14 DAY TRIAL // Based on more than a decade of research and findings by Dr. Mark Baldwin of esteemed McGill University in Montreal, MindHabits is a new game for Mac which presents simple but fun challenges for maintaining a more positive state of mind.
Tests run by Dr. Baldwin showed obvious positive results for the subjects. Those results included reduced stress, boosted self-confidence, reduced exam anxiety, improved work performance and even a better golf game.
"When we think of self-confidence and stress reduction, we think of deliberate thoughts. But research shows that a lot of what goes on is automatic thought," says Mark Baldwin who is a social psychology professor at McGill University in Montreal. "And what determines the nature of automatic thought is practice," Mr. Baldwin added, according to the Washington Times.
"It's not (something) subliminal," said Baldwin, who has been studying and researching things relating to self-esteem and self-confidence for years. "That's a term I don't use, because in psychology it means you're unable to control what's going on. We use the word 'automatic.' It's like learning a golf swing in terms of physically learning a habit so that it happens automatically. In this case, it's a psychological habit, so you're practicing disengaging from thoughts of social threat, rejection, criticism and so on."
Mr. Baldwin offers an example of how the game works on the MindHabits web site. He says that, at one point in the game, the player must identify the smiling faces in a crowd of frowns, which, studies have shown, can help train one's mind to react to positive information. Using the same concept, word challenges associate certain elements with one's personal words, reinforcing positive personal associations. This ultimately triggers positive patterns of thought, Dr Mark Baldwin claims.
The studies he carried out have shown that playing MindHabits can help reduce the stress hormone cortisol by up to 17%. This can be achieved by spending as little as 5 minutes with the game, the renowned doctor claims.
Living proof of the benefits of playing MindHabits is Evelyn Fine, a car saleswoman in Greenville, Ky. She said: "I noticed a change in attitude within the first week of playing it. It teaches your mind to automatically focus on the positive." Ms. Fine has been playing the game up to 15 minutes a day for the past six weeks.
The game features 200 levels of gameplay in 4 core games, daily tracking of results and measurement of progress over time, customizable male/female only options, over 1,500 face images on higher levels, different levels of gameplay difficulty, the ability to customize it according to age, neighborhood and facial characteristics and a science lab that explains how and why MindHabits works.
You can try out the game for free over at the MindHabits web site. To pre-order your Mac version of the game, visit this address.