Sudoku

I’m playing Sudoku for the first time in over a year. Last time I played it was when I was in the hospital. Playing Sudoku was such a big part of my hospital stay that I couldn’t even think about it without getting upset. There was a lot that I wasn’t able to do for a while because of the hospital; eat Kraft mac & cheese, go to sleep with the lights off, watch Jeopardy.

My hospital stay was very boring. I had meetings to go to and meals to eat, but other than that I didn’t have much to do. There was an art room but I didn’t have privileges to do any art activities (because of sharp objects). There was a TV room but I was too scared to go in with all the other patients (true story). I did join in on some of the games though. I played a killer game of Janga and lost horribly at the Worst Case Scenario Survival board game. And then I won a Sudoku book at bingo. Well that’s a lie, I got the book because I didn’t win any of the games. But everyone else was jealous of my prize so I felt like I won.

My first 48 hours there was horrible. I couldn’t stand actually being stuck there. I just couldn’t calm down. But once I got that Sudoku book I relaxed.  I don’t exactly know why, but I did.

I was doing some cleaning today and came across a Sudoku book. Instead of hiding it somewhere I took a moment to remember how much Sudoku helped me 13 months ago. I’ve been working a lot lately at trying to find ways to keep me calm; when I get angry, when I get sad. Well, maybe this game should be on my list. I spent so much time and effort into not thinking about Sudoku because of the negativity it held, maybe I missed the fact that this could be something positive in my life.

Why not do this more in my life? Why not search for these negatives and see what I can turn into positives? Maybe it’s something everyone should try.