People play Walkabout Mini Golf in all sorts of ways for all sorts of reasons—one of them being because they come to the game to relax and reflect. To support this mode of gameplay, we’ve partnered with LumenKind to create supplemental #MiniMindfulness Moments so that between putting (or as an alternative activity to it) you can be still and create space for your personal wellness and growth.
Step 1: In Shangri-La, go to the candlelit table right after Walkabout Mini Golf HOLE and find a comfortable posture sitting in a chair, relaxing on the floor, or standing with your shoulders released of tension.
Step 2: Start by taking three deep, slow breaths in and out through your nose, perhaps imagining the candles’ calming scent. We encourage you to stay in this relaxation space, gently breathing for a few minutes or as long as you’d like.
Step 3: You’re also invited to reflect on this centering thought: “I trust myself.” As you settle in here (or later in the day), consider in what areas or ways you feel most confident and secure. What can you apply from this insight to help you build more self-trust in other aspects of your life?
LumenKind suggests you set an intention to find your CENTER in this quiet space daily for the next week.
We’d love to hear if this is something you enjoyed after you give it a try. Those who complete our quick questionnaire will get a special invitation from LumenKind and Walkabout Mini Golf to continue the journey.
More About This Collaboration
Discovering and staying true to your intentions can help you live a more meaningful, balanced, and peaceful life. Whether you are processing grief, raising children, or exploring new life pathways – our friends at LumenKind want to help you set, keep, and remember what matters most to you ... one moment, one breath at a time. We love this!
Their simple system involves invitations to mindfulness, suggested intentions, and wearable reminders to help you grow - 'Mindful Marks.' They have 32 Marks in their library, organized into eight core themes—and they have selected this one for Shangri-La:
CENTER. “I TRUST MYSELF.”
Centering pulls your energy away from outside forces and channels it back into your being. When you are centered, you feel stable and grounded in who you are at the core. By reconnecting to your center of gravity, you move from a place of calm and bring the most focused version of yourself to light. A clear mind ultimately builds confidence and trust in yourself.
Our inside story
Mighty Coconut senior art director Don Carson shares his reflections on the themes of mindfulness and trusting oneself when collaboratively creating a place like Walkabout Mini Golf: Shangri-La:
How do you stay mindful when creating a virtual experience?
My role as an artist means I am often tapping into my own reservoir of images and ideas when it comes to designing both places and the objects that populate them. The best work often comes from my willingness to get out of my own way and allow those ideas and impressions to come organically. Stress and worry can step on the hose of inspiration so nothing comes out, lifting of the foot allows ideas flow more freely.
What does it mean to trust yourself when creating VR places for others to discover?
As I have gotten older I have come to realize that art creation and virtual placemaking is a lot like dowsing for water. You begin to trust when something “just feels right”. Whether you are designing an environment or placing a tea cup on a table you plumb your own intuition to “know” when each element is placed in the perfect spot. Over time you release the need to know if it is right and allow the fact that it felt correct and hope that the collective choices made along the way will equal to a good experience for the players in our virtual environment.
To what extent do you put your trust in the players of Walkabout Mini Golf to add their own perspectives to the experiences? you help create?
When designing themed environments, especially in VR, we trust in our player’s inner knowledge of how to interact with physical spaces. We all have the ability to relate to objects and environments based on a lifetime of doing so in our daily world. As designers we depend on this and trust that our players will come to the desired conclusions by following the designed bread crumbs we have laid out for them. We also need to trust that whether they do or do not comprehend the story we are trying to tell that they are ultimately the creators of their own experience and they get to decide what is and is not of interest and value as they explore the worlds we have created for them.
