Gaming is fun, obviously, which is why so many people do it, and why there is such a huge amount of interest in the new generation of consoles (and frustration about the supply issues surrounding them).
But in addition to being fun, gaming can also do a few pretty powerful things for your overall outlook on life, as long as you are approaching games as a way of enriching your life rather than as a way of escaping from it.
So, mix up a beverage from MyMod and settle in. Here are a few ways gaming can help you to have a more powerful outlook on life.
By reminding you of the importance of approaching life playfully
One of the great things that games do is getting you back to that childlike sense of play, where you are doing things in a light-hearted and enthusiastic manner for their own sake, rather than because you are trying to pay the bills, or something else.
Whatever it is you do in your everyday life, approaching it in a spirit of play can help you to not only have a much richer and deeper experience of the thing itself and life overall, but it can also help you to get back in touch with your passion and enthusiasm, and may simultaneously make you better at what you are doing.
Having a sense of wonder and enthusiasm in life can correspond almost perfectly with approaching life in a playful (although not careless or irreverent) manner.
So, let your gaming sessions inspire you to actually have some fun with life.
By encouraging you to think and dream larger-than-life
Most games – or at least, most big story-driven games – feature powerful, dramatic, and larger-than-life plots, protagonists, and themes.
This should hardly come as a surprise to anyone, since we all naturally tend to identify with the protagonists in storylines, games, films, novels, and more. Just about everyone wants life to be exciting, big, and uplifting.
When you play your games, take the opportunity to really absorb that aura of being part of something larger-than-life, something that’s on a truly bold and mythic scale.
Then, don’t be afraid to live in a larger-than-life way, to dream big, and to be bold and courageous.
You really are the main character of your own story, on your own quest. Or, as Cormac McCarthy said, “each man is the bard of his own existence.”
By helping you to find meaning in adversity
A good game is always going to be fun and engaging and, if it’s a story-driven game, there are bound to be great highs and lows, and moments of suspense.
Every game, however, involves a degree of difficulty and adversity. There will be some setbacks and struggles for you, the player to overcome, and there will be challenges and moments of adversity that confront the protagonist of the story.
What good games do well, though, is that they put that adversity into a larger context, and link it to higher meaning.
In your own life, adversity is bound to arise from time to time. But you can choose to view it as something that helps you to grow and develop your own life story.
