Zen Gaming

Are we relaxed when we play video games? My excuse for playing every day is just that. I play mostly solitaire and snood. Maybe relaxation is not the word, maybe it is a refocus, like kicking your TV to untangle the neurons.

For deep relaxation, I play Short Circuit. It is a pairing game with 8 levels with 4 challenges in each. My self-imposed limit is once a week and it now takes around 30+ minutes. I have been playing for a couple of years now and still can get onto the high score board. As I play, the effect is quite meditative. As the task moves from cognitive to associative, ideas come to me. It is quite like the meditation that I did as a student in the 70's. I don't know if I am weird, but this is how I know what is really bothering me and sometimes I figure out how to deal with it.

I didn't know if I needed to explain cognitive to associative. The famous explanation in my field (Learning Disabilities) for moving from an associative task to a cognitive task goes like this.

You are driving in the car with a bunch of kids in the back seat. You are chatting with them, joking around and having a good time. (Driving is associative at this point. You can do two things at once.)

Suddenly, it starts to rain heavily, and cars start sliding around the road. One of the kids demand your attention and you yell, "Could you please be quiet in the back seat, driving which in the past was an associative task, has now become cognitive." (Actually, you would probably yell, "Shut Up, I'm driving." Driving now takes up all your attention because it is now a cognitive task requiring all your cognitive energy.