How Animal Crossing Helped Thousands in Lockdown
This peaceful world of Animal Crossing, featuring cute animal characters has provided a sanctuary and safe haven for those who, wanted to escape the pandemic nightmare. Here at The Richards’ Centre in Crawley, some people have been telling us about a new soothing game that helps with mindfulness – so, we thought we would give it a go.
A few people have not been following the rules and guidance over the last few weeks, by socialising, going to shops, visiting neighbours – however, they have all been doing so by staying at home and on the sofa.
Animal Crossing Mindfulness
The Video game featuring anthropomorphic animals was released in March 2020 just before we all hid away during the early lockdown period, and since, it has become one of the country’s favourite hobbies.
Like previous instalments of the series, the concept of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is fairly simple: Live in a virtual island, help residents, go fishing and build houses – even visiting a museum, a place where we cannot go physically in the real world.
We mentioned earlier that you can visit friends and family, providing that they also own the game and a Nintendo Switch, this has created a bonding community of lonely and frustrated people that are stuck in Lockdown.
Helping Mental Health
For others, the game extends more than fixing loneliness and frustration, it can help mental health during Lockdown. Francesca from Crawley suffers from Anxiety, but playing the game with a soothing pace and characters have helped stop her mind racing about the difficult world outside.
It has stopped her checking the daily COVID-19 Updates and her phone, and made her enjoy the generated sense of community, even when stuck at home.
Bringing a Slice of Calmness
In a world full of uncertainty and a type of loneliness many of us haven’t experienced before, Animal Crossing brings a slice of calm and a way to socialise without showing our faces and without leaving the house for non-essential trips.