What are transformation games and how do they help you get to know yourself?

How often do you experience feelings of fatigue and lack of understanding of where to go next? Maybe you are visiting a psychologist or, on the contrary, it seems to you that psychotherapy is not your option? What if you could solve your problems with the help of a game?

It doesn’t sound scary, in fact it’s interesting. Moreover, you have surely seen the game “Lila” in the social networks of your friends or paid attention to a lot of girls in a cafe, discussing something with a mentor and exchanging cards.

Let’s understand, together with astrologer and numerologist Katarina Shorokhova, what transformation games are and how they can help bring order to life.

Katarina Shorokhova, astrologer and numerologist

What are transformation games and how did they arise?

The transformation game helps you know yourself better and improve your relationships, finances, career, emotional state, etc. It is a psychological and coaching tool in the form of a board game that helps you deal with problems in various areas of life.

Transformational games have their origins in Tibet. Tibetan monks drew a mandala-shaped area in the sand. The cells of the field symbolized uncertainty and certain qualities such as courage, greed and generosity. Walking in the field, the monks received spiritual enlightenment. However, such a game can last several days, which is difficult to imagine in the modern world.

Transformation games in their modern form appeared in the 80s. last century. The first of these was the game “Transformation” developed by Scottish Joy Drake and Katie Taylor. The main purpose of the game is to look at your life from the outside and comprehend your experiences. The playing field is divided into four zones: Body, Emotions, Mind and Spirit area. During the game, you have to go through each sector where there are cells such as Insights, Awareness, Obstacles, Angel Support and others. The facilitator controls the process and helps create a safe space for all participants in the game.

transformation games now

There are now hundreds of different transformation games covering a wide range of themes. There are universal games that you can play on any request. For example, these include the game “Lilac”, “Living Zone”, “Five Ways” and others.

There are games with narrower specialization, for example, Cash Flow is a game that works with the topic of finance, helping to reveal the peculiarities of the player’s thinking about money and transform it. And the game Gifts of the Goddesses is a game for women that allows us to see what roles we play in life, which ones we are used to being in and which ones need more attention.

Most games can be played individually or in groups. The game always has a leader; A game enforcer who explains the rules of the game, communicates with players, asks questions, and facilitates a comfortable passage of the game for all participants.

Why should we play?

Some experts claim that one transformation game can replace 5-6 sessions with a psychologist. This is because the game allows you to delve deeply into an exciting topic. The structure of a transformation game usually looks like this:

1. Creating a request for a game. The more clearly the request is formulated, the more efficient the game. The host of the game helps formulate the request. In some games at this stage, the correctness of the request is checked by rolling dice. Only when a certain number is rolled is the player allowed to play.
2. Walkthrough. The games have different mechanics, but generally the player rolls a dice and walks on the field, just like in a regular board game. However, here in each cell the player receives a task. This is usually a psychological problem. Some games have a reward system; When you complete a mission you can get some game artifacts from the card.
3. Game over. There are no winners or losers in transformation games. At the end of the game, everyone summarizes for himself what new things he learned about himself, his wishes, how he felt and what conclusions he made with them after the game.

It is very important to remember that you gain important realizations during the game, but the game only helps chart the path to your goal. In order for the game to “work” in life, you need to start doing what the game shows as soon as possible. That’s why many transformation games have homework.

Where to play?

Now there are many thematic channels and public pages related to transformation games. Games are played online and live. Almost every major city hosts a conversion games festival at least once a month, where you can play demo versions of games. Why demo? Most group games can last from 4 to 10 hours, so at the festival you have the opportunity to test the game for 1.5-2 hours and then decide for yourself whether you want to continue.