Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Hoping to spark empathy and deeper connection, a Bahraini designer has created a card game that encourages friends, families and strangers to discover more about each other.
Razan Al Naser, better known as Athena of
@wordsfromathena on Instagram, has developed Feel the Connection – a 78-card game focussed on deepening relationships.
“With this game, I am hoping to help people connect with themselves and each other on a deeper level,” the 23-year-old who currently works in marketing and advertising, told GulfWeekly.
“Feel the Connection is an ideal icebreaker for people who love gatherings and prioritise relationships in their life. The aim is to think about your partner, friend or family deeply and to understand what they value most in themselves as well as their lifestyle and connections.”
There are four categories of cards within the game – Question, Reminder, Double Dare and Do It.
Questions are fairly straightforward, with prompts like ‘What have you learned to accept?’ while Reminders encourage players to affirm positivity into their life – Be a rainbow in someone’s life, for example.
Under the Do It category are activities to plan together with friends, like ‘baking for one another’ while a Double Dare encourages spur-of-the-moment fun actions like ‘choose someone in the group and act like you’re proposing to them.’
“There are no strict rules as it is a free play game,” Razan added.
“People can pick a card from any one of the categories and ask the person next to them. The game is mainly targeted at those 23 and older.”
Razan designed the cards from scratch, after conducting research on relationships and connections, an interest sparked and shared through her Words from Athena Instagram account.
And to top it off, she infused an element of fun and humour into the Double Dare and Do It cards.
“I picked blue to be the main colour since it emphasises deepness, calmness and peacefulness – which is what I prioritise when building connections,” she added.
For Razan, the Feel the Connection cards will sow the seeds for a community “connecting together through a pool of diverse initiatives.”
She recently had a public session of the game at a local board game and community space, where she got to test it out with a large group of strangers.
“It was very refreshing to meet new people with different mindsets that may share similar stories and interests, as we discovered through the game,” she added.
“For example, I have been currently reading a book about non-violent communication and it turned out that one of the joiners happens to be reading the same book!”
She has lots of exciting expansions planned for the game. She also recently published The Secret Garden, an e-book that helps readers navigate the pathways to inner wisdom, self-discovery and self-reflection by unveiling the secrets of the soul’s garden.
Feel the Connection is available online and at a number of stores across Bahrain.
For more details, follow @feeltheconnection on Instagram.
