Ways Gaming Can Improve Your Mental Health and Wellbeing

Gaming is often thought of as little more than a pastime, a way to indulge in your imagination and to enjoy some friendly competition. However, aside from the fact that doing things for your own sake is a worthwhile endeavor in itself, there are also serious benefits gaming can have on your mental health and wellbeing, This goes for both video games and the more traditional options. Here, we’re going to look at some of the benefits that are well worth considering.

It Helps To Relive Stress

One of the most easily demonstrable positive impacts of gaming is as a tool for stress relief. When you come in after a hard day, the combination of immersion in gaming worlds, the satisfaction of mastering mechanics to achieve a victory, and distraction from the woes of the real world. Many stress-busting techniques rely on being able to disentangle yourself from the thoughts that can make your head feel like it’s full of storm clouds, and video games can be especially effective at this, able to engage on a visual, mechanical, and emotional level at the same time. Of course, you have to be mindful to make sure that you’re building up stress levels while gaming, as well.

Fostering Social Connections

One of the major mental health benefits of any hobby is that it can allow you to connect to other people. It provides a shared frame of reference and a reason to get together, a gaming is not only no different, it’s one of the best examples of this. From finding friends that you can play online with on a regular basis to those gaming communities that prefer to discuss and share their passion for specific games, it has become one of the largest online spaces to meet people. Of course, it comes with its fair share of trolls and less-than-pleasant people, but if you’re picky about choosing healthy and positive gaming spaces, it can have a tremendous impact, reducing the potential dangers of isolation. Loneliness is something of a modern epidemic, with people living more atomised lives than before. Gaming can not only help you find communities online, but with conventions and competitive gaming events, can help you make friends in the physical world, as well.

It Helps Maintain A Routine

If you’re trying to take steps towards better mental health, then the importance of a routine cannot be overstated. Having a set schedule to structure your day can help you avoid feeling like you’re wasting your time or not contributing towards your goals. While routines should incorporate important responsibilities like doing homework, going to work, spending time on fitness, and the like, setting aside a couple of hours for gaming helps you add a sense of ‘reward’ to that routine, allowing you to indulge in some relaxation without feeling any guilt about it. Having the easy parts of your routine to look forward to can make it easier to stick to the harder parts of it that require more discipline.

It Can Teach You To Control Your Emotions

You might know a gamer who is not exactly the best example of emotional regulation, whether it’s a sore loser or an insufferable winner. However, for most people, gaming can help to teach them some degree of emotions regulation. Learning to cope with a loss and to celebrate a victory can help you build the emotional skills of resilience and self-control even if you don’t notice it. This can help you better practice these emotional regulation controls when you’re with other people, as well. Just be sure to step away if you ever feel like your emotions are getting the better of you. This can be especially prevalent in the online world, where taunting is a commo feature in just about any kind of competitive game.

Boost Your Cognitive Skills

The benefits of gaming aren’t all for emotional regulation and mood-boosting, either. There are real links between video games and certain kinds of cognitive development that are worth the attention, as well. Strategic games like Backgammon can help you maintain your brain health, working it out, and improving your ability to do things like analyze patterns, plan ahead, and make calculated decisions based on evolving circumstances. These cognitive benefits can help those who are still growing, sharpening their mental skills, as well as those who are a lot older, even playing a potential role in helping to stave off cognitive decline.

It Fosters Creativity

Gaming is an art form. This is true of video games, but it’s also true of board games, card games, and other traditional options. They take creativity to make, and this creativity can be infectious. If you’re a creative person, then you might be able to find inspiration from all kinds of mediums, even those that are far away from those you work in. Even for non-creatives, engaging with creative works can open your imagination and foster a greater sense of wonder and exploration that can have significant benefits for you moods. Enhanced creativity benefits you across all works of life, from how you communicate with others to helping you think creatively in your workspace.

It Introduces Excitement And Anticipation

One of the underrated, but important aspects of your emotional health, is having things to look forward to, in life. While keeping up with the latest game releases and most anticipated upcoming games might not be quite as important as any kind of achievements in your personal life, having these things on the horizon does offer a significant mood boost. It also helps contribute to the conversations that make the gaming community a vibrant social space, as well.

While there’s no denying that, without moderation, gaming of any kind can be a detriment to mental and emotional health, when used properly, it can prove just the opposite. Hopefully, the above tips show you that you don’t necessarily need to feel any kind of guilt about the time you spend gaming.

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