So this time of year for me is super stressful. I have a to-do list longer than my arm and I feel overwhelmed. It is funny that the festive period which is meant to be happy and filled with joy can actually be overwhelming for some of us. You see I am an organiser I like to be ready super early and this gives me freedom if I need it. This year this mentality has been super useful with the postal strikes and delays in all deliveries. But even with all the forward prep and planning I get overwhelmed and stressed.
For me, stress can lead to worrying and overthinking. Which is not a good place to be. It is super easy to just let the panic and worry set in and just ride the wave of pain. But I am here to tell you one of the ways I cope with stress. The not-so-conventional way to deal with stress. You see everyone is different and destressing methods are personal. But by me sharing one of my ways might just help you find your own way to lessen the stress in your life.
Gaming
I started gaming when I was a child. I was an outdoorsy child but living in the Highlands meant winters were long and cold. This in hand meant lots of time indoors when I would rather be outdoors. Enter gaming into my life. I have used gaming as a destressing method for a very long time. If I was stressed at exam time I would let my brain switch off with an hour of gaming. You see there is something special about getting lost in a game. It has a way of getting your brain to focus on the problem at hand and not on whatever else is going on in your life. I love that. I would get lost in games like sonic the hedgehog and Super Mario. This has followed me right through to my adult life. When I want my brain to switch off and let me breathe I game.
I love the power gaming has on my brain. I am dyslexic and I have used games not only to destress but as a learning mechanism too. This is common in dyslexic people and when I grew up there were many games to help me learn how to spell and learn left and right. You see gaming can get a bad rep but I hold them in high esteem as they have helped me no end.
Let's talk about what I am playing and why
I only play free games. I don't tend to play any games with buy-in options I just don't really like them. But each to their own. I am currently obsessed with Lego City Adventures Build and Protect which you can play for free on Mortgage Calculator. If you are looking for new games to play you need to check out all the free ones over at Mortgage calculator. They have every type you can imagine.
Right back to Lego Build and protect. This game for me is the perfect switch off the brain and recharge your mind game.
So what is Lego City Build and protect
It starts with you needing to Help Mayor Solomon Fleck build a lego city using various buildings to earn money through tax revenues. You need to make money so you can build more properties to grow your city. I know what you are thinking tax revenue that sounds boring. No, No it's not like that it's fun I promise.
There are 6 levels. You start by building Downtown. To complete downtown and level up you must build 25 buildings. For each new level, you have to build 25 buildings but it becomes harder.
You start with a fire station and a police station. You get these for free at every new level. These are important build them first as you need them.
To build your building you need to dig for Lego pieces. You get 15 attempts to find the lego pieces.
You need to find different-shaped Legos to build different buildings. Each dig attempt costs you money. The price increased the more you play.
For example, you need 60 coins and one piece of Lego to build a doughnut shop and eight pieces of lego and 250 coins to build a gaming shop at level one. The piece and amount of lego pieces go up in price with the levels.
But the good news is the more building you have the more coins you can make. The more expensive the building the more tax revenue you collect. We all know the more we collect the more building we can build and grow our empire.
Each level has its own new pieces of Lego to dig.
Once you build all 25 buildings you level up.
But wait it's not that simple because your building can get burgled or go on fire and you have to act quickly to stop this happening and you earn money if you can stop it happening too.
I find this game so fun and perfect for switching off.
The game that helps me sleep
I go through periods of insomnia. It is part and parcel of stress and worry. I have played games to help me fall asleep since the invention of Snake on the Nokia phone. I am not sure what it is but I always tend to go for super calming matching games at night. Now my game of choice which helps me sleep is Mahjong Solitaire. This is another free game from the Money calculator.
This is a really relaxing game. It single player and There is a choice of four boards to play on. I am pretty sure I play the default one. I just click play if I am honest. But there are options if you fancy a change.
How to play.
You just match any pair of tiles. But the tiles have to be free tiles meaning they can't have a stone on top of them or the stone on the left or right has to have one side that is free. Meaning you can only pick open stones. When you pick your stone it will turn a slight shade of blue. If you click a stone and it doesn't turn blue you can't use it to play as it's not free.
When you get stuck you can reshuffle the board which will reshuffle the stones you have left. There is a little menu that tells you how many open pairs are left on the board and how long you have been playing. Great if you are trying to get to sleep you can say to yourself I am only playing for 15 minutes.
This game had such a relaxing feeling and is so nice and slow-paced that it really helps you switch off and it makes me get really sleepy as my brain tries to find the pairs.
Conclusion
We are all different and I find gaming a really good way of stepping back from the stress and worries in my life. It gives my brain a reset as it makes it focuses on the problem at hand. I really hope that sharing this with you will help you to find gaming and try it for yourself as a way to destress.
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