Intrigued?
Skeptical? I was.
Her
story all begins with a hard hit on the head. Literally, Jane hit her head and
it resulted in a severe concussion. Unfortunately, this concussion did not heal
properly and she began to suffer debilitating effects like constant nausea,
mind-splitting headaches, vertigo, and memory loss. After seeking out her
doctor for help, she was told that she would need to relax her brain and avoid
anything that triggered her symptoms. For her this meant no reading, writing,
video games, work, e-mail, exercise, alcohol, or caffeine. Her doctor’s orders
and the daily suffering basically took away her uniqueness and her purpose of
living. This caused her to think about
ending it all. Now this is not just some random fluke that only happened to
Jane, in fact, 1 out of 3 people who suffer traumatic brain injuries
contemplate suicide (McGonigal, 2012).
Every
second of her life, she though “Jane,
you want to die… you need to die.”
These voices continued and only got stronger. They were scaring her.
While
on her deathbed, she began to think about some of her life regrets. Here are
the top 5 regrets of the dying and Jane felt every one of them.
I wish I had not worked so hard.
I
wish I had stayed in touch with friends.
I
wish I had let myself be happier.
I
wish I had the courage to express my true self.
I
wish I lived my life true to my dreams, instead of what people expected of me.
One day she thought “I am either going to turn this into a game or I am going to kill myself.” Now why a video game? Jane McGonigal’s background is actually in video game design as it is a passion of hers. She knew from research in the field of video games that when people play video games they are able to tackle real life situations with more determination, optimism, and creativity (Jackson, Witt, Games, Fitzgerald, Eye, Zhao, 2011). She also knew that those 5 regrets that she felt could be addressed through video games. This was exactly what she needed to get herself out of the deep hole she was in.
One day she thought “I am either going to turn this into a game or I am going to kill myself.” Now why a video game? Jane McGonigal’s background is actually in video game design as it is a passion of hers. She knew from research in the field of video games that when people play video games they are able to tackle real life situations with more determination, optimism, and creativity (Jackson, Witt, Games, Fitzgerald, Eye, Zhao, 2011). She also knew that those 5 regrets that she felt could be addressed through video games. This was exactly what she needed to get herself out of the deep hole she was in.
Work: She took this as I wish I spent more time with my family and friends (McGonigal,
2012). According to Coyne, Padilla-Walker, Stockdale, and Day (2010) parents
who spend more time playing video games with kids establish stronger real life
relationships with them.
Friends:
She knows that
hundreds of millions of people play social media games online to stay in
contact with friends and family (McGonigal, 2012). Wohn, Lampe, Wash, Ellison,
and Vitak (2011) found that social media games are incredible
relationship-management tools. They help people develop and maintain
relationships that would otherwise fizzle
out.
Happiness: Russoniello, Fish, and O’Brien (2013) showed that online games can outperform pharmaceuticals
for treating clinical anxiety and depression. Just 30
minutes of online game play a day was enough
to create dramatic boosts in mood and
long-term increases in happiness (2013).
True Self: Well, she thought, avatars are a way to express our
true selves, our most heroic, idealized version of who we might become
(McGonigal, 2012). Yee, Bailenson, and Ducheneaut (2009) document how
playing a game with an idealized avatar changes how
we think and act in real life, making us
more courageous, more ambitious, and more
committed to our goals.
Dreams: This wish stumped her… Do video games
do this?
Despite
being bedridden and in constant pain, Jane created the first version of her
game and called it Jane the Concussion
Slayer. She knew that she needed
help and would not be able to slay concussions alone and so she called up her
sister. This was an easy way for her to ask for help. “I am playing a game to
heal my brain and I want you to play with me.” Her sister gladly accepted. Soon
after her husband began to join in as well. In little to no time, she had
created the three-musketeers of slaying
concussions. As a team they began to do battle with anything that caused
her symptoms to flair up and in tough times they collected power-ups to help
them against the evil forces. These power-ups were anything that helped her get
out of bed, even the slightest bit of physical activity, like cuddling with her
puppy for 10 minutes or walking around the block once.
After
only a little while playing her game, she noticed some of the symptoms of
depression and anxiety fade away. While the physical symptoms like headaches
and nausea stayed, she noticed that despite her pain, she was not suffering.
She was making it and it was a miracle.
The
good news doesn’t stop there, as
what happened next was even more incredible. On her blog she posted the rules of her game and some
video’s of how to play. She knew that not everyone wanted to slay something and
not everyone has a concussion and so she renamed the game SuperBetter. Soon after she began to hear about people from all
around the world that were creating new identities, recruiting their friends
and family, collecting power-ups and conquering some of the most difficult
challenges like cancer, depression, and ALS. These individuals were actually getting super better!
She
wanted to dig deeper and understand why it was working for so many people. She
found that SuperBetter was
supported by already present research. SuperBetter
gamers talked about feeling stronger and
braver (Kuhn et al., 2011). They talked about feeling better understood by their friends and family (Bennerstedt,
Ivarsson, and Linderoth, 2012). And they
even talked about feeling happier, even though
they were in pain, even though they were tackling the toughest challenge of
their lives (McGonigal, 2012).
We have all heard about PTSD and it is a common
misconceptions that once someone suffers a traumatic experience they are only
doomed to suffer for the rest of their lives. There is actually a positive
experience that can come out of having a traumatic experience. Our bodies are remarkable. What she did not know is that what her and others were
actually experiencing is something called post-traumatic
growth (Devine,
Reed-Knight, Loiselle, Fenton, and Blount, 2010).
According to McGonigal (2012) here are the top five things that people who experience
post-traumatic growth say.
My
priorities have changed. I'm not afraid to do what makes me happy.
I feel
closer to my friends and family.
I understand
myself better. I know who I really am now.
I have a new
sense of meaning and purpose in my life.
I'm better
able to focus on my goals and dreams.
Sound
familiar? The top five
regrets of the dying and the top five statements that people say who experience
post-traumatic growth are opposites. This made her think… Is there a way to get
all the benefits of post-traumatic growth without having to suffer a trauma?
McGonigal (2012) found there are four kinds of
resilience’s that contribute to post-traumatic growth. She also found some
daily activates that you can do to build up these four kinds of resilience’s
without having to hit your head. That’s
nice huh?
Now, like her, I am not just going to tell you what they
are but recommend you do these tasks with me. In fact, this is where you earn your 2.56 bonus minutes that was
promised in the beginning of this post. BTW… I hope you are in a public place
as that would be hilarious.
Don’t be shy and pick one: Stand
up and take three steps, or
make your hands into fists, raise them over your head as
high as you can for five seconds (McGonigal, 2012).
That my friends is worth +1 physical resilience.
Physical resilience is your bodies ability to handle stress and heal itself
(McGonigal, 2012). Research by Martin, Church, Thompson, Earnest, and Blair
(2009) found that the most important thing to do to raise one’s physical
resliance is to not stay still for longer than one hour. For every second that
you are moving you are improving the function of your heart, lungs, and brain
(2009).
Pick one: I want you to
snap your fingers exactly 50 times, or count backwards from 100 by seven, like this:
100, 93, 86, 79…(McGonigal, 2012).
That earned you +1 to mental resilience. Mental
resilience is your bodies ability to focus, show discipline, determination, and
willpower (McGonigal, 2012). Research by Hagger, Wood, Stiff, and
Chatzisarantis (2010) found that willpower is similar to a muscle. It gets
stronger the more you work it out. Doing quick daily tasks that take a little
bit of focus and attention is actually a scientific validated way to raise
willpower (2010).
Pick one: If
you're inside, find a window and look out of it. If
you're outside, find a window and look in… Stranger
danger, careful with this one. Or do
a quick YouTube or Google image search for
"baby [your favorite animal]" (McGonigal,
2012).
According to McGonigal (2012) this will give you
+1 emotional resilience. This means your ability to create powerful positive
emotions such as curiosity and love (2012). Simple tasks such as looking at
beautiful parts of the world or looking at baby animals we boost our emotional
resilience (Tugade, Fredrickson, and Barrett,
2004).
McGonigal (2012) states that if someone can manage
to experinece three positive emotions for every one negative emotion per hour,
day, and week that it is one way to dramatically improve one’s health and
ability to problem solve. In research this is called the three-to-one emotion
ratio (Fredrickson, 2004).
Pick one: Shake
someone's hand for six seconds, or
send someone a quick thank you by
text, email, Facebook or Twitter (McGonigal, 2012).
There is your +1 social resilience. Social
resilience refers to your ability to gain strength from friends, family,
neighbors, and your community (Umberson and Montez, 2010).
Social resilience can also be strengthened with touch such as shaking someones
hand for as little as six seconds (Churchland,
& Winkielman, 2013). This is because shaking someone’s hand increases the
levels of oxytocin (trust hormone) in your bloodstream. What this means is
after shaking someone’s hands for six seconds or longer it biologically
primes people to like and want to help each other (McGonigal, 2012).
McGonigal’s research found that people who boost
their four types of resilience daily – physical, mental, emotional, and social
- live 10 years longer than everyone
else (Holt-Lunstad, Smith, and Layton, 2010; Xu and Roberts, 2010; Rasmussen,
Scheier, and Greenhouse, 2009; Woodcock, Franco, Orsini, and Roberts, 2010).
Now, how does the 2.56 minutes work? McGonigal answers “So,
the average life expectancy in the U.S. and the U.K. is 78.1 years, but we
know from more than 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies that
you can add 10 years of life by boosting your four types of resilience. So
every single year that you are boosting your four types of resilience, you're
actually earning .128 more years of life or 46
more days of life, or 67,298 more minutes of life, which
means every single day, you are earning 184 minutes of life, or
every single hour that you are boosting your four types of resilience, you
are earning 7.68245837 more
minutes of life.” I simply divided this number by three because I expect one
may spend about 20 minutes reading my blog which equals 2.56
minutes. Congrats! You earned them.
Now, how are you going to use those minutes? I
mean you did not have them before you heard about McGonigals research. She
suggests you spend the time doing something that makes you happy, something
that gets you closer to friends and family, something that gets you active, or allows
you to tackle a small challenge that’s been in the back of your mind. After all
this, you will just boost your four resilience’s even more, which will give you more bonus minutes. It’s like a genie in
a bottle, baby.
This could continue throughout your life until you
are near the end (which is now 10 years longer than it would have been
otherwise) and you will not have any of those top 5 regrets of the dying. This
is because you would have lived your
life truer to your dreams. Plus, as McGonigal (2012) suggests “with 10
extra years to your life, you could even play some more video games.“
Live your life and love yourself.
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