No YouTube Game (NYG) and Unstuck Game with a star each
As in the past months, March and the start of April also saw some game evolution in my real-life game collection.
The center of attention was the feeling of being stuck on something and helping myself to get unstuck.
It all started with the following.
In the past, when I was upset, down, or exhausted, I often opened a browser window on my computer, typed the letter “Y,” and accepted the browser’s suggestion to open YouTube. Then, I opened one of the suggested videos and watched it. Then I clicked another one and watched it. Once in a while, I might have searched for a specific topic I was interested in. But more often than not, it was random surfing and watching. Even knowing that taking a break, a nap, standing up, and going away from my desk would be more helpful and restful for me didn’t help me do so.
After much berating, criticizing, and even pep-talk, and no desired results, I decided to design a game for myself. I had done so in the past, but those simple designs were not enticing enough for me to engage in them. Recording badges (one per day) for not watching YouTube was ineffective, and I soon lost fun earning the rewards and fell back into my YouTube routine. I needed something a little more sophisticated.
So, I designed a No YouTube Game (NYG) for myself. In this game, I rewarded myself with a small drawn star badge if I hadn’t watched YouTube randomly on that day. Whenever I felt drawn to open YouTube and surf there, I resisted this urge by switching to another activity. Each time I resisted that urge, I drew a line/element of that star and finished its outline at the end of the day or the next day.
The No YouTube Game evolved further into the Unstuck Game. That evolution happened because after playing NYG for some time, resisting watching YouTube was easy. However, I started reading news and surfing through them, often letting myself get upset about them. So, I felt stuck. Then I had the idea to follow what I like calling Fun Detecting Antenna (my awareness of what is fun for me), but realized that my feeling stuck was not only about fun. So shortly after observing the dilemma, I found the right name for this little game: the Unstuck Game. This game is about awareness and detecting the moments when I feel stuck. When I do, I make sure that I don’t judge myself and open my eyes and mind toward what I could do instead.
And this reminds me of the little game I once described on Medium: the “Instead Of” Game. Here is the link to it:
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The feelings of being stuck and unstuck bring whole cocktails of emotions. I was thrilled to have discovered the possibility of exploring emotions, feelings, and experiences like games. You can find out more about this in my book Navigate Your Emotions by Exploring Them Like Games:
How to Feel with Curiosity Rather Than Suffering