Zen And Gaming. The Power Of Flow States

A big hello and a SURPRISE to my subscribers. This is the 3k-4k and may as well be 5k subscriber milestone video I’ve been promising you.
Rather than simply do a Q and A or something off the cuff, which I’ll leave until if and when subscribers reach 6 digit numbers I thought I’d share a little about meditation and how it transformed life. Don’t worry though, we’re going to be talking about games plenty too.
As well as having all you wonderful people listening to my talks I’ve also accumulated a nice list of fellow content creators who helped me put this video together by contributing capture from games like Black Myth Wu Kong, Ghosts Of Tsushima, The Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2. Combined with my own capture from Dark Souls 3, Sekiro and Sifu I think we should have an interesting enough show. We'll talk about flow states, meditation and anxiety. How the world is geared to bring us stress and anxiety and how by using simple meditation and mindfulness we can bring calm to the storm.
So sit down crossed legged on a cushion and let's talk about what it really takes to destroy those bosses and win those tough battles and see if we can’t apply the same principles to other areas of our lives.
#gaming #sekiro #darksouls #fromsoftware #meditation
..........................................Meditation resources.............................................
‪@samharrisorg‬ official channel
the waking up app. This is a great one stop place to learn about meditation and mindfulness.
www.wakingup.com/
.........................................Talks with Sam Harris.........................................
Various longer talks about meditation, mindfulness and the nature of conciousnes.
with Dr Andrew Huberman
• Dr. Sam Harris: Using ...
With ‪@DailyStoic‬
• Sam Harris on Stoicism...
with ‪@Andreduqum‬
• A Rational Mystics Gui...
..........................................Alan Watts......................................................
A great speaker on Zen, meditation and eastern philosophy
official Alan Watts youtube
/ @alanwattsorg
Numerous excerpts from Watt's talk are used in ‪@tradgedyandhope‬ videos.
........................................Awesome contributors ...........................................
‪@thesummerofmark‬
‪@JankbaronDom‬
‪@HeyBlondieGamer‬
‪@ThePrimordialChronicles‬
‪@AvalancheReviews‬
ajhakra's Nexus mods page
next.nexusmods...
--------------------------- Socials-----------------------------------------
All the hottest takes on coca cola are here
/ trcmods
My Facebook page that a few people follow
www.facebook.c...
Instagram (I sort of use this sometimes)
/ samblenderart
Tip me a coffee here
ko-fi.com/arkh...
Commissions at artstation (No NFTS!)
www.artstation...

[@HeyBlondieGamer]

Great video, sprinkled with a tonne of gaming nostalgia as the sugar with the medicine. Really nice work.

[@arkham666]

@@HeyBlondieGamer glad you liked it. Thanks for the assist.

[@sillymarthinigaming2275]

Oh yes! Mindfulness is incredible! I used to think it was all budhism and religious mumbo jumbo. But since i've acknowledged my ptsd and have aid in getting over it; when i've been downed by anxiety and anger -imbued with stress as a kickstarter- my physiotherapist does some mindfulness exercises with me and in an hour all accumulated stress of an entire week just dissipates. And mostly we're doing things like doing silly things with a hula hoop or simple yoga positions. But i can't agree any more with you! Just stepping away and calming the mind by doing nothing but breathing is the best way to relax, collect yourself and strengthen up for the next incoming wave of western life. The mind is a powerful tool, don't use it against yourself :)

[@arkham666]

Your therapist sounds like an absolute chad. I'm glad you guys found each other and are working through your issues together.

[@sillymarthinigaming2275]

@@arkham666 yes! He is relatively young but very knowlegdable 👌🏼 I do hope more people take something away fron your video and we all learn to take a breather more often :D

[@arkham666]

@@sillymarthinigaming2275 I hope so too.

[@AvalancheReviews]

VTMBL OST spotted!!!!

[@arkham666]

@@AvalancheReviews the absolute best ambient music.

[@drshemp1]

I love that you used the OST from VTMB at 4:20. Great video bro! EDIT: and then Deus Ex OST at 6:40! my man!

[@arkham666]

Easily some of the best ambient music from any games. Right up there with the Morrowind ost.

[@DavidStrife7]

I think a lot of what you said about "spectres" can be summarized by the common piece of advice a lot of practices tout, which is "Live in the Present". We spend most of our waking day anxious about the future, or embarassed/angry about the past. Usual things can be applied such as "Don't dwell on the past, poison only erodes the container it's within" and "Don't worry about something that may or may not happen, and hasn't happened yet" etc. I think you provided more practical and directly applicable viewpoints to consider on the topic though beyond what you modestly called superficial. Most people would have just thrown around some platitudes and general statements, but I think the video went pretty deep on the topic if you pay attention to the specific words you chose. There's a lot to unpack if people pay attention to what you've said. As for those spectres, it was interesting to notice that our stress systems are being provoked by dangers that still have dire consequences but are mostly unseen these days. Like an invisible tiger, at least the real one provokes that response in us when we see one directly, but these days every small insignificant thing can turn into something severe just based on its possibility. Kind of like the whole Batman Begins argument that a man can be killed, but an idea can strike fear and live on. I think that idea of something can sometimes be more terrifying because it lacks definition, and also cannot be dealt with physically and directly like a real-world danger. These days, we fight battles of the mind, not with our fists. We're not really evolutionary built for that yet like you mentioned, and we're still in the early stages of finding tools for it all. Great video. I walked away with some things to think about.

[@arkham666]

Kek I spend 30 minutes telling you not to think and you walk away thinking. Epic fail!

[@feralripper5100]

I just found this channel searching for prey content to watch while playing prey for the 7th time. Your videos are great, nice backlog for me to go through now

[@arkham666]

@@feralripper5100 well I hope I can inform and entertainm

[@randomsandwichian]

I have not done much of it close to 10 years going now, but when I started pursuing higher ed in 2009+, I had always sought out some form of mental/self improvement to give myself a little bit of an "edge", or so I thought. It's a whole sandwich in and of itself, to say the least. Since 2015, as I came to the end of many crossroads, I figured that all those lessons - as much as it helped form a "way" for myself - can wait, or at the very least come as they may. Because at the end of it all, it is how you wish to tackle things as your best self (with all the habits and rational that sticks) that matters, not the pursuit of that "bigger you", because those things never stay until you can make space for them to be able to. Stop burning yourself out for the extrinsic until they match what you consistently mind on the inside too.

[@arkham666]

Wonderful philosophy.

[@qoganjacks146]

Come for game design explanation. Left with a great life advice. You earned a subscriber.

[@arkham666]

Thanks. This is a bit of a different video for me but I like to dive into themes and Philosophy in my regular reviews too.

[@ThePrimordialChronicles]

Happy to help out my man!

[@arkham666]

@@ThePrimordialChronicles I appreciate it mate.

[@thesummerofmark]

great video mate. happy to help

[@arkham666]

@@thesummerofmark thanks man. You rock.

[@ClarkKentai]

That opening is some Alan Watts-level shit. Edit: got to the end, and how 'bout that, preaching to the choir.

[@arkham666]

That man saved my life. And that's not hyperbole.

[@noppamies3]

Man why is this so uncannily accurate? Especially for games like CS or racing games?

[@arkham666]

@@noppamies3 we all share the same experiences.

[@MessiahJason]

Wonderful video. Glad I got tricked, you have no idea how much I needed to hear those first few minutes this morning lol

[@arkham666]

@@MessiahJason well there's plenty of other guided meditations on KZbin if you need help focusing in the morning.

[@maizee369]

Bro great vid and i am binging your previous ones esp the ff ones. I am actually surprsied by the subscriber count. An advice would be to upload more consistently (with less intervals)to beat the youtube Algorathim and keep going 👋

[@arkham666]

@@maizee369 as much as I'd like, it's simply not possible without sacrificing quality. It takes a phenomenal amount of effort just to get out one video a month so I can't really do more unfortunately. I appreciate your advice though.

[@gillianlangtree9203]

Amazing video, thanks

[@arkham666]

You're welcome :)

[@Zd0g119]

art of rally. Meditation with a side of dirt.

[@arkham666]

Art of Doom Slaying meditation with a side of F--K YOU!

[@RT-kp8ed]

The topic of this video is always a difficult one for me. Mindfulness/Meditation is frequently brought up in mental health spaces and therapy, commonly mentioned alongside cognitive behavioural therapy techniques. But I find it never works. For me. Which I hope to say to clarify that I don't wish to call mindfulness bad or therapy bad, as it can helpful plenty of people; but maybe to share awareness of some other cases like myself. Some things mentioned in this video caused some stress. A kind of unavoidable thing when you fall far outside the average experience/life; then the mentions of those things just serve as reminders of how broken and f'd up you are. But I guess that falls within "having thoughts" and not just being in the present. Which is where the difficultly of mindfulness comes in. And I suppose that's the assumption of... I'm not sure what to call it. Regularity? Normality? A homeostatic body? Imagine someone with a chronic pain condition trying mindfulness m. They can quite their thoughts but their nerves a still alight with pain. Maybe involuntary twitches breaking the peace and stillness. And that can't be turned off. What then, for mindfulness? I'm not that person with chronic pain but am in a similar boat. Where being in the present is as much as a source of stress and pain and thoughts about the past or the future. An physical awareness that can't be turned off nor reconciled with. It's a hellish state of being. But like I said, this isn't meant as a condemnation of the practice mindfulness and other approaches that can help people. Thankfully most people don't deal with issues like this. But these sorts of videos always do have me wondering, what approach there can be to those less common situations. Because it doesn't seem like there are any and the conclusion I can keep reaching is that one single bleak morbid one.

[@RT-kp8ed]

Oh and, git gud and other stuff. Forgot to throw that in (and doesn't seem "edit" works on mobile).

[@arkham666]

@@RT-kp8ed I'm not even going to try and tell you what will or won't work for your situation as it's clearly well beyond the scope of my knowledge or education. The best I can say is you should be talking with doctors and therapists but that can be kind of a crap shoot too sometimes. Whatever happens I hope you figure it out in the end.

[@kaidorade1317]

Ooh I see a Persona 5 clip! It would be a five hour video but you should review Persona 5 Royal one day

[@arkham666]

It'll happen one day. It's one of my favorites.

[@officialr313ntless]

git gud (

[@arkham666]

@@officialr313ntless trying every day :)