GreenX7 has launched a card game to keep you on the path to a healthy, happy life.
All workshop participants will receive their own pack of Play For Your Life cards from GreenX7 to take home with them. These are an amazingly simple tool. Open discussion about the things that matter in life and for personal reflection.
Book a workshop with GreenX7 today – whether it be for you as an individual, for a group, work team or your family.
We are more connected than ever before due to the advances of technology, though as humans we have never been so disconnected.
Our sedentary, spectator lifestyles are literally killing us. Where we once use to thrive, we are now just trying to survive. We can change this, as individuals, as families and as communities. And the best way you can do this is to ‘Play for your Life’.
Bri, facilitator/educator, 26 years old
The Play For Your Life cards have been something I have been carrying with me since I got my first set. They are an AMAZING tool that not only make me smile as I am connecting more to others, but allow me to learn, support and have real conversations that typically seem to be left unsaid or skimmed over.
I first brought the True North Compass tool and cards out with my adopted grandpa, he has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. I am already extremely close with him, but how do you even begin to ask someone going through this how they are without them feeling like they have to talk about the doctor visits and the repeated story that they have probably already told the many others who asked them the same question that day. For me, I wanted GP to be able to have a conversation with me without any pressure or expectation. The cards really allowed him to take a snapshot of how he was feeling within each, and immediately he began to share and comment on his highs and lows. I sat simply loving the sharing he gave me, allowing me to get a better insight and provide tips and ideas of how we could enhance particular lows. A standout from this was his reflection of purpose and in playing realised that he no longer had a purpose, that he had disconnected from it and wanted to give up. Without me even saying anything, he was able to see how much this was affecting his overall mental and physical health and a discussion then began on a new focus- to connect more to his family and friends, to move, to not shut down his feelings and to do what he loves. I was able to do a breathing activity with him, which he shared brought an immediate feeling of calm and relaxation. It was the first time he had learnt this and now uses this when he needs.
Each time I see him, I now have an opportunity to share a game, a connection and support him without pressure, without expectation. Just me, some cards and my big heart.
My mum was second to be introduced to the cards. She is an amazing woman in her 60’s still working and bringing so much joy to other people’s lives. With all of this though, I felt that when it came to giving herself time for fun, nature and relationships she was definitely low.
In laying out the cards, it was so great to sit there watching her as she considered her top three, then bottom two. With each card she was able to share why she chose them and reflect how they related within her life. I loved watching her pat her head and rub her tummy along with taking a moment to feel something natural.
It allowed her to quickly connect to her body, have some fun and also share with me what the card meant to her. After we finished I gave her a prescription- Time in nature, have fun and to talk to at least one male each day (genuinely).
Within the week, I had a phone call from her sharing the little adventures she had created and that she had connected with a lovely gentlemen and was invited to meet him again later in the week. 7 years, since she has been in a relationship and this is currently unfolding as I write. I’m secretly smiling!
I feel and see her smiling more, engaging in nature and she seems so much more open to life.
Then came my girlfriends, bringing out the cards over a cup of tea and getting to laugh, share and hear how they are really feeling. I think sometimes we feel like we don’t want to overload someone with our stuff, yet at the same time are really craving to talk about what’s really going on, without all of the drama.
For me these cards allow this, giving a framework and snapshot of key areas, while still providing opportunity for open sharing. Again I so loved being able to share this tool with my friends and see the way they connected to areas of strength and those needing improvement. It allowed me to understand the low areas and consider ways I could then support my friends. i.e if movement and environment was low, we could get together and go for a walk, bike ride or adventure outside. Simple yet super supportive.
Tash, mental health councillor, 27 years old
I have just had the opportunity to be supported by GreenX7 through playing the card game offered within their program. This card game made me realise the detrimental need for a supportive game such as this one, to help support and bring regular balance to how people are living their every day lives. I found this game so incredibly supportive for me as I tend to get overwhelmed very easily. I was able to re-regulate and enjoy the people around me as well as enjoy being myself after completing each of the steps. I felt more alive, in my body and able to handle some of the pressures of life I was feeling.
I would highly recommend this game to all people.
Sue, community care worker, 63 years old
I recently had been to the doctors and was given certain medications to support my physical body. That evening I was introduced to the GreenX7 and played the game. I followed the layout and realised I needed to have more fun, be in nature, increase my sunshine exposure and to connect more with others. That was my prescription from GreenX7 and by committing to what was presented my life has improved immensely.
Kate
“One of the worst aspects of depression for me is the sense of being trapped within its dark caverns, fearing there is no way out – or worse – knowing there could be a way out if only there was a map.
I have just spent three weeks in one of those dark caves, just waiting for a glimpse of light to follow. Trapped inside, I experience confused thinking, muddled thinking, a terrible fatigue and sense of hopelessness. All the advice I’ve heard about dealing with depression floods into my head – “exercise”; talk to somebody; self-nurture; blah blah blah. Instructions are fired like bullets and it’s all so confusing, so damn hard, and my body is near to paralysis anyway, the only thing I can do is try to escape into sleep. To get unconscious.
I was just coming out of a three week period of lying-on-the-bed-depression when David Collins introduced me to this card system one morning. I can’t remember the spread of the cards or all the simple instructions they offered me for the day but I remember one in particular – it said “decide what you want the next hour to look like”. It didn’t suggest I plan the rest of my life or the year or even the next 24 hours. Simply the next hour. I didn’t know how I wanted the next hour to look but I did know I didn’t want it to look like most of the hours in the previous three weeks – so I knew NOT to go and lie on the bed. As it happened, the vacuum cleaner was out and I turned it on. That day I cleaned the house which was in need of attention and which was contributing to my depression. The decision not to lie down and try to escape, the action of cleaning and the outcome of a clean house completely changed my day. It changed the following days as well as I had been given a map with which to escape the hellish cavern that had been keeping me from my own life.
I would really like to have a set of these cards as having been shown how they work, I believe they are the most practical, simple, and helpful tool for dealing with depression that I have ever encountered. I can see they are designed to help everyone who is dissatisfied with some area or areas of their lives and they are not just a tool for depression.
Congratulations to the designer of this system, I believe you have come up with something truly wonderful.”