Mind Garden

A game of Resilience

Team up to face life’s challenges

Being resilient starts in the Brain

We often hear that we can't control life, but we can control how we react to it. This is a powerful truth, and it all starts with understanding how our brain works.

Your brain is the key to turning any life event – yes, any event – into an opportunity or a gift.

When you truly believe this, life becomes an exciting game full of hidden clues and treasures. It's about finding meaning and purpose in every experience.

This process of interpreting events happens all the time, mostly on autopilot. By the time we're 35, most of our thoughts (around 95%!) are automatic (unconscious).

So, how do we build resilience and intentionally create supportive behaviors when faced with a challenge or an opportunity?

Here's the thing: your brain sees any change—even a positive one—as a potential threat. Change means stepping outside your comfort zone, and resilience is about being comfortable with these changes.

But here's the good news: you can train your brain to react differently. It all starts with awareness. By paying attention to your thoughts, you can learn to shift them in a direction that supports your goals and helps you thrive.

The psychological process on automation is as follow (see graph):

  1. Life throws you a curveball: An event happens – it could be anything! It's simply neutral, not good or bad in itself.

  2. Your brain interprets the event: Based on your past experiences, your brain creates a thought about the event. This thought can either be supportive ("I can handle this!") or sabotaging ("This is a disaster!").

  3. Your thoughts trigger emotions: A supportive thought leads to an uplifting emotion (like confidence or excitement), while a sabotaging thought leads to a draining emotion (like fear or anxiety).

  4. Emotions drive your actions: Uplifting emotions lead to supportive behaviors that help you achieve your goals, while draining emotions lead to sabotaging behaviors that hold you back.

What’s behind your thoughts?

Our thoughts originate from four distinct parts of your brain, as discovered by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor in her book Whole Brain Living. These four parts work together to shape your thoughts, emotions, and actions.

Think of it like this:

  • Left Brain: This side houses the "Work" and "Protect" modes. These modes are all about the past and the future. They help you get things done, stay organized, and keep yourself safe. In balance, they're essential for daily life but tend to create some stress.

  • Right Brain: This side is home to the "Love" and "Play" modes. These modes are all about the present moment, joy, connection, and creativity. They bring a sense of wonder and fun to life. (See graph)

To create healthy, supportive thoughts in all four modes, we need to develop specific emotional and mental skills. That's where Mind Garden comes in! The game helps you strengthen these skills in a fun and engaging way, so you can build a more resilient and balanced brain.

Here's how Mind Garden brings these concepts to life:

  • Gather resources: Collect tokens representing healthy habits like good sleep, exercise, and laughter. These are your building blocks for a stronger mind!

  • Build essential skills: Use your resources to develop emotional and mental skills in each of the four brain modes.

  • Strengthen your neural network: Each time you build a skill, you'll add and connect neurons on the game board, creating a visual representation of your growing resilience.

  • Master your skills through practice: Keep building those skills until you achieve mastery! Just like working out a muscle, the more you practice, the stronger you become.

  • Unleash special abilities: Use unique special abilities that can help the team along the way. For example, the "Creative Mind" has the "Convert" ability, allowing you to transform resources for a strategic advantage.

  • Face life's challenges: At the start of each turn, draw a life event card and see what challenges or opportunities await.

  • Put your skills to the test: Use your mastered skills to overcome life's challenges and engage in supportive behaviors. If your skills aren't strong enough yet, you might end up sabotaging yourself – but that's okay! It's all part of the learning process.

Mind Garden is a cooperative game and makes building resilience fun and interactive, so you can learn and grow as a family.