Mind Games (Part One) – Comfort James
If you have ever played a TV game or a much more easily accessible one - games on your mobile phone, you'd have come across one objective behind every game: TO WIN/OBTAIN THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE SCORES. And because of this, you work at it with full concentration. Candy crush game lovers can relate.
I played a few and one of the things I derived from the act is "pleasure and relaxation". The brain is wired at the point of play to come up with strategies for winning. In the quest for this, the rate at which the heart beats can be quiet fast and if one strategy doesn't work, leading to losing maybe a stage of the game, I try again and when I feel tired, I take a break to continue later.
Why the existence of Mind Games?
There can be times when conflicting thoughts (the thinking of what is and what might be wrong with what is) tend to dominate your subconscious; sometimes, discerning what is going on almost immediately can be difficult to achieve and being overwhelmed by the thoughts would require choosing a path eventually. In the midst of this however, one truth should stand out and that is knowing that the one that controls the mind is in the driver’s seat. In a situation where it is required of you to drive straight only and you find yourself considering turning left, this is obviously a change of route which might and might not be necessary. The focus at the moment centers on what the mind ought to concentrate on hence, leaving out every foreign interference.
In putting the puzzle together, this is explained thus: when you play a game, you want to win. When you have so many things on your mind, you want to win by doing the right thing(s)/taking the right step(s). Action comes after a thought is conceived.
Example Case study:
Bae is single and in her thirties, she's got a well-paid job, a car and her own apartment. She's been struggling with striking a balance between work and life. She's career driven and gets comments every day from her folks and married friends regarding her marital status. This as well as meeting up with demands at work really gets to her. Sometimes, she feels she took a wrong step at a point in her life and other times she thinks too much about what she can do about her present situation. She's got suitors but haven't felt at peace with choosing any of them. The more she tries to explain this to her family and friends, the more the pressure increases.
Remedies that could work for Bae:
- Nike Aruwajoye
Two things are obvious from the case study: the thought of striking a balance and; the thought that she has a problem. Anyone can be in this situation or a similar one. Still, the fight for what's right is very paramount.
While on a job, a burning desire to be effective can bring about different thoughts. The mind can get into a race almost easily when there’s still so much to turn in for the day and other tasks could be waiting outside the job at hand even as a goaloriented person. The tendency to WORRY can also be high at this point. Bishop T.D
Jakes once said: “worry worships the words of the enemy”. What is the enemy? In this context, I’d simply say: that which shouldn’t live rent-free in your head.