Embedded Files
The game to make you see through the game
What is TOUGH LOVE®?
What is TOUGH LOVE®?
Your left brain looks at the door
It reads:
TOUGH LOVE® is a physical deck of questions based Card Game. It is NOT an online game.
There are six rooms in the game, 354 questions.
TOUGH LOVE® is not a dopamine game.
Your right brain looks at the door
On the door it's written – 'The Game'
You knock at the door. The door opens.
It's not a game. It's a guise.
Under the cloak, a device.
His eyes are piercing. Yet, warm and kind. The gaze cuts through your soul.
It hurts.
Yet, heals. The gaze is made of love.
What cuts through your soul makes you step back. What feeds your soul invites you in. The love makes you step in.
Your feet are stronger than they were before.
"Take a seat, traveler. You have come a long way," you hear the voice.
"Bare feet covered in the dust of ages, bare souls in tremors of separation, as lovers covered in a mist of memory, in a memory of mist, in this mist of love, you remember - you are angels."
You take a seat. Someone brews you a beverage. Your muscles unclench, your nerves destress. This calm your mind never knew existed.
"Now you are ready, traveler. Let's begin."
You are explained:
"TOUGH LOVE® is not a game, in the conventional sense. It's a guise. In the guise of a game is a transformational tool for a species at a critical juncture. Equally critical for their inner as well as outer worlds.
It's an honest examination of a way of life, and its worldview."
This makes your next breath go deeper. This breath signals your arrival to the game.
"From here, you will move from one room to another," the voice resumes. "In six rooms you will find 354 questions to investigate, dissect, lay bare, and give an incisive look to the way you have chosen to live - as honestly, earnestly and fearlessly as possible.
A look, piercing enough to break a trance, fierce enough to tear apart the hooks. All the hooks you painstakingly interwove, everything you passionately ensnared yourself in.
Traveler, it's a game to make you see through the game."
At this time you experience stillness.
"Sleep well now," the voice continues.
"At dawn, you will face Life, asking you your first question.
At dawn, you will face Creation, demanding from you your one definitive answer."
You open your eyes
You open your eyes before the dawn breaks. There is a door that opens outside.
You read these words, etched on your side of the door.
“Before the healing, there’s going to be pain.
Bear it.
You are born into a certain way of life, subjected to a set of rules governing your way of life.
The intensity of your pain will depend on the degree of your identification with what governs your way of life.
When a way of life is questioned, the self born into it is marked too.
When what governs a way of life is dismantled, the self attached to it breaks apart too.
So does the trance. So does the cage.
When the trance breaks, before the transformation, it’s going to be rough.
Deal with it.
When the cage falls apart, before the emancipation, your life is going to be tough.
Be prepared for it.
There’s no mollycoddling in the questions, no tapdancing around truth.”
IS THIS A GROUP GAME?
IS THIS A GROUP GAME?
Tough Love® can be played in various settings
Solo
Couples
Groups
Who is this game for?
Who is this game for?
The Short Answer
Individuals interested in transformation
Couples seeking authentic intimacy beyond cultural conditioning
Parents who love their children
Philosophers, therapists, thinkers, coaches, guides and deep ecology activists
Regenerative designers and practitioners
Those experiencing existential crisis or major life transition
Those realizing something is going very, very wrong… but can't quite place their fingers on it
In particular, those interested in living may find this Game helpful.
The Long Answer
Edge Walkers: Jump in
Those already questioning the fundamental assumptions of a way of life
• Beyond spiritual bypassing - Ready for genuine shadow work and unflinching self-examination
• Beyond conventional wisdom - Couples who've exhausted surface relationship advice and seek authentic intimacy
• Beyond critique - Beyond civilization thinkers seeking constructive pathways forward
• Beyond false optimism - Those who can hold both horror and hope simultaneously
The Bridge-makers: Walk in
• Deep ecology activists integrating inner transformation
• Regenerative designers confronting psychological patterns that pull them back into destructive systems
• Therapists, philosophers, coaches working with systemic critique
• Communities exploring degrowth, authentic relating, systems change
TOUGH LOVE® creates a bridge between necessary detachment from life-sucking systems and conscious creation of life-giving systems. From entropic to syntropic. The missing link between recognizing what is dying and learning how to live.
Ready Signals: Dip your toes
You may be ready if you're experiencing:
• Existential crisis or major life transition
• Intense desperation to figure out ‘what is what’
• Climate grief requiring tools beyond green washing
• Graduate-level engagement with philosophy, psychology, systems thinking
• Broken - homes, relationships, health or foundations of life - requiring tools beyond conventional therapy
Curious Explorers: Test the waters
• Open-minded individuals willing to engage with challenging ideas
• People seeking alternatives to surface-level self-help
• Those attracted to "difficult conversations" as growth opportunities
Not Ready?: Wait
Guaranteed disappointment, if:
• Seeking comfort or easy answers
• Unwilling to question core life assumptions
• Looking for surface-level self-help or quick fixes
WHO ELSE IS THIS GAME FOR?
WHO ELSE IS THIS GAME FOR?
This game is also for Creative Truth-Seekers
• Those struggling with writer’s block
• Writers and creatives seeking deeper exploration and authentic expression beyond market demands and surface prompts
• Those who understand that profound creative work requires profound personal work
True to their nature, when the questions touch your core, your true nature reflects.
The questions flip and become prompts. Your nature reflects, and becomes expressions.
On the flip side of the game, will rest your creativity.
The two sides of any deeper transformation.
Tough Love® is the way of the poet, the writer; the seeker, the seer.
HOW IS THIS GAME DIFFERENT FROM OTHER GAMES?
HOW IS THIS GAME DIFFERENT FROM OTHER GAMES?
Games people play are games of escape. This one turns you around, from your escape tracks.
This game is your turning point.
At the about-turn you face Life. Full on. On your face.
Life to life.
No mollycoddling, no beating about the bush.
Life honors your courage, respects your intelligence. The game reciprocates.
The questions Life has been asking. You have been escaping. The questions Creation has been demanding.
You and Creation. You and your bare soul. One on one.
Face to face.
The game that turns you around. TOUGH LOVE®. Your turning point.
The Six-Room Journey
The Six-Room Journey
The Short Answer
ROOM 1: The Attraction a.k.a. The Awareness - Maya and Mars, and The Graveyards
ROOM 2: The Infatuation - "Your one wild and precious life," and The Exchange
ROOM 3: The Intimacy
Section I - Work and Play; The Green Washing and The Cortisol Rising
Section II - The Hack and The Lonely Heart
Section III - Mirror, mirror on the wall; Emptiness and The Hungry Heart. Beauty and Vitamin D; Oh dear Lord, the Pornography!
ROOM 4: The Challenges. Or, is it Deeper Intimacy?
Section I - I love you, I f**k you; How cool are we!
Section II - I love you, I own you; How secure are we!
Section III - I love you, this is mine; how deep is our love!
ROOM 5: The Commitment - The strength of shoulders, the presence of spine; The color of conscience, the essence of divine
ROOM 6: The Mature Love - Stories? Decay?; Loser? Are you interested in living?
how to play?
how to play?
The Short Answer
The Sequence:
1. Keep deck upside down (numbers up, questions down)
2. Pick the first card
3. Answer honestly
4. Pick the next card
5. Continue the journey
The White Cards: Some cards will guide you to special White Cards containing:
• The Tough Kiss - Direct insights
• Holding Hands - Gentle guidance
• The Mirror - Self-reflection moments
CAN I GET A SNEAK PEAK AT THE WHITE CARDS?
CAN I GET A SNEAK PEAK AT THE WHITE CARDS?
A MESSAGE FROM THE CREATOR
A MESSAGE FROM THE CREATOR
"Soaked in the essence of life running through all beings, the game touches your hands. Or, soaked in the essence of life running through all beings, your hands touch the game.
The questions are not mine. Nor yours. Life throws them at us, I embrace. Because I must.
I share, because I must.
At places, the questions may seem too direct, provocative or cheeky. It is because they are so.
Most of them are simple questions, ignored and dismissed; and buried to oblivion by their too-obviousness. No, not that. But because they challenge and dare us to our very core.
Oh, and they are not questions questions! At their heart there opens a space once you embrace them, like a beautiful but difficult beloved. The answers you are looking for might be dwelling there. Right at the heart of their questions.
While answering, try not to judge yourself or the other harshly. We are all born into the same way of life, more or less, subjected to the same set of rules. All of us struggling to make sense of all this, struggling to find a way out.
Please be kind.
It’s a long ride, you may want to buckle up.
May this game be a game changer for you all!"
— Rishi Miranhshah
Creator of TOUGH LOVE®
Google Sites
Report abuse