.
🌈 Thus Giocosamente Festival was born. This year, its third edition has just ended in the Sabina woods in Italy with 40 play enthusiasts, Educators, Play Designers, Artists, Musicians, Circus Performers, Adventurous Souls and Kind Hearts who had an engaging and transformative experience and touched the power of playfulness.
Fortunately, there are people in the world who have the culture of play at heart.
Like Lucia Berdini, a great playful trainer, whom I met online three years ago. We met in a small group on Zoom every week for the Play Manifesto project. I was delighted to finally meet her in person along with many of the Guardians of Play.
When we rediscover our playfulness, we are curious, proactive, light-hearted, friendly and automatically inclusive. We are in tune with our own needs and respectful of those of others. It is not about escaping from life but entering into it.
Through playfulness and the cultivation of playfulness, we contribute to forming a more mature human being, who is able to tackle problems with new solutions, who ventures out to experiment and risks failure.
When we are playful, we enter into relationships and the best part of ourselves emerges. We can choose to live with more enthusiasm! Alone it is difficult, but to want is power! Every leader must know how to bring out the best in the people around him, putting them at ease, surprising them, making them realize that mistakes are welcome, that by making mistakes we learn. That you can laugh at work and indeed be even more impactful by doing so.
The playful way invites us to let go, to flow, to engage, and proposes a different way of interacting with life and with others, leading us to create a life we want to say YES to!
At the festival we had real deep fun, I personally laughed like I haven’t in years. A virtuous effect was created.
Let’s hear some of the participants’ voices.
🌞 I laughed, smiled, danced, jumped, thought, talked, hugged, met new friends. I connected. I really enjoyed this group of people driven by a common vision and such generosity in giving of themselves and sharing their passions.”
🦜 “Here, as in other places where a certain kind of positive thinking is cultivated, the unspoken rule of the game is ‘more you give, more you get’. I saw it happen in the people next to me and experienced it first hand. By surrendering to the flow, I felt sincerely authentic for all four days and perhaps because of this, I also felt deeply recognised and understood by others.
🌳 “Playfully was a nourishing experience, in so many ways. It was fun and exciting… In the days that followed, I missed both the people I met and the atmosphere that had been created between us. Anthony was a wonderful game master, deeply connected to his heart and to the time and space around him’.
🌸 “That it was a truly nourishing life experience on all levels, rejuvenating, it was great to get to know each other through play, it was great to connect with others through play, to feel a sense of community I will cherish seeing adults and children playing happily, to see families who came to rediscover the playful spark, I felt I was in an oasis of pleasure and sharing I felt the full potential of play for the wellbeing of the individual and the community”.
🕊 “An experience of wild fun, trust and immediate friendship and love between the participants. What’s the recipe: coming without expectations; a wonderful place (Pianeta Verde) run by two wonderful friends who love to play and who throw themselves into the front line; Anthony Trahair’s madness and visionaryism; the welcoming of all of us THAT IS DIFFERENT and united by the desire to meet each other where we start playing”.
🌻 “I was surprised by the harmony that was immediately created, we were pieces of a single puzzle and no one was dissonant. I think it was Anthony who, with the initial games to learn names, made us stick to each other, made us feel part of a whole. Everyone had an eternal smile on their face, lively and excited looks but in the end even those who arrived later managed to integrate well because the festival was magical!”
❤ A huge THANK YOU to Agricamping Pianeta Verde for the super welcome and the cooking done with love Michele de Sanctis Aurora Jamuna De Simoni. To Lucia Berdini for her playful clarity and contagious enthusiasm, I learn a lot from you too! Thank you for your valuable contribution to the festival.
To Bea Bea for the brainstorming sessions, convergence and fantastic ideas! To all the custodians. To all the participants who care about the culture of play. Stefano Passarella Davide Fornasini Anika Elisabetta Luceri Lorenzo Cimmino Valentina Orruntina Orrù Roberta Ventura Francesca Acampora Simona De Turris Lisa Donati Cristina Marini Roberta Pisani Susanna Piccardi Bice Buzzelli Luisa Belli Valerio Circosta Silvia Marcoccia Ludovica Bernazza
And to all the people who believe that one can live lightly while remaining profound.
To Castello di Montenero for allowing us to travel with imagination.
We have experimented and will continue to experiment.
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28 June-2 July 2023
