Lily 's Key Ideas from Superbetter
by Jane McGonigal

Post-traumatic growth and post-ecstatic growth are positive developments that people experience during difficult times.

• Post-traumatic growth often happens to car crash victims, who find themselves appreciating life a lot more after the crash, or cancer survivors, who start running marathons once they recover.
• However, you don’t need to run your car into the next tree, in order to play a round of SuperBetter. There’s another form of growth that doesn’t require trauma, called post-ecstatic growth.

This reduction in physical pain comes from 2 things:

• Playing a video game shifts our attention spotlight, and allows us to react less to the signal of pain.
• The activity of playing engages us in a state called flow, where we’re so engaged and absorbed in the activity that we feel in perfect control of our lives.

In this way we give our attention to a positive activity, which also makes us feel in charge. This gives us the confidence to endure the pain and our body adapts.

When two people play a similar game in the same room, they form a strong neurological and physiological connection. They show the exact facial expressions; their heartbeats also settle into the same rhythm – and this occurs irrespective of whether they’re playing with or against one other.

And the connection goes more than that: we’re also very likely to like the people if we’re playing a game with them. The reason for that is because we’re attracted to people we see that alike to ourselves.

Games can have a positive influence on your life, providing that you play them for the right motives. The impact games have on your life doesn’t rest on the type of games you play or the time you use to play them. It depends on the reason you play them.

Not every person plays games for educational or social causes. Some people play games as a type of escape from life issues– and that’s when gaming becomes destructive. But, if you play games with a positive aim, you’re more likely to gain the advantages and also feel happier in your non-gaming life.