Seven Reasons That Playing Board Games Could Benefit YOU!
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Seven Reasons That Playing Board Games Could Benefit YOU!
By Kyler Samuels.
When was the last time that you played a board game just for the fun of it? I feel board games are often overlooked as a form of entertainment. Many people today have never played a board game ever and why would they? We’re in an age where video games and social media have consumed many of the younger generations, and there isn’t much reason to get around the table, roll dice, and look at cards, right? But what could everyone be missing from this new way of life? The main benefits of playing board games are crucial for improving skills for everyday life and improving your health.
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1) Helps Bonding With People.
It seems like talking to new people keeps getting harder and harder every time you do it. Board games really help break the ice when it comes to starting conversations, it offers something to talk about without the pressure of coming up with a topic. Not only talking to new people, but it helps friends reconnect or strengthen their relationships with one another. My sister has always been very anxious about meeting new people, so whenever I try to introduce new friends to her it is usually during a game night so that there are already things to talk about. Fun Games that are great for just trying to meet and talk to new people are “Apples to Apples”, “What Do You Meme”, and for mature groups “Cards Against Humanity”.
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2) Increases Self Confidence.
The greatest part of games is that it doesn't matter who wins afterward, so why not take some risks? This sense of adventure and judgement does correlate with things in your everyday life. It also builds a stronger sense of creativity, which leads to the feeling of being noticed and included. It also relates to a stronger inner-self worth that isn’t dependent on the approval of other people. When I was growing up my school district hosted a monthly chess tournament. These competitions were hard because I was so nervous because I felt so inexperienced compared to the other kids. But I learned and more importantly gained more and more confidence as I improved every month. I recommend that to just get more confident is to try new games and keep playing them until you feel like you have a good chance of winning (confidence).
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3) Developing Teamwork Skills.
Throughout life there is always going to be a need to work with others, so how can we practice this? Collaborative games of course! Though they aren’t your traditional games like Monopoly and Scrabble, today you can walk into almost any store and pick one up. It’s a nice change and helps develop communication and brainstorming skills. I love playing team board games because it’s always nice to try to see how different people work together, and learn new ways to look at situations. A few of my recommendations of games where everyone works together are, “Pandemic” “Castle Panic” and a game that recently came out “Disney’s Sidekicks”.
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4) Helps “Unplug” From The Internet.
Everyday it seems to get harder and harder to even have a conversation with a person without being distracted by any of our devices. Everyone is usually behind screens for an average of seven hours a day. We need a break! Taking a bit of time away from all of the strain of the screens will not only help your eyes, but it will also help ground you back into the real word. It takes a ton of fighting to get my sister and my girlfriend to play a game with me instead of them spending hours on social media, but they always end up playing more than the one game I get them to play with me. Easy games to get people to get interested and to participate in “Monopoly”, “Life” and “Jenga”.
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5) Helps Reduce Stress.
One of the “side effects” of playing games is laughter, and a sure sign that people are having fun. Having a small time away from all the bills and the responsibilities of life really does help with managing stress. Scientifically speaking, having a friendly competition triggers the release of endorphins ( the body’s natural “good feeling” chemicals) which ends up having people feeling happy and content. This is how I usually try to reduce my stress, it’s the best way I’ve found to keep my mind occupied when I’ve had a rough week. I recommend games that are more chance than skill to destress like, “Yahtzee”, “Uno”, and “Sorry”.
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6) Improves Cognitive Function.
With the wide variety of board games, there are plenty that require focus and a good amount of skill, like memorization, tracking/ recognizing patterns, quick math, and strategizing. When you’re doing all this, you’re actually giving your brain a workout! These skills translate over to other things you do in your daily routine, like finding that last minute thing that you need to grab before heading out the door, without having to search the whole house. Th e biggest piece of evidence to back this claim is my mom is AWFUL about misplacing her phone and keys. But once we started playing more games from her collection of literally 600 board games more often, she has been able to keep track of those two things more often. Games I think help exercise your brain are chess (obviously), “Catan '', and for those huge Disney fans “Disney’s Villainous”.
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7) Strengthens Critical Thinking skills.
Critical thinking is used to form a judgement. This is most commonly used in making decisions and drawing conclusions. This is huge in almost every situation you have and will encounter in your life, so why wouldn’t you try to sharpen this skill? Making decisions based on a bunch of other factors that are out of your control are basically the whole premise for tons of games. I think that I definitely have gotten way better at being able to make last minute decisions, all thanks to my years of playing tons of different games and continuing to try to get better at as many as I can. Games I think that help the most are “Stratego”, “Risk”, and “Splendor”.
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I have played board games my whole life, and I feel like they have helped prepare me in these seven areas of everyday life and health. These are just easy ways to get out there to try to gain some normalcy after this weird time. Not only that but also a fun way to sharpen your mind! Imagine if we started to get younger children to begin developing these skills through playing! So the next time you get together with your friends or even your family, instead of just sitting around on your phones why not start a game and not only have fun, work on yourself?
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