Patience and Attention

This is a game that we play often at home with adults, children and in a group setting. Having made  a tower with all the Jenga blocks, the game starts with the player taking out with one hand as many pieces as possible one by one, from the tower and placing it on the top to build the tower taller. If the tower were to tumble, the game stops and the other person starts the  game.

I have seen some being able to make only one or two   layers with the blocks taken out and some others making another ten or more layers to the original tower. I have often asked all those who played the game, to explain the strategy. Most treated it as a game for fun. Some others regarded it as a challenge to their skills.

There is a challenge to patience and attention in this games. The block needs to be taken out with one hand with least shaking of the tower. Hurry and force will cause the tower to tumble. But slow and careful manipulation of a block will keep the tower from tumbling. 

I have used this game to reduce impulsivity and promote attention in children. I have also used this to create self awareness as a bio-feed back in adults to test their state of patience and attention.  

Let me suggest this game to adults, who have demanding work schedule, stressful experiences, or multi tasking habits that you try playing this game twice a week to see how it holds your attention and patience. Keep a record of the number of towers you build on different occasions and review the occasions when you made the least, to see if such occasions were demanding or stressful times. One can use this as an objective self monitoring test to sense one's level of attention and patience at different times.

Each of us needs a self monitoring for our attention- use check lists, or play simple performance board games. It can be a simple way a husband and wife can help each other to pick up early indications of declining attention  or impatience.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)