I have a confession to make.
I am a Candy Crush Saga addict.
You what—?!?
Now, before you judge me for my game choices, let me first say that I am not paid to promote the app game in any way, although having said that—“Founders of King.com, I am open for adoption!”
Jokes aside, Candy Crush is seriously a fantastic game. Feeling stressed? Swipe away those delightfully coloured candies in between lunch breaks. Cannot sleep? Turn on the sound and allow the ASMR*-isque Jelly music to transport you to la-la land. It really sounds like the perfect antidote to counter today’s stress and yesterday’s sorrow, isn’t it?
And if you have played the game long enough, you might, like how I did, also realize its many uncanny parallels to Life and marvel at the amazing insights it brings.
When We Stop Striving, We Start Thriving
I abhorred the Chocolate right from the beginning. Its appearance always makes my heart palpitate doubly hard and the worse thing is, the more I try to destroy it, the faster it seems to multiply. I couldn’t understand its purpose other than to frighten players into surrendering or to raise one’s blood pressure!
And so, it happened one day. Nightmarish level, and the annoying Chocolates just wouldn’t stop multiplying. “Need. To. Stop. Them.”, I thought, as I frantically tried to swipe them away but failed miserably. At the umpteenth attempt, I caved in and stopped swiping. Funnily enough, in that very moment of non-doing, everything changed! The Chocolates stopped multiplying, my mind eased, I started to breathe normally, and I began to see connections that could still be built. One swipe led to another... and another... and suddenly everything cleared up. I cleared the level!
In Life, when we encounter obstacles and challenges, the first instinct would be to resist and fight. However, as we strive to remove, avoid, and block them, very often our mind is obscured from the very thing we need to tide us through – clarity. When we allow ourselves that brief moment of stillness and non-doing, what it does is to avail a space between us and the obstacles in front of us so that we can detach from the contrived reality that our overly stimulated mind tries to feed us and instead see things with a renewed clarity.
As we relax into the natural state of being and allowing, we begin to thrive.
(Until we meet Evil Spawner, that is. But still, keep breathing anyway.)
When Life Throws You Challenges, Stay Centered and Grind On
If you dislike the Chocolates, wait till you encounter the Evil Spawners. They are like a Candy Crush player’s worst nightmare. For they keep churning and throwing up new blockers, pretty much undoing any good work one may have done previously. The only way we can get rid of them is to keep grinding at them until they explode into oblivion... (What. A. Feeling. Though.)
Doesn’t this sound exasperatedly like Life sometimes? When it seems that no matter how hard we try, we keep encountering challenges that make us go two steps forward, three steps back... Yet, if we recognize the same parallels to Life, we know that even though obstacles may be persistent, our human spirits can be even more resilient. Each time we face up to an obstacle, we grind on. Each time we overcome an obstacle, we level up—I mean, we evolve. That’s how we grow. That’s what we signed up for, otherwise hey, we might as well be a spoon!
So, the next time Life throws up an Evil Spawner or two, remember — stay centered, take a deep breath, and grind on, because my friend, no obstacle lasts forever!
Life Is As Stressful As We Make It To Be
When I first started playing the game, the perfectionist in me demanded that I score a perfect three-stars at every level, sometimes not just the normal gold stars, but the cyan ones that scream “Holy Grail!”— because otherwise, it doesn’t count. I would retry every level until I get them, even when some levels took me days just to clear, let alone score 3-stars.
Later on, as I loosened my grip on what it means to be perfect, I began to see the lighter side of things.
Do I really need 3-stars? What are the 3-stars for? To show who? To prove what? Is it worth it to spend so much time and effort just for that self-gratification?
So what if I score 3-stars?
So what if I don’t?
It’s one thing wanting what’s best, it’s another beating ourselves up when we fail to achieve what we think is best. Life is only as stressful as we make it out to be. By releasing our grip on what it means to be perfect, be it expectations, ideals, or a perception of a perfect outcome, we release so much unnecessary burden and stress on ourselves.
Life is hard not because it is inherently hard — it simply feels so because it does not meet the level of perfection we expect it to be.
A Friend In Need Is A Friend Indeed
A true Candy Crush addict know that all-too-familiar dreaded feeling when we run out of lives! Now we must wait another hour for lives to replenish before we get to play again... Excuse me while I bang my head against the pillow.
Wait— let’s ask friends for help! A click of a button and lo and behold, we get lives again.
In Life, while we don’t get the chance to live unlimited lives, we do have the gift of family, friends and communities that rally around us when we need support. When in trouble or just feeling troubled, there is no shame in reaching out for help. Perhaps there is a social stigma in asking for help because then it feels as if we are not that apt in being a human, but it is precisely this vulnerability that makes us human.
Life is a unique journey for all of us, but it doesn’t mean we cannot be one another’s cheerleader as we all tumble along and try to make sense of it. As Ram Dass noted : “We’re all just walking each other home.” We are not alone in this, never have and never should.
So, shout out to my friends, family, and community : Thank you for having my back and for rescuing me time and again. One day, I hope I can do the same for you as you did for me.
Call An Addiction By Its Root Cause
Any addiction, as we know it, is bad.
I knew my addiction to Candy Crush was getting bad when I spent $9.96 on App Store purchases in just under one month (ohhh the shame... but that will be a post for another time). The spending was small matter – what struck me was the realization that I was deliberately spending more screen time to put off working on my Reiki Master assignment and this blog post... Yes, you heard that. Reiki healers procrastinate as well. Because humans.
We tend to want to avoid situations and things that bring us discomfort. The human mind is hard-wired like that. Search for safety, avoid danger, better yet— remain in the comfort zone. Hence, we will find means and ways to hold on to anything that provides us with that comfort. Inherently, our craving for comfort isn’t the issue... it is that we use that craving to cover up a deeper underlying issue.
How many more games can I play before the deadline for my assignment is finally due and I can no longer run away from facing that fear? How much more can we avoid until we can avoid no more?
Rather than finding distractions to pepper over issues, we might be better off looking inwardly to find clues to our habitual patterns.
Life has much to teach if only we dare to venture deep.
Life Is Beautiful When In Flow
You know the feeling when you are on the top of your game and seemingly unstoppable? Every candy seems to fall in place and you go on a triumphant home run clearing levels after levels with the least of effort? Why, even the Chocolates feel friendlier.
That pretty much sums up how Life feels when we are in the flow. We feel balanced, peaceful, full of drive and vitality, open to miracles, and are able to appreciate the beautiful offerings that Life brings.
Stuck in a level? Rest those eyes and relax that tensed jaws. Come back to it when you’re more rested. I promise the results will be different.
Feeling stuck, lost, directionless? Check in within and tune into your body. Observe your thought patterns and where your body feels tense. You may very well notice the very blockages that are preventing you from experiencing the flow of Life.
Above All It’s Just A Game
The adrenaline is pulsating, the frustration is real, the anxiety is nerve-wrecking, the satisfaction – indescribable.
As we immerse ourselves in this make-believe land of saccharine goodness, let’s not forget that it is ultimately just a game. We can swipe, relax, play, accumulate gold bars and ranks for all we want, but remember that real life exists beyond the colorful screen. No amount of gold bars can bring back lost time or your perfect eyesight!
Play hard but remember to come back to the present moment and live harder. Fight the good fight as best as you could. Fail once and try again. Fail twice and try some more. Be kind to yourself if all else fails. See the light side. Have a good laugh. Move on.
You see, all things being said and done, Life is but a game. Enjoy the game while it lasts!
*Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response : Coined in 2010, ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) is a relaxing, often sedative sensation that begins on the scalp and moves down the body. Also known as "brain massage," it's triggered by placid sights and sounds such as whispers, accents, and crackles.
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