Published with permission, copyright @ Dave Rock
It’s often easier to change our bodies than to change our minds. And changing our bodies changes how we think and feel. The trick is zero pressure, but total energy. We’re never bypassing other emotions, or self-rejecting, just welcoming delight in.
Zipping along the coast road to Galway in a blue rental car with a decent stereo, listening to Kiss from a Rose full blast, Jamie Catto and I point at election posters tacked to the lamp-posts. “He’s my favourite!”“And she’s my favourite!”“And him, and her and him!”
We guffaw like stoned muppets at every poster we pass, heartily declaring each time that this politician is our favourite. It helps that there’s a poster every ten foot or so. It also helps that Irish politicians, bar a few exceptions, are rarely slick and photogenic. They look more like cartoon characters of themselves, people you’d cast in a farce about politics.
One looks like an inbred ginger panda, a grinning, potent orange Mr Potato-Head of a man, with tufty hair and the look of a drunken uncle making a saucy joke at the wrong moment. I see my future in him. Another man looks as though he has simply spent too much time amongst donkeys. Then there’s a woman with ghoulishly white make-up and hazardous red lipstick, who has definitely just given her minders the slip and wandered into a photo-shoot. But we’re not picky; we love all the normal looking politicians too. “He’s my favourite! She’s my favourite.” The more we say it the more hilarious it is.
It’s possible to become high without drugs, purely by playing games like this. By acting high for long enough we become high. Or you could say, by acting unconditionally delighted by life for long enough we become so. This works just like power-poses and smiling meditation.
It’s often easier to change our bodies than to change our minds. And changing our bodies changes how we think and feel. The trick is zero pressure, but total energy. We’re never bypassing other emotions, or self-rejecting, just welcoming delight in.
You’re inviting a shift, not making it happen. Millions of years of evolution can do their job fine without our inner control freak stepping in.
The Favourite Game is, well, my favourite game. It’s not just for politicians. I walk around saying everything and anything I see, hear, smell, touch, think or feel is my favourite…
“You’re my favourite body. You’re my favourite life. You’re my favourite traffic-jam, you’re my favourite stranger, you’re my favourite trash, you’re my favourite sun breaking through the clouds, you’re my favourite stiff breeze, you’re my favourite horizon.”
I’m always inventing games like this to play in the comfort and privacy of my own head, to escape the thought-loops, drivel and anxiety.
I make my games Monkey-Mind Proof, so I can feed all scattered thoughts into the game. I make them unconditional, so however I’m feeling, whatever I’m thinking, whatever I’m experiencing, I can feed it into the game…
“You’re my favourite obsessive stressful thought. You’re my favourite brain. You’re my favourite vague anxiety. You’re my favourite body. You are my favourite aggressive passerby. You are my favourite reality. You’re my favourite mischievous little girl. You’re my favourite body. You are my favourite reality. You’re my favourite stupid toxic fucking advert. You’re my favourite breath. You’re my favourite moment….you’re my favourite family trauma pattern….you’re my favourite wave of grief.”
Whatever the game brings up is welcome. If the laughter brings up sadness or anger, they are welcome.
If we’re open to whatever comes, playfulness can be wonderful for excavating or at least tickling loose buried distress. Such games are obviously not a substitute for necessary healing work. But they can be an incredible complement to it.
Embodied, compassionate playfulness is a powerful alchemical element to bring into our lives. It can facilitate healing happening more easily and in more ways.
When we get to the venue for our joint workshop, Instant Enlightenment and a Million Dollars, the keys are nowhere to be found. It’s my favourite hiccup in the day. The workshop goes great of course; all our favourite people are there, and we do all our favourite things.
The game is easy to play; you just say the phrase to anything and everything you see. It works best when you use lots of energy and emphasis.
It’s possible to yell enthusiastically, or at least speak with a certain pizzazz, inside our own heads.
Doing so long enough, with zero pressure and repression, activates feel-good states.
It works best when you say the phrase to anything and everything that catches your attention, unconditionally.
And when you keep applying it to yourself and to the outside world in a fluid to-and-fro. Great to play solo, duo or in groups. Give it a go and tell me how it goes.
You can find more of Dave Rock’s work at the following places on the Internet:
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