Life is much easier to understand and live if we have two approaches to two fundamentally different concepts – The Game of Self (everything in your head, Consciousness) and The Game of Life (everything not in your head, Reality). Mixing up the self and reality parts together is often paralyzing and can be the main reason people get stuck in life. The golden rule says not to mix facts and feelings. Feelings are exclusively Game of Self and facts are exclusively Game of Life.
To move forward in the Game of Life, we need to work skillfully with Science, People, Concepts and Resources. The main resources in life are: Freedom, People, Health, Assets (eg. Money).
The Game of Self is a mess of images, feelings, and thoughts moving forward in time. Scientists call it consciousness, we – the Picture – your ever changing, inaccurate perception of reality mixed up with your thoughts and feelings. You can point the Picture to: The Game of Self (Self-love, understanding, learning, creating, meditating), The Game of Life (meeting people, moving, working, eating), The Underworld (when primal urges take over – chocolate, gambling, social media) and Probabland (when primal fears take over – our perceptions of other people’s thoughts and feelings).
Humans terribly fear a loss of connection with other people because in the not-so-distant evolutionary past, life was tough and you were dependent on a tribe to survive. To care about what others think is built into our genes and we need to deal with it. Probabland is an unproductive place to be in, as it combines the worst of both The Game of Self and the Game of life. Activities involving attention and decision making are the best way to get yourself out of Probabland.
The Underworld is another meeting point of reality and the self and combines all the tempting places your primal instincts want you to escape to, in order to get a dopamine spike. This is the most harmful place to spend your time in. The Underworld comes in three variations: Mindless Underworld (everything that neither makes you happy, nor is useful to you – watching TV, scrolling social media), Escapist Underworld (when you attempt to replace your reality with another – gaming, gambling, drugs and other addictions) and Delusional Underworld (the land of the beautiful, but not true – questionable spiritual practices, conspiracy theories).
Game of Self: A strive for internal growth
Type: Subjective by nature
Goal: Personal growth
Tools: Self-knowledge, Copy-Paste, Chaos
The Game of Life: A strive for resources
Type: Objective by nature
Goal: Resources
Tools: Science, Structure, Copy-Paste, Chaos, Creativity
Problems (both): Fear, Inertia, The Underworld and Probabland
Start the change with the Game of Life and once you’ve progressed, you’ll have more resources. Dedicate your efforts in to serving others. This will make you feel better and diminish fears and Inertia, improving The Game of Self.
