Ches of Live Like You Game on Positive Psychology and Games & What Makes Healthy Gaming

I'm a firm believer that video games can teach gamers valuable life lessons. What I've done to teach how games can help you improve your health and fitness, my friend Ches has applied to more mental health and personal development.

Ches is the creator of Live Like You Game. A website dedicated to helping you find all the unique ways video games can help bring out the best in you and how what you discover can help you improve every aspect of your life.

His day job is being an engineer at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. But his passion has become Live Like You Game.

Like myself, Ches found that he was completely lost when it came to understanding or improving the most basic aspects of his life. He spent far too much time gaming and not enough time living.

During his gaming sessions, he was on cloud nine. When he wasn't logged in, life felt like shit.

So, like all the games he'd explored, Ches went on a new quest: a quest of self-discovery. It turns out that video games tap into deep psychological phenomenon, boosting your mental energy. Video games were reaching the ambitious, creative, determined part of me that wasn’t showing in the real world.

What he found in some of his research intrigued him. Video games tap into a deep psychological phenomenon that can actually boost your mental energy. 

So why were video games helping him to be more creative and determined in the game, but he was unable to translate that to real life?

Through his exploration, Ches discovered keys to changing his mindset and making his life work for him. But he also discovered that other there are other gamers in the world who feel the same way. So he started Live Like You Game to help gamers find a way to connect their game world mindsets to their real lives. 

In this episode we discuss:

• Dumbbells and Dragons episode
• The negative stories he told himself
• Positive psychology and games
• Runescape and how it influenced his life
• Parents, politicians, and their irrational fears on video games
• What he’s found in his research on the benefits of gaming
• Healthy and unhealthy gaming
• Superbetter
• Where he struggles in applying game concepts in his life
• Learning what to do when you fail
• Fun questions
• What he does at NASA
• What his gaming history would reveal about him
• Stressors in life
• Three games ever gamer should play in their life
• Website
• Twitter