# 392. Why is whimsy so powerful

An episode of [The Psychology of your 20s](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1573710078), 5 Mar 2026, 39 min.

Audio: https://pdrl.fm/f842d9/podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/bc44988a-a82a-4291-ab8b-afdd01187fa8/5acc0339-35b7-4d36-a198-b40300e6f88b/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=39e2f432-53df-43b8-a7b9-afdd01187fc4

We often dismiss the small, playful things we do to keep life joyful: collecting trinkets, baking for no reason, blowing bubbles, looking for magic. They’re labelled childish, unnecessary, or unserious. But psychology and neuroscience tell a very different story. Today, we're breaking down the psychology of whimsy, including: • What “whimsy” actually is and why it’s trending again • How play helps regulate your nervous system • The neuroscience of stress, imagination and brain plasticity • The science of beauty and the brain (neuroaesthetics) • Why small acts of joy can be psychologically protective • 15 whimsy activity ideas Listen now! Watch on Netflix Follow Jemma on Instagram: @jemmasbeg Follow the podcast on Instagram: @thatpsychologypodcast Subscribe on Substack: @thepsychologyofyour20s For business: psychologyofyour20s@gmail.com The Psychology of your 20s is not a substitute for professional mental health help. If you are struggling, distressed or require personalised advice, please reach out to your doctor or a licensed psychologist. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:04] Speaker 1: Hello everybody. I'm Jemma Spake and welcome back to the
[0:07] Speaker 1: Psychology of Your Twenties, the podcast where we talk through
[0:11] Speaker 1: the biggest changes, moments, and transitions of our twenties and
[0:16] Speaker 1: what they mean for our psychology. Hello everybody, Welcome back
[0:25] Speaker 1: to the show. Welcome back to the podcast. It is
[0:28] Speaker 1: so great to have you here back for another episode
[0:30] Speaker 1: as we of course break down the psychology of our twenties.
[0:34] Speaker 1: If you could not tell from my little get up today,
[0:37] Speaker 1: I have my Tiara on, I have my magic sparkling
[0:41] Speaker 1: wand we are talking about the psychology of whimsy and
[0:46] Speaker 1: why whimsy is so uniquely powerful. Side note, I'm also
[0:51] Speaker 1: recording this episode on Friday the thirteenth, and so I
[0:57] Speaker 1: feel like I need this kind of glittery, glowy princess
[0:59] Speaker 1: and do to like ward off the evil spirits. The
[1:02] Speaker 1: reason I really wanted to do this episode, and now
[1:04] Speaker 1: I'm debating whether I keep holding my one or whether
[1:07] Speaker 1: I throw it away. I'm going to keep it for
[1:08] Speaker 1: the intro and then I'm gonna toss it aside. But
[1:11] Speaker 1: the reason I wanted to do this episode is because
[1:13] Speaker 1: people often dismiss the silly little things we do to
[1:18] Speaker 1: keep our joy alive in life as immature. You know,
[1:23] Speaker 1: the trinkets that we collect, the games that we play,
[1:26] Speaker 1: the silly scenarios or like dress up situations that we
[1:31] Speaker 1: encourage me love to do. People label them as very
[1:34] Speaker 1: childlike and unintelligent, and yeah, they don't give them the
[1:39] Speaker 1: time of day that they deserve. What these people don't know,
[1:43] Speaker 1: and what you are about to is that having whimsy
[1:46] Speaker 1: in your life is likely going to make you smarter,
[1:51] Speaker 1: more emotionally intelligent, more mentally adjusted, more mentally flexible, and
[1:55] Speaker 1: a whole lot happier. There is so much neuroscience behind
[2:00] Speaker 1: the power of play, the power of imagination, the power
[2:03] Speaker 1: of creativity, and silliness, and today I'm going to share
[2:07] Speaker 1: it with you guys, including everything from major peer reviewed
[2:12] Speaker 1: studies from the likes of Stanford and Harvard on the
[2:15] Speaker 1: power of whimsy, to listener stories about what we all do,
[2:21] Speaker 1: what I do, what you guys do to keep your
[2:23] Speaker 1: life light and fluffy in what are very hard times.
[2:29] Speaker 1: Side note, thank you to everyone who did send those in.
[2:32] Speaker 1: I genuinely got thousands of whimsical activity examples that I
[2:37] Speaker 1: had never thought of before. So stick around to the
[2:40] Speaker 1: second half of the episode where we talk about those
[2:42] Speaker 1: But I'm so excited to get into this. I'm sure
[2:45] Speaker 1: we've all seen whimsy trending online recently and maybe went
[2:51] Speaker 1: quick to dismiss it, but this is the episode where
[2:54] Speaker 1: we really get into the scientific evidence for why it
[2:57] Speaker 1: is emotionally and ecologically protective. So without further ado, let's
[3:03] Speaker 1: get into it. Okay, now that we've done with the intro,
[3:10] Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw my wand aside, but I'm gonna keep
[3:12] Speaker 1: my For those watching on Netflix, I'm gonna keep my little,
[3:16] Speaker 1: my Little Tira on because I feel like it's appropriate.
[3:19] Speaker 1: But like I said before, whimsy, Whimsy is one of
[3:22] Speaker 1: those things that you know it when you see it,
[3:27] Speaker 1: but you especially know it when you feel it, because
[3:29] Speaker 1: it's just so light and playful, and there is a
[3:32] Speaker 1: part of you that really can tap into it and
[3:35] Speaker 1: feels differently. The best description of whimsy that I've ever
[3:40] Speaker 1: seen came from a therapist in Colorado whose name I
[3:43] Speaker 1: am forgetting in this very moment, but what she basically
[3:47] Speaker 1: said was that whimsy is playfulness deliberately woven into the ordinary.
[3:51] Speaker 1: And I think that is the best description I could
[3:55] Speaker 1: come up with or she could come up with. It
[3:57] Speaker 1: is doing things just for the sake of doing them,
[4:01] Speaker 1: because they are strange, because they are humorous, because they
[4:04] Speaker 1: are fun and nostalgic. And a core part of this
[4:08] Speaker 1: is that they don't have to serve any other purpose, right,
[4:11] Speaker 1: they don't have to be productive. It is why we
[4:15] Speaker 1: like to blow bubbles as you walk down the street,
[4:17] Speaker 1: or collect trinkets. It's playing dress ups, it's dancing in
[4:21] Speaker 1: the woods. It's using the good candle that you normally save.
[4:24] Speaker 1: It's like baking a chocolate cake just because you felt
[4:28] Speaker 1: like it, just because it brings you joy. What's interesting
[4:32] Speaker 1: to me actually, as a little sidebar, is how feminized
[4:38] Speaker 1: whimsy really is. A lot of what we see as whimsical,
[4:41] Speaker 1: I've started to realize is just domestic tasks or domestic
[4:44] Speaker 1: activities like that are solely reserved for women now being
[4:48] Speaker 1: reclaimed as fun for women, like baking, frolicking, dressing up, collecting.
[4:55] Speaker 1: You know, another huge part of whimsy is it's very childlike, right,
[4:58] Speaker 1: It's very nostalgic, which we're going to get into a
[5:01] Speaker 1: lot more later on. But whimsy and the way that
[5:05] Speaker 1: it's now nowadays portrayed, it's not just reserved for one gender,
[5:10] Speaker 1: or indeed just for children, and I fear that some
[5:14] Speaker 1: of the framing that's taking place, especially online, might exclude
[5:17] Speaker 1: a lot of people who could genuinely use its psychological benefits.
[5:22] Speaker 1: Whimsy can also be more traditionally masculine as well adventure
[5:27] Speaker 1: building something by hand that you could probably go out
[5:29] Speaker 1: and buy that would be better, and indeed also frolicking,
[5:35] Speaker 1: also cooking, also dancing and being present. Whimsy is for
[5:38] Speaker 1: everyone because it's truly about returning to this very core, gooey,
[5:44] Speaker 1: gentler part of yourself that has been not to sound severe,
[5:49] Speaker 1: but like kind of lost to the grief of growing
[5:52] Speaker 1: up and seeing how harsh the world can really be.
[5:56] Speaker 1: I think this is why we are seeing such a
[6:00] Speaker 1: reclamation or a resurgence of whimsy, especially in recent years,
[6:04] Speaker 1: almost as like a psychological and mental protest of the
[6:10] Speaker 1: equally pressing trends of like the five am morning routines
[6:13] Speaker 1: and productivity planners and hustling and ambition block days and
[6:18] Speaker 1: ten leads of water, ten thousand steps, ten squeezes of
[6:22] Speaker 1: a lemon at ten am, ten thousands of hours of
[6:24] Speaker 1: habits and discipline, like whimsy is the antithesis of all this,
[6:28] Speaker 1: and people are getting sick of feeling like their lives
[6:31] Speaker 1: need to be so structured and organized and perfect. And
[6:36] Speaker 1: it's kind of this completely contradictory attitude that says, let's
[6:42] Speaker 1: not look for ways to be more productive, let's actually
[6:45] Speaker 1: not look for purpose and everything we do, let's just
[6:49] Speaker 1: exist and appreciate how special and silly life really is
[6:52] Speaker 1: for no other reason other than that we can. Obviously,
[6:56] Speaker 1: people have then realized they can make a lot of
[6:59] Speaker 1: money off that feeling. They can make money off of
[7:01] Speaker 1: any human feeling these days, and that has definitely branched
[7:06] Speaker 1: off into a few big trends that we've seen come
[7:09] Speaker 1: and go in the past few years that are a
[7:11] Speaker 1: direct response to our need for more whimsy, but it's
[7:15] Speaker 1: just been packaged by people who can make money off
[7:17] Speaker 1: of it. So like the biggest and most obvious one
[7:20] Speaker 1: was cottage call right, the idea of slow living and
[7:24] Speaker 1: collecting produced and dressing cute and in flowy skirts and
[7:28] Speaker 1: floral patterns and having the Gigham bed sheets. Then brands
[7:33] Speaker 1: like Sheene and Amazon marketed that for us and made
[7:36] Speaker 1: the cute strawberry dresses and made like the sticker books
[7:39] Speaker 1: and made like all that stuff. Another one was fairy core.
[7:44] Speaker 1: There was definitely this whole. I think it's kind of
[7:46] Speaker 1: still ongoing of people like playing dress ups, and I
[7:49] Speaker 1: guess I'm wearing a little crown right now, people wearing crowns,
[7:53] Speaker 1: and now I think the next iteration of that. And
[7:58] Speaker 1: don't hate me for saying this, but I think the
[8:02] Speaker 1: resurgence of analogue activities and arts and crafts and snail
[8:06] Speaker 1: mail and junk journaling that is the next whimsy trend.
[8:10] Speaker 1: That is the next way that we are trying to
[8:13] Speaker 1: adopt more whimsy into our lives. And I really hope
[8:15] Speaker 1: at lasts, like I so hope that this is the
[8:18] Speaker 1: trend to the whimsy trend that sticks and won't just
[8:21] Speaker 1: produce more landfill, because, like I said, whimsy and activities
[8:25] Speaker 1: like this, ones that serve no purpose other than joy,
[8:29] Speaker 1: are really important, especially in this day and age. Hence
[8:32] Speaker 1: why they're trending. You know, A core part of why
[8:36] Speaker 1: whimsy is so great is that it's choosing to focus
[8:41] Speaker 1: on the good right, particularly what feels nice and light
[8:47] Speaker 1: and enjoyable for the mind and for the soul. There's
[8:51] Speaker 1: this core cognitive psychology principle that what you choose to
[8:54] Speaker 1: focus on expands and dominates your mindset, and what you
[8:58] Speaker 1: don't focus on, you know, hopefully doesn't have as much
[9:02] Speaker 1: of a say on your mindset and doesn't hurt you
[9:05] Speaker 1: as much. Right now, the world is a pretty despicable place,
[9:09] Speaker 1: and sometimes that's all we can focus on, and that's
[9:14] Speaker 1: the only thing we can pay attention to. And if
[9:17] Speaker 1: that is the only thing you can pay attention to,
[9:19] Speaker 1: you could very easily become convinced that this is the
[9:22] Speaker 1: one thing that the world is. The world is just terrible,
[9:25] Speaker 1: like in its singularity, the world is just cruel, The
[9:29] Speaker 1: world is just evil. Life is only about struggle, and
[9:33] Speaker 1: life is only hard because that's what's really being pushed
[9:36] Speaker 1: into our face. And also not push like just looking
[9:38] Speaker 1: around anywhere. It's you don't have to search for how
[9:42] Speaker 1: terrible things are, and that like the deep psychological pessimism
[9:46] Speaker 1: that this creates can actually increase our sense of powerlessness
[9:50] Speaker 1: because everything we're facing feels totally immovable. No human mind,
[9:57] Speaker 1: no human soul, can survive in a mental environment where
[10:01] Speaker 1: they truly believe that the world is just truly evil
[10:05] Speaker 1: and incapable of change. So making whimsy a spiritual and
[10:10] Speaker 1: psychological practice for ourselves that breaks that pessimism loop, even
[10:15] Speaker 1: just occasionally. It diverts your attention to all the good
[10:19] Speaker 1: that still exists, and we really need that more than ever.
[10:22] Speaker 1: When we hear people say joy is resistance, right, this
[10:25] Speaker 1: is what I always think of whimsy joy. Those practices restock,
[10:32] Speaker 1: They restock, like your mental and emotional reserves, so that
[10:35] Speaker 1: you can go on, especially separately if you're in your twenties,
[10:42] Speaker 1: it can quickly feel like during this decade that life
[10:44] Speaker 1: is just an endless to do list and you're really
[10:47] Speaker 1: finally being exposed to like what true adulthood is like.
[10:50] Speaker 1: And more and more people expect things from you, more
[10:55] Speaker 1: and more tasks are required from you. There is no
[11:00] Speaker 1: answer for anything. Everything is confusing. You have no idea
[11:02] Speaker 1: what the next five years is going to be like.
[11:04] Speaker 1: There's this real whiplash into adulthood that can be really
[11:08] Speaker 1: hard and having whimsy in those moments as a lot
[11:11] Speaker 1: of us are choosing to do and choosing to pursue,
[11:14] Speaker 1: you know, something as simple as putting a ribbon on
[11:17] Speaker 1: your back or putting a cute figurine on your windowsill
[11:19] Speaker 1: for people to enjoy or like having a cupcake with lunch.
[11:23] Speaker 1: That's not silly, that's really helpful in times when the
[11:27] Speaker 1: world just constantly feels like it needs something from us.
[11:30] Speaker 1: Part of this is also because whimsy allows you to
[11:35] Speaker 1: stop taking certain things too seriously. And know that now
[11:40] Speaker 1: I'm not referring to global and political things. I'm talking
[11:43] Speaker 1: about personal things. But when you have whimsy in your life,
[11:48] Speaker 1: the mistrain, the slow walker, like the rejection email from
[11:52] Speaker 1: that job you applied for, we don't overinvest in it
[11:58] Speaker 1: as much. And when our mind does overinvest in that
[12:01] Speaker 1: stuff because there's nothing else to break up, just our
[12:04] Speaker 1: sense of failure of frustration, we actually hinder our brain's
[12:09] Speaker 1: ability to rewire itself and we only focus on the
[12:11] Speaker 1: negative in the bad that stunts our cognitive ability for transformation.
[12:18] Speaker 1: Let's break into some neuroscience for a second to explain
[12:21] Speaker 1: why this is. Starting with the most basic first principles,
[12:26] Speaker 1: your brain is constantly changing and constantly building new connections
[12:31] Speaker 1: and different lobes and across different lobes and across different regions.
[12:36] Speaker 1: A lot of people think of this as like electoral wiring,
[12:38] Speaker 1: or like your neurological wiring is like a bunch of roads,
[12:43] Speaker 1: or train lines or like a map something like that,
[12:46] Speaker 1: and it's much more like a forest, right, It's much
[12:50] Speaker 1: more like a forest where seeds are planted, thousands of seeds,
[12:54] Speaker 1: thousands of thoughts a day, thousands of potential habits are planted,
[12:57] Speaker 1: and only a couple hundred of saplings and urge, and
[13:01] Speaker 1: then from those saplings, only a dozen or even less
[13:04] Speaker 1: than that, of those saplings turn into these big, strong
[13:08] Speaker 1: pillars of your identity, these big strong trees that make
[13:11] Speaker 1: up your personality and make up your behavior. And the
[13:15] Speaker 1: thing is, when you experience stress, when you see the
[13:19] Speaker 1: world as dangerous, when you're overwhelmed, that forest that your
[13:23] Speaker 1: brain wants to build and is constantly building day in
[13:25] Speaker 1: and day out, a lot of those new structures can
[13:29] Speaker 1: only get so big and tall. Your ability to develop
[13:33] Speaker 1: new copy mechanisms, develop new behaviors, to change past behaviors.
[13:37] Speaker 1: That growth is stunted. Your brain's ability to form new
[13:40] Speaker 1: patterns is stunted because the external environment is hostile and
[13:44] Speaker 1: it's scary, and so it becomes biologically harder to focus
[13:48] Speaker 1: and form new patterns. This is simply because being in
[13:52] Speaker 1: a state of stress or a state of real psychological
[13:56] Speaker 1: negativity hijacks all of your resources whilst also suppressing dendric
[14:01] Speaker 1: branching and neurogenesis, especially in this region called the hippocampus,
[14:05] Speaker 1: that is the part that's basically called the learning center
[14:08] Speaker 1: of the brain. Constant negativity and stress. It's not always
[14:13] Speaker 1: our choice, but when you can shift your brain to
[14:17] Speaker 1: being playful in those environments and during these years of
[14:20] Speaker 1: your life when things are just really intense, it's so
[14:24] Speaker 1: helpful because you show your brain it's safe enough to
[14:26] Speaker 1: prioritize more than just its stress response, and it's safe
[14:30] Speaker 1: enough to prioritize things that aren't just negative. There's this
[14:34] Speaker 1: incredible research paper that was published last year titled Playful Brains,
[14:40] Speaker 1: which is such a cute name, and it essentially says,
[14:43] Speaker 1: whimsy and play keep your brain young because these activities
[14:51] Speaker 1: require continuous adaptation and exploration. Whimsy, like how I like
[14:56] Speaker 1: to see it in this kind of framework, is like
[14:59] Speaker 1: the rays of sunshine, and that like pour down on
[15:01] Speaker 1: your neural forest and make it flourish. It is literally
[15:07] Speaker 1: fertilizing the soil in which your brain can grow new connections.
[15:13] Speaker 1: It's also a somatic strategy, right, We're boosting oxytocin where
[15:17] Speaker 1: it decreases cortisol. It's allowing your body and mind to
[15:21] Speaker 1: shift from alert to safe and imaginative and imagination. Imagination
[15:27] Speaker 1: is another big concept that makes whimsy so special and
[15:31] Speaker 1: psychologically powerful. I feel like so many of these words
[15:36] Speaker 1: that we're using today are like so synonymous with childhood, right, imagination, play, joy,
[15:44] Speaker 1: And that's not an accident. When is your brain forming
[15:48] Speaker 1: the most connections during childhood? When were you likely the
[15:53] Speaker 1: most optimistic you've ever been in your life during childhood?
[15:57] Speaker 1: When did you have the biggest dreams during child childhood?
[16:01] Speaker 1: A lot of this is because we had permission to
[16:03] Speaker 1: have fun, and having fun is a big part of
[16:07] Speaker 1: how we learned to emotionally regulate and how we learned
[16:11] Speaker 1: to just learn and test our surroundings, as much as
[16:15] Speaker 1: that gets stripped from us in adulthood. Remember a few
[16:19] Speaker 1: years ago, I don't know if I'm sure we all
[16:21] Speaker 1: remember this. Actually, inner child healing was like huge, and
[16:25] Speaker 1: like the Internet was obsessed with it, and people would
[16:28] Speaker 1: have a childhood picture of themselves up on the mirror
[16:30] Speaker 1: and they would buy themselves like the toys, like the
[16:33] Speaker 1: Littlest Pet shops, so like the beanie babies from childhood,
[16:36] Speaker 1: and they would rewatch movies from when they were a kid,
[16:40] Speaker 1: and there was such a resurgence of like Hannah Montana
[16:42] Speaker 1: and like people wanting those remakes. I think that's still
[16:46] Speaker 1: kind of ongoing now because it is so fantastic. But
[16:49] Speaker 1: this is exactly what This is the practice that we're
[16:52] Speaker 1: getting at, right, this is the fundamental stuff that we're
[16:54] Speaker 1: getting back. We're getting at Childhood was the last time
[16:58] Speaker 1: many of us felt like ourselves and felt good about
[17:01] Speaker 1: the world. Getting back to that and also mending the
[17:05] Speaker 1: scars that were left on that version of us that
[17:08] Speaker 1: still show up today. That is what prompts a lot
[17:11] Speaker 1: of healing, and whimsy is a direct path to doing that.
[17:16] Speaker 1: There's another thing I said before that I just want
[17:18] Speaker 1: to quickly circle back on before I move on. Play
[17:21] Speaker 1: as a form of emotional regulation. Literally, this may sound
[17:26] Speaker 1: so weird, but whimsy is a form of emotional regulation.
[17:30] Speaker 1: When you do arts and crafts, when you collect your
[17:33] Speaker 1: little trinkets, you are essentially signaling to your brain, well,
[17:38] Speaker 1: if I'm having fun, like, it can't be that serious, right,
[17:41] Speaker 1: Like Genuinely, they've done studies on this in Germany, in
[17:44] Speaker 1: Malaysia in the US, and play is essentially a signal
[17:49] Speaker 1: to your nervous system that we are safe, and so
[17:51] Speaker 1: it allows you to go from survival to engagement. So
[17:55] Speaker 1: it's so important, like, don't let people make fun of
[17:58] Speaker 1: you for this stuff. It is psycho logically powerful for
[18:01] Speaker 1: your nervous system and for your brain and every other
[18:04] Speaker 1: system going on in your body. A couple of years ago,
[18:07] Speaker 1: I got really into these adult coloring books. I feel
[18:10] Speaker 1: like I talked about it on the show a bunch,
[18:12] Speaker 1: but thirty minutes of that and I did more for
[18:15] Speaker 1: me and my stress and my nervous system than I
[18:20] Speaker 1: think most actual nervous system exercises that were given to
[18:24] Speaker 1: me by a therapist. Now that's not for everyone, but
[18:27] Speaker 1: it worked for me. I really did reach like a
[18:30] Speaker 1: flow state with this stuff, and I experienced this level
[18:34] Speaker 1: of peace that I never had before all because I
[18:37] Speaker 1: had these like pink and yellow and green markers, and
[18:41] Speaker 1: I was able to switch my brain from hypervigilance to
[18:47] Speaker 1: creative engagement, and that was what really made me feel better.
[18:52] Speaker 1: A lot of people experienced something similar, I think with
[18:54] Speaker 1: like knitting painting, because that again that creative activation. Sorry
[19:00] Speaker 1: to like beat a horse dead, but like that creative
[19:03] Speaker 1: activation unconsciously says to your brain, hey, you're okay, Like
[19:09] Speaker 1: why else would we would be making art if we
[19:12] Speaker 1: weren't okay. On top of this, some researchers even suggested
[19:15] Speaker 1: that adult playfulness will make you more intelligent. People who
[19:20] Speaker 1: are more playful in adulthood are smarter. A twenty twenty
[19:24] Speaker 1: one study published in the US actually looked at over
[19:27] Speaker 1: three hundred students and it measured both their emotional intelligence
[19:32] Speaker 1: and how playful they were. And what the study revealed,
[19:37] Speaker 1: unsurprisingly in their words, was that there was this strong
[19:42] Speaker 1: positive connection between intelligence and the more playful you were,
[19:47] Speaker 1: or how fun and seeking you were. So this is
[19:50] Speaker 1: what we're seeing so far, right, This is the point
[19:52] Speaker 1: we keep kind of coming back to. Whimsy isn't just silly.
[19:56] Speaker 1: It is psychologically protective during hard time. It helps your
[20:01] Speaker 1: brain stay in an active state of rewiring. It helps
[20:07] Speaker 1: you to regulate your emotions better than I think most
[20:11] Speaker 1: strategies we have as adults, and it may make you
[20:14] Speaker 1: more intelligent. There's just like so many wins to this
[20:18] Speaker 1: that we just cannot discount. And there is one final
[20:22] Speaker 1: reason it's so powerful that I want to talk about
[20:24] Speaker 1: as well. Before we get into how to make whimsy
[20:28] Speaker 1: a habit. We're going to talk about that last significant
[20:31] Speaker 1: reason after this short break, so stay with us. The
[20:40] Speaker 1: final reason I think that whimsy has some deep emotional
[20:47] Speaker 1: power over us is because of how our brain responds
[20:52] Speaker 1: to beauty, and so much of whimsy is, at the
[20:54] Speaker 1: end of the day about creating beauty and like the
[20:57] Speaker 1: most mundane stuff, making art, making things pretty for no reason,
[21:04] Speaker 1: buying flowers just because you want to, like bringing in
[21:07] Speaker 1: color and all those kinds of stuff. It's just trying
[21:10] Speaker 1: to make the world more beautiful and lovely. I read
[21:14] Speaker 1: this phenomenal substact the other day by this writer who
[21:17] Speaker 1: goes by plum Pits, and it just stopped me in
[21:20] Speaker 1: my tracks because she was talking about this, and she
[21:22] Speaker 1: was talking about this distinct field of research called neuro esthetics,
[21:27] Speaker 1: which essentially explains what we're talking about right, how the
[21:31] Speaker 1: brain reacts to beauty and how powerful that is. In
[21:35] Speaker 1: the late twentieth century, there was this one man in particular,
[21:38] Speaker 1: this Turkish neurobiologist who is still alive today, and he
[21:44] Speaker 1: became really fascinated with this. He was like, why do
[21:47] Speaker 1: our brains, or how do our brains respond to beauty
[21:50] Speaker 1: in such a different way to how they respond to
[21:52] Speaker 1: the rest of the world. And he started doing these
[21:55] Speaker 1: very simple experiments to try and kind of figure out
[21:59] Speaker 1: what was happening behind the scenes. These experiments were just
[22:02] Speaker 1: so basic and so profound. He would essentially just show
[22:06] Speaker 1: people different kinds of art and music, and he would
[22:10] Speaker 1: just look using fMRIs and egs, he would just see
[22:13] Speaker 1: how their brains responded, what parts of their brains were
[22:16] Speaker 1: lighting up, what parts of their brains weren't. He found
[22:19] Speaker 1: that our response to beauty isn't sectioned, it's not singular.
[22:23] Speaker 1: It activates almost every single region of the brain all
[22:28] Speaker 1: at once. So, yes, your sensory cortext is are obviously
[22:32] Speaker 1: going to be involved. The parts of your brain that
[22:34] Speaker 1: are responsible for seeing and hearing and feeling and going
[22:36] Speaker 1: to be involved. But then it was also the medial
[22:39] Speaker 1: or biofrontal cortext which is involved in evaluating meaning and
[22:43] Speaker 1: also chasing what feels good. That part of our brain
[22:46] Speaker 1: was like on fire, and also the emotional parts of
[22:49] Speaker 1: our brain, the emotional cause of our brain, which also
[22:53] Speaker 1: influenced our nervous system response. Showed a big reaction when
[22:57] Speaker 1: we saw beauty, when we saw art, emotional activation that
[23:01] Speaker 1: beauty brings. That. That is why we feel emotional when
[23:05] Speaker 1: we hear like wonderful music. That is why we like
[23:09] Speaker 1: sometimes cry when we see art, or like feel intense
[23:16] Speaker 1: happiness but also sadness when we see like a thousand
[23:19] Speaker 1: year old church, or we see the sun hitting the
[23:23] Speaker 1: tulips that we got for five ninety nine on the
[23:25] Speaker 1: way home from work. Beauty elicits or it elicits wonder,
[23:32] Speaker 1: It elicits gratitude. It will just make you cry from
[23:38] Speaker 1: happiness and cry from just wonder, and that obviously has
[23:43] Speaker 1: a neurobiological impact. There was one University of Michigan study
[23:47] Speaker 1: that found that our appreciation for beauty in this way
[23:51] Speaker 1: and our every day I don't know, our everyday preference
[23:56] Speaker 1: for what looks lovely and pretty, when we experience more
[23:59] Speaker 1: of that, that decreases inflammation. It reduces risk of depression,
[24:04] Speaker 1: risk of diabetes, risk of cardiovascular disease. When people say,
[24:08] Speaker 1: you know, art isn't important, or nature isn't important, or
[24:12] Speaker 1: whatever other crap, people say, like I don't want to
[24:17] Speaker 1: hear it, because this is what the science says. This
[24:19] Speaker 1: is what you need to remind them of practices and
[24:22] Speaker 1: activities that bring the beauty of life to the surface
[24:26] Speaker 1: and make things look pretty and esthetic and lovely and
[24:31] Speaker 1: which feel good to look at. That's life changing, that's
[24:36] Speaker 1: not like a benign thing, that is truly powerful and
[24:38] Speaker 1: dare I say, I honestly think that whimsy and beauty
[24:42] Speaker 1: are as spiritual in some ways as prayer or traditions
[24:46] Speaker 1: or celebrations or repenting or sacrifice your body for whatever
[24:50] Speaker 1: mysterious and wonderful reason wants you to experience more of
[24:54] Speaker 1: this and it wants you to like it's just such
[24:59] Speaker 1: positive signs that the this is an experience we should
[25:01] Speaker 1: be chasing. And also, just to add to that, I
[25:05] Speaker 1: think this is something about whims that we really need
[25:07] Speaker 1: to concentrate on more so often if we want it
[25:10] Speaker 1: to be like a lot of these examples are free
[25:14] Speaker 1: or very affordable, and these days, so much of what
[25:17] Speaker 1: is meant to help us out mentally is very expensive.
[25:20] Speaker 1: Therapy is very expensive. I genuinely I think I pay
[25:23] Speaker 1: my therapist two hundred pounds a session. That is an
[25:27] Speaker 1: insane amount. Self care practices are very expensive, especially in
[25:33] Speaker 1: the way that they're marketed to us these days, and whimsy,
[25:38] Speaker 1: on the other hand, is a very affordable practice. And yes,
[25:42] Speaker 1: it's currently being commercialized, and it's being turned into products
[25:45] Speaker 1: and into an esthetic that you can buy. But being
[25:49] Speaker 1: a little bit silly leaving like a secret note in
[25:51] Speaker 1: a library book, painting rocks and leaving them for others
[25:55] Speaker 1: to find random acts of kindness that costs you nothing,
[25:59] Speaker 1: if not very very little. So if you want to
[26:05] Speaker 1: fully capture the power of all this whimsical, magical, wonderful thinking,
[26:11] Speaker 1: let's talk about a some fun examples of activities that
[26:15] Speaker 1: you can do, and b how to turn whimsy from
[26:19] Speaker 1: something that you do occasionally into an actual habit. I
[26:24] Speaker 1: had my own list of like activities, whimsical activities ready
[26:28] Speaker 1: to go, and then I thought, actually, I'm gonna ask
[26:31] Speaker 1: you guys, hence why I have my phone. Let me
[26:34] Speaker 1: make sure that's on silence since I'm in the studio.
[26:36] Speaker 1: I always forget to do that. But when you guys
[26:40] Speaker 1: sent me your responses, I just I scrapped my list
[26:44] Speaker 1: and I decided just to go with what you guys
[26:46] Speaker 1: were saying, because you guys gave me such creative, amazing
[26:49] Speaker 1: ideas that you guys do, and I'm just not surprised
[26:52] Speaker 1: because we have some very creative people who listen. But
[26:56] Speaker 1: I want to read out some of these two for
[26:58] Speaker 1: inspiration if you're thinking about whimsy and like come kind
[27:01] Speaker 1: of coming up blank. Okay, if you're ready, here we go.
[27:07] Speaker 1: This first one comes from Genie, and this was one
[27:10] Speaker 1: of my favorites. She says, I say hi and by
[27:13] Speaker 1: to my car whenever I drive him. Firstly, love that
[27:16] Speaker 1: she said him, like she's personalized, like personified him. That
[27:20] Speaker 1: is so cute. There were surprisingly so many that were
[27:24] Speaker 1: car related. People who would like thank their car, people
[27:27] Speaker 1: who would like decorate their cars, very car focused whimsical
[27:33] Speaker 1: activities on this list. This next one, I say thank
[27:37] Speaker 1: you to my candles before I blow them out. I
[27:39] Speaker 1: say a spell and I wish myself a good day.
[27:42] Speaker 1: When I apply perfume in the morning, when I have
[27:44] Speaker 1: to do my skin care, I apply my moisturizer or
[27:49] Speaker 1: my sun's screen in a heart on my face. That
[27:52] Speaker 1: is so cute. I'm going to steal that one. I
[27:55] Speaker 1: unbag my groceries like I'm filming a hall for my boyfriend,
[27:58] Speaker 1: even though we just bought them all together. Cute. I
[28:01] Speaker 1: have a monthly newsletter with my best friend called the
[28:04] Speaker 1: Whimsy Sisters. That one's from Maya, Maya, that is a
[28:09] Speaker 1: great idea. Honestly, If any of my friends are listening
[28:12] Speaker 1: to this, Emma, Kate, Sarah, I'm thinking about you, guys.
[28:16] Speaker 1: I feel like this is a great idea. A whimsy
[28:18] Speaker 1: newsletter or a monthly news newsletter. Sorry, Maya, We're going
[28:22] Speaker 1: to steal your whimsy sister's name for like your long
[28:25] Speaker 1: distance friends would be just such a great way of
[28:28] Speaker 1: staying in touch. This next one, as well, I just
[28:31] Speaker 1: thought was so genius. Is genius the right word? I
[28:35] Speaker 1: think genius is the right word. I put fun sprinkles
[28:38] Speaker 1: in my oatmeal and yogurt bowls to add a bit
[28:41] Speaker 1: of whimsy to my morning. How have I never thought
[28:44] Speaker 1: about that? Like, that's such a great idea. I leave
[28:49] Speaker 1: notes on napkins at restaurants and cafes when the service
[28:51] Speaker 1: was really good. I talk to my plants and I
[28:54] Speaker 1: tell them that I love them. When I water them,
[28:56] Speaker 1: that is so special. I drink any drink I want
[29:00] Speaker 1: in a wineglass, milk, diet coke, water or whatever because
[29:04] Speaker 1: I can. I have a weekly fairy walk. I go
[29:06] Speaker 1: on where I pretend I'm a fairy observing the world
[29:09] Speaker 1: for the first time, I twirl in circles, I spread
[29:12] Speaker 1: some magic, and I pretend that I'm leaving a glitter
[29:14] Speaker 1: trail wherever I go. This actually brings me to the
[29:19] Speaker 1: story of why I have this one, because I did
[29:21] Speaker 1: something similar the other day with my friend Jack And
[29:24] Speaker 1: if you follow me on Instagram, maybe you saw this real.
[29:26] Speaker 1: But both of us have been definitely feeling like the sad,
[29:30] Speaker 1: the seasonal effective disorder of the London winter, of the
[29:33] Speaker 1: UK winter, especially coming from Australia, Like I just don't
[29:37] Speaker 1: think my body is built for this. But we went
[29:40] Speaker 1: on this walk in Hampstead Heath and we were as
[29:43] Speaker 1: we were walking down from the train station, there's this
[29:46] Speaker 1: magic shop and we, I don't know why, we walked in.
[29:49] Speaker 1: It's like a puppet, a puppet and a magic shop.
[29:51] Speaker 1: We walked in and they were selling these ones that
[29:54] Speaker 1: one over there for like five ninety nine or something,
[29:57] Speaker 1: not that expensive, and we just kind of looked at
[30:01] Speaker 1: each other and we were like, we should just buy
[30:02] Speaker 1: one of these, and we should go for a little walk,
[30:04] Speaker 1: and we should spread some magic and we should I
[30:08] Speaker 1: don't know we just were like running around the park, honestly,
[30:11] Speaker 1: slipping in a lot of the mud and just like
[30:12] Speaker 1: spreading magic and anytime. Like it was quite funny, Like
[30:16] Speaker 1: obviously we were like making little noises and like waving
[30:20] Speaker 1: this big magic stick around and there's like a bunch
[30:24] Speaker 1: of dogs there, and all the dogs were kind of
[30:25] Speaker 1: going like a little bit crazy for it. I think
[30:28] Speaker 1: they probably didn't realize they just thought we were weird,
[30:30] Speaker 1: which makes sense, right, or they thought we were like
[30:32] Speaker 1: trying to play like fetch with them. And it was
[30:36] Speaker 1: just the most magical day I've had in a while.
[30:38] Speaker 1: I genuinely felt like I was glowing for the rest
[30:43] Speaker 1: of the afternoon, like vibrationally, emotionally. It was like I
[30:48] Speaker 1: had done some like energetic cleanse or like some mental detox.
[30:53] Speaker 1: I just felt phenomenal. And part of that is what's
[30:56] Speaker 1: inspired this episode, right, thinking about why I felt that
[31:01] Speaker 1: great and why there must be some kind of science
[31:04] Speaker 1: to the transformation. It kind of gave me, even just
[31:08] Speaker 1: for a day. And that's the other thing with whimsy, right,
[31:10] Speaker 1: you can either ritualize it or you can just use
[31:13] Speaker 1: it as like a spontaneous mood pick me up. There
[31:17] Speaker 1: is definitely evidence though as much as like those one
[31:20] Speaker 1: off things are amazing, the more you ritualize your whimsy,
[31:25] Speaker 1: the better, as long as it's not like two burdensome.
[31:29] Speaker 1: I know this may sound very like contra to what
[31:31] Speaker 1: we've been discussing this whole time. You know, whimsy is
[31:34] Speaker 1: meant to be spontaneous and sporadic and playful. That's like
[31:37] Speaker 1: the whole nature of this. But what I mean by
[31:41] Speaker 1: ritualizing whimsy is that making it a daily or a
[31:45] Speaker 1: weekly priority rather than something you just do when like
[31:49] Speaker 1: you just feel really crap, is going to bring about
[31:54] Speaker 1: a lot more of those mental and emotional results time
[31:58] Speaker 1: you're whimsy, especially to something you do every day like
[32:03] Speaker 1: that perfume example, or the moisturizer example or the glass example.
[32:07] Speaker 1: That increases how easily you're going to be able to
[32:10] Speaker 1: see whimsy and happiness and joy everywhere else. And I
[32:16] Speaker 1: think it will also increase like the long term positive
[32:21] Speaker 1: dose that your brain and your body will get from,
[32:24] Speaker 1: you know, the psychological power of whimsy. Making it a
[32:28] Speaker 1: daily practice, the way that you make exercise a daily practice,
[32:31] Speaker 1: or you make hygiene or sleep a daily practice, is
[32:34] Speaker 1: something we could definitely all benefit from especially in this
[32:36] Speaker 1: day and age. I would also say remind yourself that
[32:41] Speaker 1: most whimsy should cost you nothing. That's what I really
[32:44] Speaker 1: liked about a lot of those examples people sent in.
[32:47] Speaker 1: I kind of keep returning to this. But you don't
[32:50] Speaker 1: need the two hundred dollars art kit, and you don't
[32:52] Speaker 1: need to host like an expensive themed dress up night
[32:56] Speaker 1: or whatever else to feel the positive effects. There is
[33:01] Speaker 1: no hierarchy, there is no kind of the more money
[33:06] Speaker 1: you spend on whimsy, the better. In fact, a lot
[33:09] Speaker 1: of research says that the most organic and rudimentary forms
[33:14] Speaker 1: of play, the better the joy is, the deeper the
[33:17] Speaker 1: joy is because it actually allows for more gratitude towards
[33:21] Speaker 1: the ordinary, rather than needing to do something extraordinary to
[33:25] Speaker 1: feel good. Basically, when you try to force whimsy, when
[33:33] Speaker 1: you try to buy whimsy, you actually lose a fundamental
[33:36] Speaker 1: part of it, which is that it is about the mundane.
[33:40] Speaker 1: It is about recognizing what is simply around you and
[33:44] Speaker 1: making that special. The big events, the big shows, the
[33:49] Speaker 1: parties like that's actually, that's great, and that's a lot
[33:52] Speaker 1: of fun. But it's not what whimsy is about, and
[33:56] Speaker 1: it does not make whimsy sustainable. Also, whilst I matter.
[34:00] Speaker 1: Another thing you can do to definitely like elevate your
[34:02] Speaker 1: whimsy is, yeah, make it affordable and involve other people.
[34:09] Speaker 1: This taps into something we know in developmental psychology as
[34:12] Speaker 1: parallel play. When two people often in this case children,
[34:16] Speaker 1: engage in playful activities side by side, it is really
[34:21] Speaker 1: really powerful and really really healing. Going further and then
[34:25] Speaker 1: involving somebody, not just doing it next to each other,
[34:28] Speaker 1: but involving somebody in your stories and in your imagination.
[34:33] Speaker 1: You know, both of you trying not to step on
[34:36] Speaker 1: the cracks, both of you waving your ones around, both
[34:39] Speaker 1: of you looking for the four leaf clover like whatever
[34:42] Speaker 1: it is, whether it's your boyfriend, it's your friend, it's
[34:44] Speaker 1: your siblings. That can literally be a form of coregulation.
[34:48] Speaker 1: You know, we mentioned self regulation a lot at the beginning,
[34:51] Speaker 1: and how whimsy is an emotional regulator. But when you
[34:54] Speaker 1: are with another person and you're feeling calm, you're feeling magical,
[34:59] Speaker 1: you're feeling creative and playful. That internal mindset, that internal
[35:06] Speaker 1: feeling that's contagious. If you've ever heard of the term
[35:10] Speaker 1: mirror neurons, which I'm sure you have at this point,
[35:13] Speaker 1: especially if you're a psychology student, mirror neurons, This is
[35:16] Speaker 1: exactly what is at play here. Mirror neurons are essentially
[35:20] Speaker 1: the mind's social mirror, and specifically, to kind of explain
[35:26] Speaker 1: it more, it's why when you see someone else doing something,
[35:30] Speaker 1: or you see somebody else performing a behavior, or you
[35:33] Speaker 1: see somebody else singing or whatever, it is, a part
[35:36] Speaker 1: of you automatically responds to them and wants to copy
[35:39] Speaker 1: what that person is doing and wants to copy their
[35:41] Speaker 1: behavior and get involved. I don't know, guys, I just
[35:45] Speaker 1: whimsy because of that and how it activates mirror neurons
[35:48] Speaker 1: and how it's contagious. I think that's why it's so
[35:51] Speaker 1: life changing and why it could really change the world
[35:55] Speaker 1: and make us all, hopefully a happier species if we
[35:58] Speaker 1: just like invited more people in because it's so organic
[36:01] Speaker 1: and it's so like in our DNA to find purpose
[36:05] Speaker 1: just in simple beauty and in the ordinary. And I
[36:08] Speaker 1: feel like a lot of technology and a lot of
[36:11] Speaker 1: rapid advancements and a lot of what's going on in
[36:13] Speaker 1: the world right now is made that feel very inaccessible.
[36:21] Speaker 1: Before we leave this topic behind, before we close out
[36:24] Speaker 1: our episode on the psychology of whimsy. One quick caveat
[36:29] Speaker 1: whimsy is very special, It is very beautiful. It is
[36:34] Speaker 1: not the solution to all of our problems. I know
[36:36] Speaker 1: somebody is gonna come to me. Somebody's gonna come at
[36:39] Speaker 1: me in the comments in my DMS and be like,
[36:42] Speaker 1: you still need therapy, and you like, we still need
[36:44] Speaker 1: stronger social supports, and you still need good mental health
[36:47] Speaker 1: habits like whimsy is not that important. Let's make that
[36:52] Speaker 1: very clear. Yes, you cannot just play mermaids in the
[36:54] Speaker 1: pool and think that that is your dose of good
[36:57] Speaker 1: psychological vibes for the month. I feel like a lot
[37:01] Speaker 1: of you already know this without me, but I just
[37:03] Speaker 1: it goes without saying or I feel like I have
[37:05] Speaker 1: to say it. Whimsy cannot be everything, especially right now.
[37:09] Speaker 1: You know, I see a lot of people being like
[37:11] Speaker 1: joy is resistance, joy is protective, joy is power, and
[37:14] Speaker 1: it is all of those things. But don't let it
[37:17] Speaker 1: become an avoidance technique. I think. I guess what I'm
[37:22] Speaker 1: saying is, don't let your whimsy turn into just another
[37:27] Speaker 1: reason to spend money, or pure hedonism where you only
[37:32] Speaker 1: prioritize pleasure, you only prioritize you feeling good without thinking
[37:37] Speaker 1: about your community. You're thinking about those around you. Just
[37:41] Speaker 1: like keep it in the balance. And I don't want
[37:44] Speaker 1: to end on like kind of a more, I don't
[37:47] Speaker 1: want to end on like a realistic, like kind of
[37:49] Speaker 1: down up tone. But I just think it's important. I
[37:54] Speaker 1: just think it's Whimsy is so fantastic. It cannot be everything.
[37:58] Speaker 1: It is like any other cycle called tool great and
[38:01] Speaker 1: small doses. Let's wrap up the episode, shall we. I
[38:05] Speaker 1: feel like that's everything I have to talk about. I'm
[38:07] Speaker 1: sure there's more that I've forgotten about, but you know what,
[38:11] Speaker 1: before we leave, I want to continue that list. If
[38:15] Speaker 1: you are listening on Spotify, what is your whimsical practice
[38:20] Speaker 1: that we did not include in this episode. What is
[38:23] Speaker 1: something that you do to keep the sparkle alive, to
[38:28] Speaker 1: keep that like childlike goodness alive. I really want to
[38:31] Speaker 1: hear from you, guys. I really want to make this.
[38:33] Speaker 1: Maybe I'll make like a big collaborative list or like
[38:37] Speaker 1: whimsy bucket list for all of us to I don't know,
[38:41] Speaker 1: for all of us to like to start ticking things
[38:43] Speaker 1: off and to kind of share in. So thank you
[38:46] Speaker 1: for listening to this episode, thank you for tuning in.
[38:50] Speaker 1: I hope you found it joyful. I hope you got
[38:52] Speaker 1: some inspiration from it. I hope you liked my Tiara,
[38:56] Speaker 1: Especially if you're watching on Netflix, make sure that you
[38:59] Speaker 1: are following us on Instagram at that psychology podcast, following
[39:04] Speaker 1: us on substack. If you want to read the transcript
[39:09] Speaker 1: and all the papers that we referenced in this episode,
[39:12] Speaker 1: that is where you can find them. But until next time,
[39:16] Speaker 1: be safe, be kind, be gentle to yourself, enjoy some
[39:20] Speaker 1: whimsy today, and we will talk very very soon

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