Superbetter: The Power of Living Gamefully, Paperback

Descriere

An innovative guide to living gamefully, based on the program that has already helped nearly half a million people achieve remarkable personal growth In 2009, internationally renowned game designer Jane Mc Gonigal suffered a severe concussion. Unable to think clearly or work or even get out of bed, she became anxious and depressed, even suicidal. But rather than let herself sink further, she decided to get better by doing what she does best: she turned her recovery process into a resilience-building game. What started as a simple motivational exercise quickly became a set of rules for -post-traumatic growth- that she shared on her blog. These rules led to a digital game and a major research study with the National Institutes of Health. Today nearly half a million people have played Super Better to get stronger, happier, and healthier. But the life-changing ideas behind Super Better are much bigger than just one game. In this book, Mc Gonigal reveals a decade's worth of scientific research into the ways all games--including videogames, sports, and puzzles--change how we respond to stress, challenge, and pain. She explains how we can cultivate new powers of recovery and resilience in everyday life simply by adopting a more -gameful- mind-set. Being gameful means bringing the same psychological strengths we naturally display when we play games--such as optimism, creativity, courage, and determination--to real-world goals. Drawing on hundreds of studies, Mc Gonigal shows that getting superbetter is as simple as tapping into the three core psychological strengths that games help you build: - Your ability to control your attention, and therefore your thoughts and feelings - Your power to turn anyone into a potential ally, and to strengthen your existing relationships - Your natural capacity to motivate yourself and super-charge your heroic qualities, like willpower, compassion, and determination Super Better contains nearly 100 playful challenges anyone can undertake in order to