And this is no joke: choosing a profitable strategy in the game helps our brain switch.
Playing good old Tetris, invented more than 30 years ago by programmer Alexei Pajitnov, helps to reduce the strength of emotions caused by traumatic memories (for example, breaking up with a loved one or experiencing humiliation). Psychologists have found that after six hours of playing Tetris, we focus less on a recent shock.1. “Our memories are so arranged that they arise again and again and at the most unexpected moments,” says Emily Holmes, lead researcher. “They are caused by sounds, smells, visual images that remind us of what we would rather forget. Playing Tetris helps mitigate this effect.” When we solve game problems related to the selection of successful options for laying falling blocks, our brain uses the same areas as when saving sensory images. Thus, while these zones are occupied, the emotions caused by the memory simply do not have time to arise and cannot hurt us.
1 Psychological Science, online publication July 1, 2015.