#286 The Science Of Whimsy

We make a science-backed case for bringing whimsy back into adult life, not as a cute extra but as a real way to train cognitive flexibility and improve wellbeing. We connect play, creativity, and positive emotion to dopamine, brain networks, stress recovery, and practical habits you can start even on a tight budget. 

• why whimsy depends on cognitive flexibility and prefrontal cortex shifting 
• how creative activities and novelty help loosen rigid thinking patterns 
• a simple reset exercise that turns “I’ll never get this right” into progress 
• why playfulness activates the default mode network and dopamine seeking systems 
• “just because” ideas that make daily life more exploratory and less pressured 
• how the executive control network helps entrepreneurs refine creative ideas 
• using colour, texture, markers, gel pens, and construction paper to make adult tasks feel lighter 
• building positive affect to support working memory, problem solving, and novel associations 
• broaden-and-build theory and why playful habits strengthen resilience before hard times 
• physiology benefits like lower stress response and faster recovery after stressful moments 
Stay up to date with our podcasts on our socials at the Universal Radio and stream us wherever you get your podcasts. 

IG: @theuniversalradio

Transcript

Welcome And Why Whimsy Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hi, this is Sogand with Well Be Wednesdays with Sogand. On today's episode, we talked about adding more whimsy into your life, incorporating more play, more fun, more texture. Of course, we used neuroscience and psychology to give you tools and resources on how you can do that. It is I, Sogand, joining you again on this beautiful day to speak to you about a trending topic. That, my friends, is all things whimsy. When was the last time that you allowed yourself to engage in whimsical parts of life? When was the last time you did something for your inner child? Not out of necessity, not out of a need for productivity, but rather for fun. F U N spells fun. You know that episode of SpongeBob? Well, if you're like most of us, the answer is sadly not in recent memory have you engaged in the whimsical parts of life. Many researchers have spoken of this as of late, and I'm gonna need you to turn that sadness or frown upside down because tonight I intend on sharing with you all of the science behind adding more whimsy into your everyday. And you will leave our segment with some tools and empowerments through knowledge and science to make that happen. So we're gonna get right into it. A big component to be whimsical is the ability to shift mental states quickly. This requires cognitive flexibility and the generation of non-typical ideas. We are targeting the prefrontal cortex here. I found a study on this done in 2016 by Roger E. Beattie and colleagues called Creative Cognition and Brain Network Dynamics. The findings demonstrate that creative thinking helps with our performance, flexible thinking, and results in more dynamic switching between brain networks. One subject you're going to hear a lot in our segment tonight is this concept of cognitive flexibility. You might think to yourself, Sogand, that all sounds good and dandy, but it's not for me. I have pretty rigid thinking patterns. Well, aren't you in luck? Because there's a growing area of research on how you can actually challenge that. In a study conducted on 132 young adults, it was found that creative activities increase flexibility in thinking via the experience of novelty. For those interested, this research article is called Beyond Openness. A variety of creative experiences increases flexibility and originality of visual spatial divergent thinking. And it was conducted in 2024. Fascinating, right? I hope you're beginning to see that you're not doomed if you're not a creative person or you're not flexible in your thinking, and you compare these to the next person. I've always heard so good, I can't color because I can't color well, or I'm not really a painter, or I can't draw well. This isn't a matter of comparison because the whole point of being whimsy is to just do it for fun, not do it because you're trying to get a specific result. These are the skills that you can actually enhance. You can try creative tasks such as those I mentioned, or drawing, writing, music, storytelling, and even learning skills outside of your comfort zone. I recall neuroscientist Dr. Tara Swart mention on a podcast I listened to that learning a new language is one of her pursuits, and I actually returned to learning Spanish as a result. I have been on and off learning conversational Spanish since 2019 because I really like Spanish music and I like knowing what I'm listening to. And I'm proud to say I can pick up on a word or two per sentence, but I've been more serious about it since I heard someone that I admire on an intellectual level, such as Dr. Tara Swart, suggest it. And you can try this exercise. Write down a thought that you have that is rigid in its nature, such as, I'll never get this right. So in my case, it would be I'm never gonna learn Spanish right. Then do a creative exercise. So maybe go for a walk if you can, or do a meditative exercise, or cook something for yourself that you haven't had in a while, or go on a drive and listen to music. I love doing that. Spend some time with your animals, spend some time with plants and nature, get out markers and construction paper and start just coloring, and then return back to that thought. Do you notice any changes? Do you identify any shifts? Even 1% change is a change here. Perhaps you're new at this stage, and you know, you'll find that you will arrive at the stage of I'm working on getting this right. This brings me to the next scientific finding of adding whimsy and playfulness into your everyday. But why do you ask? Because playfulness requires activity in your default mode network. This is done by daydreaming, imagination, narrative thinking. Work by Jack Panksep shows us that play activates the dopaminergic seeking systems. And what does that mean? Dopaminergic? What does that mean? It means that it increases cognitive flexibility. How can you incorporate more play into your life? Well, you can embark in exploration, take new routes, start new hobbies, create some adjustments into rules that you have for yourself. Like I can only have a snack when I accomplish this. Don't seek any immediate external goals. Do the thing just to do it. Maybe parking at a park on your way home. Just to be able to bring down your window, especially since the weather is getting better, and do some breath work in nature. Making a habit of looking at the moon at different times of the month. Just because. Doing things just because. These are gonna be ways that you can activate that dopaminergic-seeking systems. So essentially, you are increasing your cognitive flexibility by seeking these ways of enhancing your dopamine and your dopaminergic seeking systems. The takeaway message here is that small bursts of playfulness help your brain think more flexibly. I'd like to now bring your attention to a part of your brain called the Executive Control Network, the ECN. This part of the segment is for those of you who are on the entrepreneurial side. Maybe you're business owners, or you want to be, creatives, content creators, or you want to be. Did you know that enhancing Whimsy in your life can also help you better shape ideas that will then help these goals of yours? Yeah. Research by BD and others 2015 suggests that when a neural network for creative thought is established, it's done so by the cooperation of different parts of the brain, not just activation of one region. This means that creativity can be influential in problem solving and imagination. And you need both of those if you're trying to have a business or trying to do something different with your business or you want to be an entrepreneur. And honestly, I can attest to this. Since I've added much more color into my life since starting about these things, I can definitely see that everything in my life has become more fun. For example, if you come to my place, you will see a lot of color. Whether it's the artwork that I create, I use a lot of color, the notes that I take, I use a lot of different colors. My outfits are always color coordinated. There's always a lot of color. I wasn't always doing that. I wasn't always intentional. But I find that I'm more productive and more efficient in my goals as a business owner and someone who has goals with entrepreneurship. I've noticed that I'm much more effective because I've engaged in creating more play and whimsy. I hope that makes sense. If you were to see the notes that I took for this segment, you'll see that each segment is in different colors. By the way, if you want to relisten to this segment or other ones, they're all uploaded onto our Spotify. But yeah, if you were to look at the notes that I take, you'll see that I intentionally use different color papers, different markers. I don't even use regular pens. That's too adult for me. I use markers like we used to have when we used color. This helps me with the relay of these important messages. It also assists in my creativity and flexibility through play. When was the last time you used construction paper for notewriting? When was the last time you used a marker that wasn't red, black, or blue? It was purple, pink, green. When was the last time you used gel pens? Remember gel pens? Exactly. These all give me dopamine boosts because there's intentional play here. And it's in the form of curiosity and remore and reward prediction. And if you look at my notes, you will see there's intentional color changes, and I have so many gel pens, and this does not have to be expensive. I know a lot of us think about this when we used to go for stationery shopping, and it was expensive, it doesn't have to be. I went on Facebook Marketplace a few years ago, and somebody was selling this big box of markers for$15, and I bought it all, and yeah, there was like 10 or 15 of them that were dried out, but there was like 200 more that I could use, and I'm still using them. And I think that was that was still when we were masked, so that was in 2020. Six years later, that$15 went a long way. So a lot of people think that being whimsical or adding play is reserved for certain people. It's not. You can do this on a budget. And what do I mean here? I mean, when you like the way something looks, you might be more interested in doing it, you know? I like the way it looks that my notes are in different colors. I don't think I would be as interested in these topics or interested in having notes when I'm presenting if it was boring, you know? To me, I like color. Somebody else might like consistency of one color. Somebody else might like the colors that are the blues, the blacks, the reds. This is completely personal. But if you find that it interests you and sparks curiosity to bring more color, more texture, more fun, even in adult tasks like taking notes, I encourage you to do it. I also enjoy the act of taking notes on different textured paper. Sometimes, like today, I will have paper that's just regular white paper because that's all I could find. The segment prior to this, I had it on construction paper because I was decluttering and I found so much construction paper from back in the day when I had art class. And you can go to the dollar store and you can buy a whole pack of construction paper for like two dollars. Because not a lot of dollar stores are a dollar, you know what I mean. But yeah, my point here is that this is not reserved for people who have money, this isn't reserved for people who have it all together. No, this is reserved for people who want to embark in curiosity and whimsy and fun. Just like we did when we were kids in school and we had art projects, or we had projects in school. I don't know about you, but I loved classes that incorporated art. Like I was never really good at math, but in math class, when I could incorporate color and texture, I did better in those projects. So if you really think about your inner child, and when was the last time that they enjoyed these things? You can bring it back. And these are again affordable and accessible ways to add play into your life and enhance your whimsy. Still not convinced that you need to add all of this information into your daily experiences of being a human? Well, how about I tell you that doing all of the above increases in positive affect and it can produce temporary boosts, and also that word, dopaminergic activity in brain regions, such as the anterior cingulate cortex and the prefrontal cortex. Yeah, this dopamine enhancement is not just going to make you feel good through boosting your mood, but it's actually facilitating greater cognitive flexibility, working memory, and the ability to form novel associations. This is documented research by Ashby, Eisen, and Turkin in 1999. You can find it in the Journal of Psychological Review. But yeah, doing these feel-good things, just like you used to do in your younger years during recess or playtime or art class or even gym class if you're about that life, is gonna create positive affect. It's going to give you more cognitive flexibility, and it's gonna create problem solving. And if these are qualities that you'd like to strengthen, that's your cue to embark on this journey. And honestly, I just feel like in a world full of so many problems, we just need more better solutions. And the research is saying you can get better solutions when you're more creative, when you add more play, and when you have more whimsy. So what's stopping you? But wait, there's so much more. Did you know that adding whimsy into your life can also broaden your attention and build enduring personal resources? I'm referring to the ability to withstand uncomfortable and challenging situations, which seems to be just kind of the norm right now in 2026. Yeah. Research by Barbara Frederickson, who I have definitely referenced before on Wellbeing Wednesday segments of the past. Yeah, this research states that feel-good emotions rise through what we have covered so far: creativity, play, and whimsy. They can expand our cognitive ability, help folks develop psychosocial skills that will assist when times are tough. aka now. Have you noticed that when you're in a state of shock or that fight-flight freeze, it's kind of hard to make sound decisions. It's hard to do self-care. That's because you're likely on autopilot in these situations. However, if you develop those resources beforehand, when things appear less stress-inducing, you're more likely to benefit from those tools when you need them most. You'll trust yourself more as you access them in these circumstances. More on this by psychologist Fred Rickson's broaden and built theory, should you want to learn more. So far, we've established on this segment that from a neuroscience perspective, Whimsy is a state of being that engages the following parts of the brain. a default mode network by creating new, unusual imaginative ideas. B executive control network by shaping and refining those ideas. C prefrontal cortex by enabling that flexible shifting in thinking. D. Dopamine systems by driving curiosity and playful exploration. And e positive effect systems by just being in that light, non-serious space, even if it's momentarily. The key at this part of the conversation is that you recognize that adding whimsy and play doesn't have to be super time consuming. It could be something that you do here and there. It could be just moments here and there, but it will compound. Like compound interests. In 2010, a profound study called Mind Wandering and Happiness explored the relationship between spontaneous thought and well-being using an app developed by researchers Killingsworth and Gilbert called Track Your Happiness. These findings may be of interest to you. It was concluded that present moment attention contributes to our happiness. For many of us, having moments of boredom or free time can actually be disadvantages because it allows our mind to wander that can result in negative self-talk, anxieties about the future, and regrets of the past. Some of us use this time to then shift our thinking by going on social media, which further exacerbates our thoughts and feeds into them. For myself, I find myself going on the news apps. It's not always helpful, especially if you're experiencing burnout or you're trying to shift out of a negative mindset. So is the solution to be busy all the time? Absolutely not. But rather to be mindful of where your attention is going. When you have time to yourself. And if it's not going in the direction that you want, the direction that is helpful towards your goals, this might be an indicator that you need more whimsy in your life. And this is especially for so many of us who are trauma survivors. Living in the moment is a skill that most of us were never taught. But we can learn it by doing these little things, by doing things that will momentarily be in our control. By being cognizant of where our energy and our attention is going when we're not occupied or not as busy as we usually are. This is how we can start to take our control and our power back. Oftentimes we think of these concepts again as those who are just reserved for the ultra-privileged, the ultra-rich. But no, we all deserve playful and creative and whimsical parts of life. So you're encouraged now to bring more light, color, texture, and fun back into your life. Perhaps it was taken from you somewhere in your childhood, adolescence, or even adulthood. It's just not too late to bring it back. So far, we've discussed the importance of bringing more whimsy into your life from a neuroscience and psychological perspective. Now let's get into some physiology, shall we? Whimsical states of being often involve amusement, delight. This helps bring down your heart rate, blood pressure, and stress hormones. In a 1998 study by Fredericson and Levelsen, it was found that faster cardiovascular recovery after stress was observed when people experienced positive emotions. This is because these states of being aren't rooted in productivity or efficiency, but more so that they're about positive affects. And this, our dear listeners, is ideal for stress recovery. Whimsical moments make life feel less threatening, less serious, more exploratory, less pressure. Our adult lives seldom actually feel like that, right? This is why we need to intentionally add these moments into our lives. I hear you saying, give us more so Gand, and I will. A 2012 study by psychologist Kerr T. Proyer, titled Examining Adult Playfulness from Different Perspectives and Its Relation to Well-being looked at the association between playfulness and psychological well-being. Consistent to what we've been speaking about on today's segment, this study also found that adults that engage in play beyond their childhood years report greater enjoyment and satisfaction in everyday life. Play also has a way to reduce cortisol levels. It increases psychological flexibility. It improves coping under uncertainty. It also creates a psychological distance from stressors, and it reduces emotional intensity. Trope and Liberman's work in 2010 seals the deal on this by demonstrating that mental distance influences abstraction and thought, judgment and action. I really hope you enjoyed all of these studies. And I hope that you take our encouragement to enhance your whims. Seriously, what are you waiting for? Please schedule in some whimsical time into your busy lives today. You deserve this increase and motivation and a little break from that rumination. Bunzek and Dunzel's 2006 work shows how and we hope the segment did the same. We truly hope you found this insightful, and I cannot wait to speak with you again. I'm off to be whimsy now, so we'll talk again soon. Take care, and I hope you'll join me and engage in some much needed play. Thank you for everyone who tuned in. Stay up to date with our podcasts on our socials at the Universal Radio and stream us wherever you get your podcasts. This is Sogand, and keep turning it up with us.