Playing stimulates your brain’s pleasure centers: your basal ganglia (the part that coordinates movement and feeling) and your deep limbic system (home of your emotional intensity and passion). The combined stimulation alerts your prefrontal cortex (the thinking part) to tell you that you’re having fun! To maximize your enjoyment and to reinforce these good feelings, your brain starts pumping out that neurotransmitter we love so much: dopamine. The upshot is that your brain goes on a happy holiday. The more pleasurable experiences you create through play, the happier you’ll be.