Here’s Why Gaming’s Good for Your Life

Gaming’s had a pretty bad wrap for a pretty long, what with all the stuff back in the day about it inspiring kids to turn into raging psychopaths, down to the more generic “gaming makes you a shut in nerd” stereotype from more recent times.

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Today, with big consoles ruling the world and eSports taking off in various places, everyone’s been getting in on the action, which means no one’s likely to give you a dirty look when you tell them you’re heading to play Call of Duty.

The thing is, at least some of the bad stereotypes of the past have a grain of truth, right? It’s not exactly hard to find yourself spending all your free time gaming if you let yourself slip, to the point where you’re in real danger of developing serious vitamin D deficiency.

Luckily, as long as you keep things a bit balanced, gaming can actually be a great tool for improving the rest of your life, not robbing time from it.

Here are some key ways.

By giving you the adrenaline charge to get inspired

Almost no matter what game you play, you’re going to be find yourself on some kind of emotional rollercoaster, with an added adrenaline rush for the more gut-wrenching FPS’ out there.

You know, that feeling that you’re ready to conquer the world?

Well, it turns out that that’s exactly the same kind of energy that drives you to put in a serious session down at the gym, chatting up that person you’ve been flirting with on a regular basis, or even going all out and setting up your own business.

The key’s in having things to dedicate your energy to when you’re not gaming. Stuff that you’re excited about and can transfer that extra energy to.

By getting you used to thinking big

Virtually no games are based around small-time, boring people, doing small-time boring things. Whatever the character you’re playing, and whatever the genre, you can place a pretty safe bet that sooner or later you’ll be saving (or destroying) the world, or developing unheard of powers as the plot rolls on.

Even if it’s a game without an actual plot, you’ll be at the centre of big things. Not many people would accuse Minecraft of being the greatest story ever told, but there you are, building castles all the same.

If you’re in a slump in your life, or even if you’re just feeling bored or uninspired, gaming can get you used to thinking — dreaming — big, which at the very least makes life more interesting.

By chilling you out

You could argue about gaming chair vs office chair pros and cons, but one way or the other, gaming is a great way of chilling yourself out and getting your mind off whatever might be getting you down in day-to-day life.

That’s a serious benefit, by the way. People go to entire mindfulness retreats just to get the same kind of feel-good, in-the-moment experience that gamers often get into just by accident.

By having gaming as a way of pressing the reset button whenever you need a breath of fresh air, every worry in life is likely to feel a lot less major.