Neuroplasticity & Relationship Boost
By Jason Henkel, Chief Balance Engineer
In a journal entry from several months back, I wrote about all the cool things I was going to do with my wife and the kids during the brief quarantine period. Ah the optimism of the beginner quarantinee.
Fast forward nearly 5 months, and all ideas are now exhausted. I’m embarrassed to admit how much digital babysitting we allow (YouTube and gaming). But hey, work continues and school’s out until who knows when and we are parents in unchartered waters with kids stuck at home.
With all of this in mind, in a quiet moment recently, I decided to surrender and just be with the reality of the situation instead of trying to be the architect/solutions guy. I decided to literally play the game! Rather than fighting the kids on all the screen time and digital gaming, I decided to join them on their own field.
Yep- Twitch. Yep- Growtopia. Yep- Fortnite. Yep- Krunker. I actually did it (and am doing it) with full gusto. I wanted to really see what these guys see in these things rather than remaining in my high and mighty books on productivity and work-related skills. I wanted to meet them where they are without all my beliefs and thoughts.
I found three things:
1
A rekindling of “play” in my life. An allowance of just playing around, busting up dirt piles, and building lava walls (Growtopia). How cow! This really is fun stuff once the basics of the controls are mastered.
2
Increased neuroplasticity via having to learn a full new universe of language and society and the purpose behind it all…what keeps these kids coming back? It can only be known by jumping in. It was amazing to build a whole new connectome and be forced to just flow with the high paced rhythm and let the chips fall where they will. I could literally feel my brain stretching in new and interesting ways as I flowed with it all instead of meticulously and deliberately having to figure each step out, which is my default setting. These games these days are built on high-speed learning models. You learn by pushing buttons to see what happens and chatting with others in the game with you. To hell with the consequences; just PLAY! I was shocked by such a dynamic learning environment. It's the polar opposite of in school learning or on the job learning where fear of missing rules the day. This was learning at the speed of now, and it is exhilarating. For any leaders of people or influencers out there who are sensing the deep wisdom in this, I highly recommend you watch this brilliant 15 minute TEDx talk from Mark Rober.
3
I was present with my kids on their turf with no nagging or trying to teach them things. They were 100% the teacher, and I fully yielded to it. I could see and feel the excitement in them as I played with them without any reservation in these digital worlds. And then outside of our gaming, the conversations at the dinner table have never been as lively as I continue to ask questions about different aspects of their particular games. Full present minded engagement with my kids in the game and outside has resulted.
THE ACTION:
Whether you are a parent or not, just to give your brain a dynamics bend and twist, may I recommend attempting the opposite of complaining about "all these damn video games" (I’ve done plenty of complaining myself) and move to learn and understand them for the neuro-exercise if nothing else. And if you have kids, be sure to sop up the valuable present minded time together and potential new understanding in the relationship as we continue to swim in these uncharted waters of long quarantine months in our homes.
Grow new brain folds and relations. Pretty good thing to experiment with.
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Productively Yours,
Focus to Evolve Team