*This post is sponsored by Best Fiends.I’ve mentioned meditation and mindfulness a few times on the blog– especially lately. I don’t necessarily sit and meditate regularly. I should, but I don’t. (One day, k?) But I do mindfully make it a point to take some time to myself almost daily. This ‘time to myself’ looks different from day to day depending on my mood. Sometimes this means just sitting outside in the sun (sans Marlowe) with a meal. Sometimes this means picking from one of the many books on my ‘must read list‘. And sometimes this means picking up my phone and playing a puzzle game. Yep… guilty of playing the good ole’ puzzle games on my phone… and claiming it’s meditative… but hear me out, okay?

Maybe it sounds crazy– but for me, simple game playing has been a source of sanity for the past.. hmm… 10+ years or so. The game changes from time to time— (and as technology changes), but for as long as I can remember, I’ve loved to tune out from the outside and stare at a screen to play some sort of puzzle game. Anyone remember that little snake/pong type game on the first screened cell phones that came out? That was a constant for me, haha.

And now, even as someone well into her adult years, well, I still like to whip out my phone and turn off my mind (just enough) to play games. My game of choice the past few months has been Best Fiends. Challenging enough where I’m not bored and letting my mind overthink everything else. But easy enough where I’m not working my adrenals and stressing myself out over nothing.

Have you guys cued in eye rolls yet? Seriously, let me keep going… it’s just that, meditation and “quieting the mind” doesn’t always have look like a crunchy, dreadlocked person sitting crosslegged and OM-ing for hours. Sometimes ‘quieting the mind’ just means turning off the internal worrisome dialogue/noise and focusing on ONE thing.

And I say, if a game can help you do that, then why not?

I like to think that I’ve advanced quite a bit in terms on mindful living– truly enjoying each moment of my day and life— and noting the hard times and the emotions that comes with it and then moving past it. But I can’t say that I’m always amazing at quieting the noise in my mind. It’s getting better for sure, especially in regards to high anxiety situations– but sometimes I still struggle with it like anyone else.

So from time to time, my meditation of choice is a phone game. My game of choice lately?  Best Fiends. I was suggested to try it, and I got sucked right in. It’s a color/pattern matching game where you build “a team of Fiends” to defeat slugs. Side note: it would be great if I could have a real team of Fiends to defeat garden slugs. Maybe one day, right?

It’s just that I don’t always want to lay or sit there with my eyes closed. Sometimes that does nothing for me. And sometimes I just don’t want to read a book. Paragraphs or pages will go by… and then I’ll stop and realize, I’ve read absolutely nothing– I’m just skimmed my eyes through the motions… as I let my mind stills tress about something else. So for me, during those hard times, I quiet my mind with a game.

I’m not going to lie, Marlowe and Alex tell me I’m crazy, but jeez, it just feels good sometimes. A few minutes here or thee when I need to TUNE OUT.

Oh, I should mention the game is free. I would totally never pay for my tune-out addictions, haha. So yeah, if you want to try it for yourself, there’s no loss or payment involved 🙂 You can download it HERE, totally free on your phone (or tablet). And the first 100 readers who download the game (again, free) will get 5$ worth of gold and diamonds for free (these come in handy in the game, haha).

ps. maybe silly, but Best Fiends just launched a “boot camp” event that you can watch and play. There’s a load of in game events + challenges too! Check it out! 🙂 Hooray! Check out a video: HERE 🙂

Happy quiet time, friends!

pps. my other top trick for tuning out? Put your phone in airplane mode, guys! Seriously. I do this A LOT lately.

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