Mindfulness in gaming entails focusing your attention on the current moment. It entails paying attention to your senses, feelings, ideas, and surroundings in the present moment with an accepting mindset. Some of the potential benefits of mindfulness include less stress, depression, improved memory, and stronger relationships, among others.

In a large-scale evaluation of more than 400 prior studies, mindfulness was found as a beneficial mental health technique for helping practically all people enhance their physical and psychological well-being.

This article explains the numerous advantages of mindfulness in gaming, as well as some factors to consider before deciding whether mindfulness-based practices are best for you.

How Meditation Helps Improve Gaming Performance

Can meditation help improve one’s gaming experience? Quick answer: Yes.

In fact, meditation is recommended for athletes across different sports and sporting lifestyles. While a lot of people have the impression that meditation is primarily a spiritual practice, there is nothing otherworldly about its beneficial effects on the mind and body. You don’t have to subscribe to any particular belief for it to work — there’s enough scientific research to support how meditation and other forms of mindfulness training can contribute to overall wellbeing, and are particularly advantageous to people who lead very active and stressful lifestyles.

A research published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research looked at meditation as a common form of stress management and found that meditation practice led to lower physiological markers of stress in a variety of demographics.

Stress reduction is one of the most frequently cited reasons for suggesting meditation to athletes, particularly those who participate in sports that require a high level of mind-body synchronization, such as esports. Meditation can help gamers of all skill levels train their minds and bodies to relax while remaining attentive and focused in difficult situations.

Likewise, when faced with critical, split-second decisions, people who are anxious and exhausted are likely to lose the mental capacity to respond; they react. Caught in the middle of a grueling game, the ability to stay present and have a calm awareness allows you to diagnose problems, avert obstacles, and make quick but decisive choices that lead to strategic actions.

Meditation has also been found to boost self-confidence because it is conducive to body awareness and an increased sense of self-esteem. Instead of presuming the worst will occur or second-guessing yourself, meditation can help you examine a situation with greater clarity and face your challenges with more optimism. It also trains the mind to visualize or envision the attainment of desired goals and objectives, which in turn increases your likelihood of being successful.

How to Start Meditating

If you’ve never tried meditation before, here are a few easy steps to get you started:

1. Find a peaceful space where you can be free from distraction and outside noises. Put away your phone and other gadgets. Sit in a comfortable position, either on a chair or on a cushion on the floor. Gently close your eyes for five minutes and try to focus on your breath. You don’t have to breathe a certain way — just make a mental observation of how your belly and chest would rise and fall with every inhale and exhale. You may want to spend a week just focusing on this technique. When you feel you can maintain your attention with minimal effort, you can move on to practicing visualization.
2. After taking five minutes to observe your breathing, begin to imagine looking at a river or creek flowing by. Just allow the water to flow past you. Don’t judge anything or comment to yourself. Simply observe the image exactly as it is and accept it. If your mind begins to wander towards external thoughts, consciously bring your attention back to your breath and to the image of water flowing past you.
3. With constant practice, the first two steps will begin to come naturally and you will be ready to tap into the emotional states. Start by completing a round of the previous steps to allow your body to relax into the practice. Then imagine your “heart space” (generally, the area in the center of your chest) and visualize breathing into your heart. Envision pure, life-giving air flowing in and out of your heart at a natural pace, expanding your chest and filling it with love. Now think of that air as something positive in your life, something that feels good — someone you love, a happy memory, or whatever brings you joy. Capture those positive feelings you are experiencing and direct them toward yourself. Wish yourself well. Appreciate who you are. Make room for gratitude. Without self-love, there is no self-belief. Only then can you radiate those feelings of peace and positivity towards the world around you.

Benefits of Mindfulness

Decreased Depression

One of the most significant advantages of mindfulness is that it reduces depression. It can help reduce depression symptoms and prevent them from returning in the future.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) combines cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). It is a very brief therapy that takes place over eight weeks and includes group sessions that involve mindfulness activities.

Read Also: The Psychology of Gaming: How to Stay Focused and Avoid Tilt

In addition to mindfulness techniques, MBCT includes exercises like meditation, body scan exercise, and yoga to help people become more aware and accepting of their thoughts.

Increased Emotional Regulation

Another potential benefit of mindfulness is that the practice may help you identify and manage your feelings. Emotional regulation refers to your ability to exert control over your own emotions. This means being able to both enhance or reign in emotions depending on the situation and need.

This ability can play an important role in mental well-being and difficulties managing emotions are linked to a number of conditions including depression and borderline personality disorder (BPD).

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) combines elements of mindfulness with CBT and emotional regulation training to help treat symptoms of conditions such as borderline personality disorder.

Research suggests that DBT can be effective in helping people manage their emotions. It has also been effective in treating anxiety, depression, and PTSD. The emotional regulation benefits of mindfulness can make it easier to cope with your feelings, ultimately improving many areas of your life, including your relationships and well-being.

Reduced Anxiety and Stress

Chronic stress is a significant problem for many adults that can contribute to a variety of health problems, including an increased risk of depression and anxiety. According to the American Psychological Association, mindfulness can be helpful for soothing feelings of anxiety and stress.

Mindfulness practices have also been adapted specifically for treating symptoms of stress. One approach, known as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), is an eight-week program that combines elements of mindfulness and yoga to help people address thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that contribute to feelings of stress.

Research suggests that MBSR can be a helpful way to reduce stress levels. One review of the research found that mindfulness-based therapy was also effective in the treatment of anxiety.

However, mindfulness may not always be the most effective stress-reduction strategy, particularly during a crisis. One study discovered that utilizing mindfulness techniques to cope with a stressful event had no effect on how people reacted to the incident. In times of crisis, tried-and-true tactics like deep breathing are frequently more useful, whereas mindfulness may be better used after the incident.

Better Memory

Mindfulness may also have potential as a way to boost your memory. If you’ve ever forgotten an important meeting or misplaced your car keys, then you know that even simple, everyday memory problems can be a major hassle. Many of these moments of forgetfulness are caused by something known as proactive interference, where older memories interfere with your ability to access newer ones. 

In one 2019 study, participants either received four weeks of mindfulness training or took a creative writing course. Memory tests indicated that those who had been trained in mindfulness practices showed the greatest reductions in proactive interference, which resulted in improvements in their short-term memory.

Participants didn’t just show improvements in memory performance, however. They also demonstrated changes in their brains. Brain imaging also revealed that participants in the mindfulness training condition experienced volume changes in their hippocampus, an area of the brain associated with memory.

Cognitive Improvements

Mindfulness doesn’t just help you focus on your thoughts or remember things more readily—evidence suggests it can actually play a role in your ability to think flexibly and clearly. It makes sense that the practice of mindfulness can change your thinking. After all, the practice itself is all about learning to be more aware of your thoughts without imposing judgments on them. 

There are several important cognitive abilities involved in mindfulness, including:

• Being able to focus your attention for a period of time (sustained attention)
• Being able to shift your thoughts and attention in spite of the distractions around you (cognitive flexibility)
• Suppressing other thoughts that interfere with your focus (cognitive inhibition)

These cognitive abilities are important for a wide variety of everyday tasks. They allow you to think quickly and adapt to changing information. Such skills also help you switch from one task to another easily and make it easier to concentrate on tasks and solve problems more efficiently.

Stronger Relationships

There is also emerging evidence that practicing mindfulness may have a positive impact on your interpersonal relationships. A 2018 study found that people who were more mindful also tended to be more accepting of their partner’s flaws and imperfections.

People who are more accepting of their partners are also more satisfied with their relationships. Instead of focusing on their partner’s flaws and trying to change them, mindfulness makes it easier to accept that their partner is not always perfect. 

An approach to treatment known as mindfulness-based relationship enhancement (MBRE) has been shown to help improve partner acceptance, relationship satisfaction, empathy, and well-being. It incorporates mindfulness practices such as mindful touching to improve intimacy, becoming mindful of everyday activities, and practicing partner-focused loving-kindness meditation.

Better Physical Health

Research also suggests that mindfulness can help relieve symptoms of a range of different health conditions. Mindfulness practices have been linked to improvements in lower back pain, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Type 2 diabetes, and fibromyalgia.

Which Game is Best for Brain Power?

Here are the top games you can play to improve your memory.

1. Crossword puzzles

Crosswords are one of the most classic brain training games. These games can help test your vocabulary skills and draw on knowledge from history, science and popular culture. You can perform crosswords online or through gaming apps or go with the more traditional route, such as printed books or newspapers. Crosswords are often used as a cognitive exercise to delay the onset of dementia, especially when made into a regular habit. Focus on puzzles that are challenging and keep your brain engaged. Because it’s possible to strain your brain, limit yourself to one challenging puzzle per day.

2. Chess

The game of chess was designed to be a mentally intensive and intellectually challenging game. It requires reliance on short-term memory to fully analyze the board and create a strategy for each move. You will also have to anticipate the moves of your opponent and make sure each move works in a way to help you achieve your end goal. This action triggers your long-term memory so you are exercising both portions of your brain in a shifting pattern.

3. Jigsaw puzzles

Jigsaw puzzles are effective brain training games, as they require you to work the left and right sides of the brain at once. They also reinforce the connections between the brain cells, which improves mental speed and improves short-term memory. Jigsaw puzzles reinforce visual-spatial reasoning as well, as you need to look at the individual pieces and identify where they fit into the big picture.

4. Rebus puzzles

A Rebus puzzle works well for improving memory and brainpower. This puzzle asks a question and then the clues to the answer are found in numbers, letters, pictures and symbols. Players must have knowledge of and be able to remember cliches and expressions to solve the puzzles.

5. Sudoku

Sudoku can help improve your memory retrieval and stimulate other parts of your brain. To successfully complete this game, you are required to keep a range of numbers in your head while placing them mentally in one of the nine spaces on the grid. This game relies heavily on working memory to memorize the numbers and then uses logical thinking to figure out the next blank. 

Because Sudoku requires players to think strategically and use creative thinking to solve problems, it can help to increase both concentration and problem-solving skills. Players learn how to make decisions and take action with less hesitation.