Using our imagination to “think”
ourselves healthy is a good thing. The only problem is that most
adults have a very limited imagination. This is usually because we
spend our time with the day to day necessities of life. We have
forgotten how to play.
When I watch a child play they are in
their own little world. They make up the rules for their play as they
go along. They are in control of what happens in their world. Even
when faced with a debilitating illness they find a way to play. With
encouragement they even use their imagination to be the hero in their
own fight to beat their illness.
After being diagnosed with cancer I
wanted to do more than just follow doctors orders. I wanted to be at
the center of making myself healthy once again. I remembered an old
article that I had read many years ago about children that were
encouraged to see themselves and their own immune system as heroes.
These heroes then would do battle with the disease. The study
recognized that the children who had been encouraged to become the
heroes in their recovery were quicker to recover than those children
who had not been encouraged to be their own heroes.
Knowing that my own thought processes
and imagination were hampered by the chemo therapy I decided to use
video games to boost my imagination. I found a game where I could
create my own character, and become the hero of the game. For every
villain, bandit, necromancer, vampire, werewolf, and dragon that I
killed it was one more cancer cell that died never to return. I
believe that between the chemo therapy and the video game I was able
to beat cancer.
In my play through while under going
treatment my character is a nord with a two-handed battle ax. This
character is now strong enough to knock the legs out from under the
opponent before striking them on the head for the death blow. The
name of my character is a German word for death.
Video games can be a waste of time,
especially if playing them comes before everything else that needs to
be done. Yet, when you can't go anywhere, see anyone, or do anything,
they are a great escape. When you use it as a supplement to your
imagination to beat an illness, no matter what it is, they are a very
good thing indeed. The video games help to focus the attention
thereby keeping the imagination engaged.
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