How to Tap into Your Subconscious

By turning your life into fun games

It’s great to know that our subconscious is responsible for the state of flow. So we need to ask our subconscious for help to find our way back into that creative state.

But how can we do it?

I discovered that turning our lives into fun games deliberately and treating whatever we are up to as games, of which we are both designers and players, can bring us into the flow even during the activities we never thought possible to enjoy.

Engaging into each moment with curiosity and being open to experience fun — but not to expect it — is the key.

It’s easy to say, “Be open to the fun but don’t expect it.” But how can we do it?

We can’t switch off the expectations. They are already there. As soon as we have an inpatient thought about not being where and how we would prefer, the moment is gone.

Fighting the thoughts that took shape in our minds will only reinforce our natural tendency to anticipate and expect something. We’ll only stress ourselves out.

Playing games has proven over millennia to help out in critical and stressful situations.

“Herodotus recounts that Maeonia was beset by severe famine during Atys’ reign. To help them endure hunger, the Maeonians developed various expedients including dice, knucklebones and ball games. The idea was that they would eat every other day only. On the interim days when they fasted, they would play games all day to distract their minds from hunger. Herodotus says they lived like that for eighteen years.” — Wikipedia

One particular game can help you when your stress comes from inside. It is what I call an anthropologist’s role-playing game, and it can work wonders.

A side-note: “A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game; abbreviated RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting.” — Wikipedia

I got the idea of playing an anthropologist’s role-playing game from the award-winning authors, Ariel & Shya Kane, and what they suggest in their award-winning books, radio show Being Here, and live seminars.

They invite the readers, listeners, and participants of their workshops to study themselves, those around them, and the circumstances they are in as anthropologists would do, non-judgmentally.

This suggestion is utterly simple and, at the same time, incredibly profound. I quote it often because of its brilliance.

“Practice your anthropological approach. Pretend you’re a scientist observing a culture of one — yourself. The trick is not to judge what you see, but to neutrally observe how you function, including your thought processes. Awareness and kindness are key.”

— Ariel and Shya Kane, How to Have A Match Made in Heaven

There is a specific feature of this utterly fantastic and straightforward game.

You play it while you do something else.

Thus, when you turn other activities into games, you choose to see whatever you are up to as an exciting game, of which you are both the designer and the player — all the while being an eager anthropologist studying the fantastic conglomeration of cultures represented by you and the world around you.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this article, then in addition to those quoted above, you might also enjoy these:

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