The Game is a fun recovery game played in teams of five members for 30 days. The teams work together to earn recovery points by using SA Tools, one day at a time for 4 weeks. The team with the most “recovery points” after 30 days wins! It is a proven way to make friends and get support with your recovery! Newcomers are encouraged to attend. Old-timers will give their recovery a great boost. Do you feel isolated? Are you struggling to stay sober, or having difficulty establishing healthy recovery habits, or wanting to deepen your program? Join us to learn SA solutions. Do you want to have more fun AND recovery? This game is really for you!

Members practice the SAME FOUR TOOLS for four weeks FOR A MINIMUM OF 10 MINUTES A DAY (except for the phone call, which can be short)—in this way creating new recovery habits:

Each player chooses three tools to practice each day during one month. A tool done on a given day gives 25 points. The fourth tool is a daily phone call with one’s check-in buddy of the week, which gives another 25 points. So, in total, one can get 100 points a day and 700 a week.

Each player also gets one joker per tool per week. These jokers can be used for a day that one isn’t able to practice a tool. E.g. in the case a player doesn’t do his/her walk on a certain day, he/she can put in his/her Self Care Joker, and get the 25 points anyway.

The Game is, like everything in our program, about team work. It is the team, not the individual, with the most “recovery points” after 30 days that wins! Each member of the winning team gets a free print version of the next Essay magazine delivered at their home address in an anonymous envelope. But, as in spiritual games there are no losers, every player gets by email a real Game Certificate.

Last November a pilot project of 6 teams with members from the USA, Egypt, Israel, Dubai, Germany, Poland, Brazil, Iran, Austria, Sweden, Belgium, Slovakia, Croatia, and Spain played The Game. It was a fantastic experience for each of the players. The first day the teams competed to create the coolest team name and logo:

Here are some anecdotes of the players:

I was talking to customer support yesterday for more than 40 minutes about a problem and did not get upset or angry or even impatient. The Game helped me through this challenge because I had already done some writing which helped me find peace and serenity.

I have always filled my life with activism to the point that my quiet days or times were anything but quiet. I am like a tank charging ahead at all times. Yet through this game and being “forced” to seek true quiet time every day, I sense a different attitude in me, grateful for the moments of silence.

A super nice moment was that yesterday I prayed a 20-minute prayer of my religion (as it is my Spiritual Tool for this month). But this time, my wife Kathleen and I prayed it with a member of my team on WhatsApp! They prayed it in Latin and I “mentally” prayed in English!

My sponsor reminds me once in a while that recovery is a combination of a lot of things. The Game has echoed that truth for me. It’s been nice to not obsess about sobriety but enjoy recovery. I’m also grateful for the opportunity to enlarge my circle of connections. It’s been nice getting to know you all.

I had a knee surgery in Australia in 2002. The operation went well but after having some sessions of physiotherapy I never really did proper post-op training/exercises to restore the muscles … until now! My self-care tool is “15 min of physical exercise” each day, which is focused on my knee. And for the first time in 18 (!) years my knee is getting back to normal, and has become much more stable. I thought it was too late, but – oh, miracle! – it seems that I actually got a second chance! Without The Game I would have never been so persistent over such a long time. Thank you all for being part of this!

• Can’t wait to play The Game? We are eager to play it again too!! It will be set up every 3 months, starting from April 4, 2021. All you need is to have the free app WhatsApp on your smartphone as this app is used to connect with your team members and the other teams during the 30 days. The teams will be male-only or female-only.
• For more information and to register, contact Jakob, Germany, who will serve as your Game Coordinator: theessaygame@gmail.com
• We are looking forward to meeting and playing with you!