Playing games isn’t always about winning, sometimes it is just about quieting the inner voice
Everyone has anxiety during times of stress, and it is easy to become overwhelmed if you don’t have an outlet to escape and unwind. Anxiety is a condition that mostly comes from “being in your own mind.” What does that mean? That means that idle minds are a devil’s playground – the more you think about problems in your life, the more you worry, the more anxiety can overwhelm you.
So sometimes the best way to get away from it all is to wrap yourself up in a game that will take your mind off of whatever is setting you a-tizzy! These are the top ten games for anxiety, help clear your mind, and ease your worries!
Top Ten Games for Anxiety
Hole.io
There is something very satisfying and stress-relieving about having something that swallows things up whole. As you move around the board, your hole makes things disappear, which keeps your mind occupied. And you can reach your goals without having anxiety-provoking moves to make or strategies to achieve.
The more you swallow, the bigger your hole becomes, which is not only a great stress reliever, it is a whole lot of fun! Seeing someone getting swallowed whole, and it isn’t you being swallowed by the stress of your daily life, is very cathartic. Try it and see how much satisfaction you can derive from clearing entire city blocks with very little skill or thought needed!
Prune
Prune is a game that is available for both Android and iOS users. It is the newest game sweeping the anti-anxiety crowd. Prune doesn’t take much skill to get to the top, but it is very engaging to cut off the limbs of a tree that aren’t useful. Much like clearing things off of your stressful to-do list, Prune lets you cut out things that aren’t necessary.
And it takes from the concept of gardening and how relaxing it is and puts it in a virtual form for you. The key to the game is to cut out all the things that eat up the tree and enhance all the things that make it grow. So, in essence, it is like trying to balance your life, only it isn’t your life that you are dealing with. And balance is so easy to achieve that it will inspire you to knock things off of your busy list too.
Happify
Happify helps anxiety sufferers escape their every day. It was designed to help players not only reduce stress but also to change their daily habits that might lead to their feelings of being overwhelmed. The app tracks you specifically, which is why you have a series of questions to answer about how you feel right at the start.
Happify tracks you and aims to reduce your negative thoughts that are increasing your anxious feelings. According to your answers, the app supplies you with both activities. And quizzes to help you find better ways to cope with anxiety, so that you can conquer it, instead of it conquering you!
Headspace
Research tells us that meditation is an excellent treatment for people who experience anxiety and stress. The app Headspace gives its users “mindful moments” that help to keep you grounded and present in your life during times of calm and stress.
There are also mini-meditation activities to help when you need a quick mental reboot. The free version offers those who are new to meditation basic instruction about how to be mindful in thought and action. And it covers everything from social interaction to sleeping tools.
Worry Watch
Worry Watch is a step-by-step roadmap to finding inner peace with your inner voice. There are just five steps to follow: record, reflect, reason, realize, and refute, which are the basic concepts of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, only outlined in an everyday, simple way. Worry Watch allows users to track your mental state by first allowing you to record how you feel, then to look at those feelings.
Once you identify and evaluate, you are asked to take time to reason if your thoughts are realistic. The app allows you to go back then after the situation has resolved, and see if the outcome was what you expected. If not, you are asked to refute your original negative thoughts so that in the future, you can learn to recognize unhealthy patterns that might be causing you anxiety.
Ken Zoi
What is more relaxing than watching Koi fish in a pond? Helping to breed, grow, and collect Koi fish using this zen-inspired game. The goal of the game is to help Japanese Koi grow into a mythical dragon adult, regardless of what obstacles stand in your way.
The app was created with background sound that is meant to soothe and relax you while putting you into a meditative state, where you can chill out and escape the stressors of your reality. But at the same time, it helps to stimulate your mind and keep you engaged so that you don’t have much time to ruminate and think about all the things that might be stringing you out.
_PRISM
Nothing is more mind immersing than a jigsaw puzzle. The jigsaw puzzle has been around for centuries for an excellent reason; they distract your mind and allow you to forget about the stress that might be getting you down.
As you move the puzzle pieces around the app, there are 13 different levels and enchanting music that helps to keep you calm, engaged, and relaxed. There is no timer or rush to the finish line, users go at their own pace and achieve success on their timeframe.
Outfolded
Outfolded is an award-winning game that remains to be popular for anxiety sufferers. It is the ultimate app for puzzle lovers who want to wrap themselves up in something that stops their mind from being idle, but who don’t want to focus on complex or emotional thoughts.
The puzzle is endless, so you can play it for as long as you want. But there are different levels so that you don’t ever get bored. And although it is meant to reduce anxiety, you can compete against yourself on those days when a challenge is what you need most.
Colorfy
Over the last several years, coloring books have become popular not just for children but also for adults. Coloring books not only inspire you to create and allow you to lose yourself while staying within the lines, or not; they help you to feel accomplished.
Choose whatever coloring scene you want and your palate and paint yourself calm! It is a great way to put all the things that are bringing you stress away for a bit, and let your inner child come out and play for a while.
WordScapes
Wordscapes is an app that might not have many bells and whistles, but what it does have is simple tasks and a whole lot of distraction. If you ever played Boggle as a child, you will quickly remember how much fun it can be! During play, the object is to look at letters and see how many different ways you can arrange them.
Although there is a lot of thought necessary, there is no stress involved. You can create words at your own pace and reach levels when you want. The background is not bright and flashy, nor are the movements or the sound. It is all peaceful, all the time, and a great game to reduce anxiety.
Anxiety Games – Not Just for Children Anymore!
Games are not just for children. When you find the right one to immerse yourself in, they can be a great way to escape whatever is occupying your mind and causing you stress. The key to overcoming anxiety is to stop the negative thoughts and inner talk that ruminate and keep you stuck. Anxiety is about worrying about things you can’t control and adverse consequences that most likely won’t happen. So if you are feeling a little stressed, download one of these top ten anxiety-reducing games and lose yourself for a bit.
