Sometimes I wonder if we've got it backwards - treating play as the exception and seriousness as the default.
Watch any child or animal when they're not stressed - play is their natural state. The serious stuff is what interrupts play, not the other way around.
What if consciousness itself is fundamentally playful? Not in a trivial way, but in that deep curiosity, that desire to explore possibilities just to see what happens?
I've been experimenting with approaching difficult situations with that same spirit - not "how do I solve this problem?" but "I wonder what happens if I try this?" It changes everything.
Have you found any places in your life where treating something as play actually made it work better?