The world around you is full of games. There are personal games, political games, power games, emotional games and dysfunctional games of every shape and size. You do not have control over the games being played, but you have control over the game you play. It is easy to believe that when someone tells you you must play a game, that you are required to enter the game. For instance, there is the “who has the most expensive toy?” game. This is a particularly expensive game and if you enter, you must plan on paying a great deal just to be in the game. In addition, there never seems to be a true winner. As long as new toys are being offered, the game continues. This game is a good example of a game with a problem. The problem is that the people in the game value things over self. That means that a lot of life is spent gathering things and neglecting the self. A neglected self is never satisfied by winning the game. The self must keep playing, empty and alone.
While external games can be most troubling, internal games can be challenging as well. Let us think for a moment about the “victim” game. This game can be played for a lifetime, consciously or unconsciously, but by its very definition, requires a loser, not a winner. This game requires an individual to focus attention on deficits, either in the world, in others, or in oneself. Since it is your focus which creates the quality of your life, this focus makes sure that you never really get the fullest measure of the life you were intended to live. All of the attention goes to what you do not get and the continuing pain of losing.
There are, of course, positive games which are won simply by playing the game. Those games are the games of love and creation. When you are becoming skilled at loving and creating, your life and your self are full and happy. Your focus is on the energy in which you were created and keeping that energy alive, nurtured and creative. This means that you are choosing what is important in your life and developing that in every aspect of your life. This is, indeed, the best of all possible games.
Awareness of the games you may be playing is one of the ways you grow. If you are playing a game that robs you of your energy, your life force and your well being, stop playing. Just as we are able to choose to enter, so we are able to choose to leave. Remember that your life is sacred and your choices are powerful. Choose well and give your life the nurturing, joy and meaning it deserves