Topic Talk: Joy and Gaming
Life can be extremely difficult sometimes, especially if you are someone who has a big heart and is seeing many societal institutions people depend upon starting to crumble. This is a channel dedicated to journeying with people who are interested in becoming more aware, becoming leaders, and those who think gaming has made them a better person. However, sometimes we all need a break from what can instill dread. So I want to take a little time to talk about joy and how gaming inspires my joy on my best days. No pics today just some words.
Gaming and Peace
Solitude is an important part of my existence. Being connected to my own stillness is vital for my well being. Stillness is a special place where I can be fully present to existence as both a passive and active activity. There are few ways to build this presence into working and living because of the demands of time, attention, chores, and the pace at which our world works. However, gaming, especially alone, is a time where I can build a peaceful environment and get inspired from solving problems in game worlds. Quiet time late at night with little noise in my neighborhood or my house are great times to find what I want to build with myself. This is also my sustainability for building content because I play games for fun but only build content from a place of peace and joy from the games I play. I also have minimal financial pressure because this is not my full-time job. My gaming side hustle is my break from a high-stress job.
Peace as Container for Joy in Difficulty
Joy is about three main things: building an environment of peace, fostering a sense of wonder, and finding a sense of community. These three needs are interdependent and change frequently as people grow and find new wonder. These needs are also unique for each person, as I’ll explain below.
People have to rebuild their environment of peace based on their new learning and this can be a lot of work. For example, when I was a fundamentalist Catholic my environment of peace centered around having a lot of different devotional items either as something to wear or around my space. I prayed specific rote prayers and had strict routines to keep for attending services and helping the faith community. However, my experiences and learning over time left me very dissatisfied with this lifestyle and the sense of isolation I felt doing a lot of practices but not feeling growth or change as a person.
My beliefs have evolved over time and thus my conditions for peace are different. Now my conditions for finding peace are less specific. I need silence and stillness that I deliberately cultivate every day. It doesn’t matter what form that takes whether it is the stillness of a good one-on-one conversation or utilizing white noise to provide a calming effect. I need pure silence where I am in a dark room sometimes as well. There are a few patterns but my needs change frequently and part of building a flexible routine for me is knowing that my needs will change and honoring those changes. Peace is vital for my continued endurance so I find it easier not to fight my own inclinations and rhythms.
The moments of peace I receive from gaming and being conscious about building my environment of peace provide the energy I need to be open to others. My social anxiety has grown a bit over time and it’s harder for me to be face-to-face in public. However, the peace I find from gaming and the thinking I develop from gaming gives me a sense of wonder.
Wonder as Inspiration
Creativity is such an undervalued trait in people. I think for a lot of people that is because the feeling of wonder is not a frequent experience because of how heavily regimented and fragmented our lives are. Most jobs are not creative enterprises. There are certain barriers and procedures which have to be followed. At best, those procedures help save lives in certain professions and at worst, it is because managers want a tight control to boss people around to fulfill their own desires of supremacy. Some people can find wonder in these tightly regimented environments, but for most people wonder happens because of experiences out of the ordinary. When people are scheduled for 1/3 of their life being at work, 1/3 of their life sleeping, an hour commuting, multiple evening activities for either kids or community involvement, it leaves little time to foster a sense of wonder. And I think this is our greatest loss as a society, especially for lower-income people who have stringent job demands and multiple jobs.
Wonder is vital for my growth because I just feel better when I’m challenged and exploring something new. However, I don’t have great physical endurance and don’t like adrenaline-based activities so wonder is my substitute as it is grounded in curiosity and growth in response to being unable to handle adventure-seeking activities. Wonder helps me think about what the world could be and more about my own grounding.
My wonder at this point comes from centering myself on the mysteries of quantum entanglement and nuclear fusion. These are two realities grounded in low-probability scenarios and seemingly odd behavior. Quantum Entanglement is the idea that all particles emitted by an entity create a shared field, even if particular particles from the field are spread out over great distances. (e.g. if I hug a friend before they leave to go back home from a visit, a part of each of us remains through the particles we share through our clothing and shared breath.) Nuclear fusion is the process by which atoms are compressed together because of gravity to have reactions they would not have on their own. (e.g. The sun is an example of nuclear fusion and its ability to generate heat and light comes from the reaction of +hydrogen atoms being pushed together by gravity to generate helium.) Wonder is meant to grow deeper, wider, and more extended as our consciousness grows.
A Community of Wonder
If nothing else, I want to inspire people to have a sense of wonder and to come together to talk about our shared discovery. We will all find different aspects of life which inspire wonder. The values of Phenomena Gaming all come from the wonder I find in playing video games. For a refresher, here are the values of Phenomena Gaming.
https://www.phenomenagaming.com/blog/what-my-values-mean
Playing a variety of games, there are common threads which ground my community to be one with the people and resistant to authoritarian trends. These values are the result of my reflection and time spent in wonder while gaming. I want a community who is working to find their own sense of grounding and wonder to bring depth, peace, and compassion to the world. Will you join Phenomena Gaming in supporting the journey of gamers to make this happen? Every like, retweet, comment, and donation helps provide me equipment, time, and space to deepen my own grounding.
I know many have wondered about how I have come to my general outlook and disposition. This is the positive perspective on my journey. There were many challenges and continue to be many challenges along the way. I’m not the smiley, happy person, but I am one who can dig and help you find deep grounding to radiate presence, support, and compassion. I’ve appreciated doing the NGL questions every so often to be able to answer more questions on Twitter. I want to be transparent that my journey has a lot of joy and struggle and it is okay to embrace all of the emotions, changes in thinking, and desire for growth which comes from a variety of feelings.
The Discord is live and the invite link will be shared Via Twitter. I’m looking forward to seeing many of you in the channel. More podcasts are coming in the next couple of weeks and I’m finally close to finishing games to add more gaming content.
