I posted a short video introduction to Awareness Games on my author page on Amazon.
If you don't feel like watching it with sound, here's the transcript:
Hi, this is Brian Tom O'Connor, author of Awareness Games: Playing with Your Mind to Create Joy. Thanks for watching this video and giving me a chance to tell you a bit about what Awareness Games are.
Awareness Games are playful ways of looking for happiness where it is instead of where it isn't. Where it isn't is somewhere outside of yourself, in things you can get or situations you can achieve.
Where it is is inside you in the plain clear background of all of your experience. You can find it by shifting your attention from the content of your awareness to pure awareness itself -- that empty space that all experience appears in, or to.
But for most of us, this is easier said than done. Our minds are so used to looking at the words on the page and ignoring the white paper. So used to focusing on the images on the screen and overlooking the screen itself.
But that pure plain background of awareness is exactly where to look for happiness.
Why? Because that's where it lives. Because that's the part of us that totally accepts and allows all of the content of our experience. It's like a clear mirror reflecting whatever appears in front of it, without picking and choosing what to reflect and what not to reflect. Open, clear, relaxed, non-judgmental, loving.
And the best part of it is, it's already there inside each of us, just waiting to be noticed.
The more we hang out there, the more that happiness flavors and permeates our lives.
But how to hang out there; how to step back into pure awareness is different for everybody, and even different for one person on different days. That's where games come in. A relaxed playful attitude really helps. You're not just blindly and obediently following someone else's instructions, you're playing around for yourself, noodling around inside and discovering what clicks for you.
It also helps that there are lots of Awareness Games, so if one game doesn't do it for you, try another one. Play around with a bunch of them, because each game is designed to guide you to the place inside where happiness lives. Where it's always hanging out just waiting for you to stumble upon it.
So I'm hoping you'll try some Awareness Games yourself and stumble into that secret infinite well of joy and happiness hiding within each of us.
Enjoy, and thanks for watching.