Interview and Giveaway: The Game of You by Lynn Zavaro

Update: The winners for this giveaway have already been chosen. Subscribe to Tiny Buddha for free daily or weekly updates and to learn about future giveaways!

The winners:

• Bribrina1
• Marybeth
• laney elaine
• kabuslu
• guylagalindo

Lynn Zavaro has very quickly become one of my greatest role models.

When she first submitted a post to Tiny Buddha (50 Creative Questions to Help You Create the Life You Want) I felt like she was living inside my head.

Lynn realizes that the most important factor for our happiness is coming to know ourselves—and she also understands the internal blocks that hold us back from living the lives we dream about. Why? Because she’s human and imperfect, just like everyone else, and she’s lived a bold life of self-discovery, authenticity, and adventure.

An artist, writer, and teacher, Lynn holds a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology. This combination of experience gives her a unique insight into human nature—and she leveraged it to create a fun, creative book and card deck set called The Game of You.

I received my set a few weeks back, and I’ve become addicted. The Game of You provides a simple, enjoyable way to understand and stretch yourself, little by little, every day.

I’m excited that Lynn took some time to share a little about herself and her work, and also that she’s generously offered to give away 5 sets of The Game of You.

The Giveaway

To win 1 of 5 free sets of The Game of You:

• Leave a comment on this post.
• Tweet: RT @tinybuddha Giveaway and Interview: The Game of You by Lynn Zavaro http://bit.ly/tEit98

You can enter until midnight PST on Friday, November 4th. If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can still enter by completing the first step.

The Interview

1. Many Tiny Buddha readers may know you as an insightful, giving writer and artist, as you’ve contributed a wide range of inspiring, thought-provoking posts to the site! Can you tell us a little more about yourself?

First off I have to say what an honor it is to contribute to Tiny Buddha. I have personally received so much from it–so a big thank you to you Lori and to the Tiny Buddha community!

I guess you could say that I am person who loves to meet every creative moment wholeheartedly. I am passionate about supporting others in feeling the best about themselves and creating the kind of lives they truly want. Although, I do have a psychological background, I am interested in our hearts, how they beat, how we love others and ourselves at our utmost capacity and the ways in which we can better ourselves in order to better the world.

2. With both a card set and corresponding book, The Game of You is certainly unique! What motivated you to create it this way?

I was looking for a long time to bring together all my passions: Writing, painting, design, spiritual, psychological and creative teachings, etc.  Sitting at my kitchen table one night, the vision came to me of The Game of You and instantly I felt a tremendous amount of energy run through my body that has continued to remain with me since.

The idea of it being a game, a fun way to discover yourself in the present moment, thrilled me because that’s what life is–a big game that we play and learn how to move the pieces around. Inner work shouldn’t have to be drudgery, and after many years of inward exploration, I found it was easier and actually reaped more benefit when holding it with a lighter hand.

3. You’ve written that the object of The Game of You is to know who you really are, what you want, and how to get there. Why do you think we struggle to know who we really are?

I believe we come into this world with a certain map that’s encoded in our DNA. We are born with a certain truth of who we are, but it gets covered up by conditioning, our parents, teachers, and society’s beliefs. So a lot of growing up and discovering who we are is a de-layering process, getting to the root of our inherent nature by stepping through fear and connecting back to the pulse of our beating heart.

It’s not easy to drop the thoughts that we carry about ourselves because they become so ingrained and patterned. But when we choose to walk our life path with awareness and a willingness to learn and grow, we touch our depths and reap tremendous rewards.

4. And why do we struggle to identify what we want?

There can be tremendous resistance to making choices in our lives. We fear one path may take us down a wrong road. But there are no wrong roads–each path takes us to a certain destination to make better decisions. The trick is making a choice, testing it out, and then making another one and then another one.

Rumi says, “Out beyond right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” We fear making choices because we fear the spaciousness of the field.  It asks us to makes choices without a guaranteed outcome, and innately as humans we grasp to what is familiar and safe because we fear the unknown. The Game of You supports one to make simple choices by drawing one card at a time, taking small action steps, like dribbling a ball towards our inner and outer goals.

5. The sections in the card set and book include day-to-day, relationships, and life path. Why did you choose these three topics as the foundation of the game?

It seems to me that these are three main issues we grapple with in each of our present moments–they are on our mind all of the time whether we are aware of them or not: How do I get through my day-to-day at my very best, how do I deal with my relationships, and how do I transition through major life changes and discover my larger life purpose?

6. In the day-to-day section, you’ve broken it down into four parts: mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical. Do you find that some people need to focus more on one than the others?

When we are in touch with our whole being at any given time we address all four levels of consciousness. The Game of You supports you to realize when one or another is out of sync in order to come into complete balance.

For example, I may feel like I can understand and conceptualize an issue (mental) but could be suppressing the soft gentle tears that may rest underneath it (emotional) or I may feel very connected to my spiritual practice but overlook the foundation of self-care physically such as paying close attention to my finances, how I am eating, or how much exercise I am getting, etc.

7. In each section, you provide action-oriented steps, or tools, to help readers utilize the insight from the cards. Is it best to work with just one card at a time, in order to make lasting changes? 

When first using The Game of You I recommend you start simple and pull a single card, read it’s insight, and use it’s tool. Once you become more familiar with handling the deck, there are spreads at the beginning of the book to pull more than one card in order to take your inner-work to a deeper level.

8. You’ve said that you work with own tools consistently. Do you find that you keep learning more about yourself as you grow and come back to the tools?

Most definitely! I have used these tools personally for over seventeen years and supported my clients and workshop attendees with the tools for the last seven. Although these tools are only a fragment of the tools offered to us, they have been proven to be steadfast, life changing, supportive, healing, self-empowering, and tried and true.

9. What is the main thing you hope people learn from The Game of You?

It was my intention to support others to have an easy, manageable, direct experience of the application of the varied psychological, spiritual, and creative teachings and tools in their daily life. It’s so easy to take five minutes from your day and pull a card. My hope is that it is there for any person at any time of their day or in any given life moment to support the reader to address their issues, be their own teacher, and create the life they always wanted.

FTC Disclosure: I receive complimentary books for reviews and interviews on tinybuddha.com, but I am not compensated for writing or obligated to write anything specific. I am an Amazon affiliate, meaning I earn a percentage of all books purchased through the links I provide on this site.

About Lori Deschene

Lori Deschene is the founder of Tiny Buddha. She started the site after struggling with depression, bulimia, c-PTSD, and toxic shame so she could recycle her former pain into something useful and inspire others to do the same. You can find her books, including Tiny Buddha’s Gratitude Journal and Tiny Buddha’s Worry Journal, here and learn more about her eCourse, Recreate Your Life Story, if you’re ready to transform your life and become the person you want to be.

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