At the end of a day of wellness education about how to take care of themselves so they can care for their clients, students and patients, dozens of Yampa Valley professionals learned about how small moments of play and a mindset of playfulness can help fight job burnout.
Presenter and employee engagement consultant Acey Holmes, a self-described "play advocate," founded the Castle Rock-based company BoredLess and teaches about playful work design to improve employee engagement and retention and create a meaningful work environment.
"The Playful Cure for Burnout: How Small Moments of Play Build Resilience" was an interactive session of exploring how micromoments of play can reduce stress, spark connection and build personal and community resilience.
Grounded in neuroscience and practical application, the session goal was to help participants recover from burnout by reconnecting with joy, creativity and one another.
"Multiple studies over the past four years are finding disappointing statistics regarding disengagement with American workers; under 35% of the workforce is engaged," Holmes explained.
She said burnout also can manifest as being underchallenged or unfulfilled at work, or as "neglect," when work is not recognized or acknowledged by supervisors or others as valuable.
The speaker said play is important to develop the ability to adapt, overcome, bounce back, get through hard times, and support and maintain mental, emotional and physical well-being.
"The best mindfulness is play because you are fully engaged," Holmes said.
The session about play and playfulness was part of the 2025 Yampa Valley Wellness Conference presented Thursday by nonprofit The Health Partnership serving Northwest Colorado at the Strings Pavilion in Steamboat Springs.
Holmes, who earned a master's degree in speech language pathology, stressed that play to improve work teams does not mean structured times where managers require employees to participate in group team-building outings or exercises such as bowling or an escape room.
"Forced fun is never fun," she said.
Instead, play has defining characteristics including being personal and joyful for each individual, optional, beneficial, seemingly purposeless, intrinsically motivating, actively engaging and changeable as needed.
"For it to be play, we have to be playing for the sake of play itself," Holmes explained. "My goal for all of us is to really know what play is for yourself. It does not have to be something big like learning to play guitar."
The presenter led the audience in an exercise to write down how they would spend an unencumbered and peaceful hour to themselves doing anything and being anywhere so that they could realize what is the best form of play for their needs.
When using play to help combat burnout at work, Holmes advocates for embracing playfulness through a mindset shift. Her definition of playfulness is the ability for an employee to reframe a situation to be interesting, stimulating or entertaining.
She suggests using a technique called reverse gratitude to reframe something that could be perceived as negative to become positive. For example, a day of tedious invoicing means the business is earning revenue.
The presenter said employees fighting burnout might feel stuck, disconnected, unworthy or "blah," so she provided some specific tips to combat those feelings.
When feeling stuck, she advised, interrupt the normal pattern.
"Try doing one small thing differently," Holmes suggested. "Change the music. Sit somewhere new. Narrate your thoughts in a dramatic movie voice out loud."
When feeling disconnected, she suggested, send something weird in an upbeat text or email to a friend.
"Text someone a random emoji," Holmes suggested. "Email a joke from a kids joke book. Share a wildly specific compliment. Be intentionally odd and kind at the same time."
When feeling unworthy, she advised, try to role-play in micromoments to briefly act as someone admirable.
"For 60 seconds, pretend you're someone you know who really thrives," Holmes said. "What do they do with this moment?"
When feeling "blah," she said, try talking out loud to an inanimate object or give a pep talk to an object.
Other sessions during this year's conference included: "The Intelligence of Fun in Building Healthy Community," "Belonging Begins with Self Love" and "Building Resilience through Connection and Co-Regulation."
Organizers said they hope the annual Wellness Conference bolsters professionals who usually spend their work days focusing on the health and wellness of others to be "uplifted and energized and excited to take what they learn and apply it in their lives."
"We hope you are leaving today with the inspiration, fresh tools and a deeper appreciation for your own role in helping others of our community," said Sarah Meade, community impact director at The Health Partnership. "You are part of the fabric of wellness in the Yampa Valley. Your lived experience, your presence, your ideas, they all matter. Let's reach out, listen more deeply and act with intention, because together we really can create awesome change."