Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can make the mind feel like a room with no exits. Intrusive thoughts loop, perfectionism tightens, and uncertainty feels dangerous. Even well-intended mindfulness instructions can become another thing to ‘do right,’ which is the problem.

A Game as a Doorway

One day, instead of starting with a traditional meditation, I invited a group of adolescents to play a familiar memory game: ‘I’m going on a trip.’ The first person said, ‘I’m going on a trip, and I’m bringing an apple.’ The next person repeated that item and added another starting with the next letter of the alphabet: ‘I’m bringing an apple and a balloon.’ Around the room, we went, building the imaginary suitcase one item at a time.

At first, it seemed like just a game, but beneath the laughter, several therapeutic processes were quietly at work. Each participant had to listen closely, track the sequence, wait their turn, and retrieve the list from working memory. The game invited flexible attention: notice when the mind wanders, return to the group, and keep going.

Most importantly, it created small, manageable encounters with imperfection. Someone would forget an item. Someone would get the order wrong. Someone would need a clue. Using mental bandwidth differently, the game gently asked the mind to use that same bandwidth to listen, update, remember, and respond in real-time.

In this sense, the game was not merely a distraction. It was a rehearsal of cognitive flexibility. By redirecting mental bandwidth away from obsessive rumination, the game helped the teens practice tolerating uncertainty, resisting reassurance-seeking, staying present with discomfort, and recovering from the urge to control.

For many teens with OCD, these moments are not small. Forgetting, uncertainty, and public mistakes can activate shame or compulsive problem-solving. But because the context was playful, the nervous system had more room. A missed item did not become a catastrophe; it became part of the game.

Why Playful Presence Helps

Mindfulness is not only sitting silently. At its core, it involves noticing what is happening, relating to it with less judgment, and returning to the present moment. In OCD treatment, this shift matters because the goal is not to defeat every intrusive thought. The goal is to change one’s relationship to thoughts and urges so they no longer rule behavior.

Research on mindfulness-based approaches to OCD suggests that mindfulness may help people observe intrusive thoughts as mental events rather than signals that require compulsive action. In a qualitative study of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for OCD, Hertenstein and colleagues (2012) found that participants described the approach as acceptable and beneficial. Research on mindfulness and working memory also supports this clinical intuition. Jha and colleagues (2010) found that mindfulness training may help protect working memory capacity during periods of stress.

This does not mean games are a substitute for exposure and response prevention, the best-supported treatment for OCD. Rather, playful mindfulness can support the capacities ERP often requires: tolerating uncertainty, resisting reassurance-seeking, staying present with discomfort, and recovering from the urge to control.

What Teens Taught Me

After the game, I asked the group what they noticed. Several described feeling ‘lighter,’ ‘more present,’ and ‘less stuck in my head.’ Others named examples of where this kind of attention might show up outside therapy: listening to music, spending time in nature, remembering names, or noticing when they were spiraling.

That conversation may have been the most important part. The game was not a trick to make them meditate. It was a bridge. It helped them discover that presence can be practiced in ordinary life and that attention can be trained without turning the mind into an enemy.