Meditation through gaming

[jducoeur]

Interesting. For the past couple of weeks I've been DDR'ing every morning, as a way to get my blood moving. It's not really surprising that that's improved my mood markedly -- the endorphin thing is well-documented. What's less obvious, though, is that it's been helping as a sort of high-energy meditation tool.

Several people (not least, my therapist) have noted that one of my key problems is a tendency to think too much -- my great sin is dwelling pointlessly. I'll muse and ponder before doing anything; that tends to lead to indecision and paralysis, and makes me cranky. The DDR seems to help with that: you just *can't* spend much time thinking while you're playing, or you don't get anywhere. The only way to do well at the game is to throw not just your body but your brain into it. (Yes, really. Beyond the most basic levels, you need to spend most of your time strategizing where your feet are going next.) That seems to be very useful "brain downtime".

I'm curious: how much do people observe this while gaming? I haven't encountered it much before mostly because I don't tend towards twitch games, but I would suspect that it's true of most high-speed games of all sorts, where you simply don't have the time to ponder other things...

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

I get somewhat meditative (zenlike) when playing GT4, especially on a course I know; the concentration required to react that quickly to microscopic uncertainties to stay on course and lay down good laps, while keeping calm enough to do that, is conducive to meditation. It's akin for me to playing a difficult piano piece; even though I know and have practiced it, it requires enough attention that the lower 90% of my brain is engaged in playing. In both cases, it leaves the top 10% free to wander about things that are actually bugging me. Motorcycle does the same thing, though for obvious reasons I try not to let the top 10% wander too far.

Amplitude is similar, on the higher levels. I used to get this way on Tetris, too. I think it must be the quick-twitch muscle games with repeating patterns.

[siderea]

It's akin for me to playing a difficult piano piece; even though I know and have practiced it, it requires enough attention that the lower 90% of my brain is engaged in playing. In both cases, it leaves the top 10% free to wander about things that are actually bugging me.

Yeah, I was about to say: this is what musical performance is for. :)

Metahacker, one of the conclusions I've come to about maturing as a musician is that advanced musicians do that level of attention and concentration with their brains (or more -- approaching 100%) even on easy pieces. What you do with all that extra processing power is attend to expressiveness, taste decisions, shaping notes... the minutia and the big-picture stuff.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Hadn't thought about it in quite that way, but I'd have to say my observations match that.

[jducoeur]

Fascinating. I've observed that in my own noodlings on the hammered dulcimer, but it's not intuitively obvious that it gets moreso for advanced musicians...

[siderea]

Yes, musicians who are not advanced usually assume the opposite. They find having to concentrate so much to be so oppressive and to be, well, so much work -- to be not at all as effortless as a virtuosi appear -- that they assume that's something to get past. Beginners thing that what it feels like to be an advanced musician is to not to have to try so hard.

[dsrtao]

Tetris, snakebyte, and a number of other games do this for me.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Any exercise does this for me. Meditation does it too. Sorry, I don't tend to play games - can't compare.

[jducoeur]

Interesting. Conventional aerobic exercise does *not* do this for me -- my mind has a strong tendency to wander. The thing about DDR is that it requires real concentration on top of the exercise, and the combination seems to work quite nicely to clear my head.

(I'm *terrible* at meditation -- it's a skill I really ought to pick up, but it's clearly going to require some serious time and practice for me...)

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Part of what does it well for me, is aerobics. I have to think to learn and do the choreography.

Once I got in good enough shape, any really serious exercise can do it - but it takes a lot. 5 miles on the bike is when it might START. 25 minutes into a run it might START. But it's a nice zone when you hit it.

[lakshmi-amman.livejournal.com]

DDR = Dance Dance Revolution, right?

On that vein - not so much for gaming, but for *dancing* - I couldn't agree more. Not so much for Middle Eastern - but for Indian dancing, there simply isn't space in my brain for anything BUT dance. The cleanliness of the current move, the execution of the next move. Timing, posture, balance, precision, expression... that's really quite enough for my grey matter. And I generally notice that:
- after a morning hardcore practice, my energy level is higher, and my mood is better, and not just in the "I'm a good do-bee" way, my brain is flowing more smoothly.
- after a evening class with my dance teacher, my mental state is improved ten-fold - I can walk in stressed and depressed and walk out happy/content. Even if I believe my own performance in class SUCKED - I still walk out happier than when I walked in. It has also been known to clear up cold symptoms for 2-3 hours.

For video gaming, I find that most games I play don't actually occupy all my mind. I really like logic games and simulation games - and usually on the easy levels, my mind isn't fully engaged. Sometimes they are a good tool - by using up some of my attention, they relieve me of excessive worrying and let me sort out my feelings in a less obsessive way. But sometimes excessive game playing means I have problems I'm not actually solving.

[jducoeur]

Yes, I can understand that for dancing. Most of the SCA dances I do aren't quite challenging enough for me to grab my full attention like that; the social experience will often keep my mind occupied, but rarely the dances themselves any more. (Although concentrating on fine points of style in the more complex repertoires certainly comes closer.)

OTOH, this may be part of why I'm so enjoying taking over as dancemaster again, because that *does* occupy my full attention and then some. Doing the dance, calling the steps (preferably a beat ahead of the music) and keeping an eye on how the dancers are doing is another activity that fills both body and mind with useful things to be doing, to the exclusion of most else...

[ripresa.livejournal.com]

It's a trancelike state..

Improv is also a good tool to get in a spot where you don't have time to think.

[laurion]

Some people call this "Being in 'the zone'". For some it simply means doing things rather well for a while, but it really refers to that near meditative state where your entirety is focused on acheiving some new level of performance.

[mindways]

I kinda get that way with:
* twitch games (at least, those very few I've played enough to get good at the controls - mostly top-down arcade-style games, not FPS) and pinball;
* physical activity (dancing, martial arts, taiko drumming, Twister, rollerblading)

All of the above have at least two of the following three things: full-body kinesthetics, demanding timing, external indication of success. (The one borderline case is martial arts - when practicing basics/forms without direct supervision, there isn't necessarily time pressure, and it's up to me to self-monitor how well I'm doing / provide motivation to do better.)

[ladyariadne.livejournal.com]

Okay.... silly question...
Whats DDR'ing?

[jducoeur]

Sorry -- Dance Dance Revolution, or The Thing That Ate Carolingia. Well, not really, but it does seem like a fond habit for a fair fraction of my friends list.

I've been doing it every morning lately for exercise (the Workout Mode makes a fun mildly aerobic activity), until we get the playroom cleared enough to put in the elliptical machine...

[ladyariadne.livejournal.com]

Okay... What does it do?

I guess I have been under a rock. Well the USPS can count as a rock I guess.

[jducoeur]

Not necessarily under a rock, but not hanging out at many video arcades, I guess.

DDR is a game that got its start in the arcades several years ago, and then made its way in a very good adaptation for home consoles like the Playstation 2. Basically, it's a dance game. You're standing on a pad with four big foot-sized "buttons": forward, back, left and right. As the music plays, it displays which buttons you're supposed to hit when. On the lower levels, it's a fairly sedate step-step-step thing; on the higher ones, it's practically high-speed tap. (I'm still one the fairly low levels: I can do decently on level 4, out of 10.)

Fun game, and the first serious one that's about *foot*-eye coordination, rather than the usual videogame hand-eye coordination. It's a huge, huge hit, with a number of sequels in both the arcade and home game. Most arcades have a DDR setup of some flavor nowadays...

sex

[shava23.livejournal.com]

My usual answer to thinking too much is meditation, dance, sex, or all three at once.

Tantrically yours, :)
Shava