The other day an animated Disney movie brought me to the brink of an existential crisis. It was wonderful!
I have a 3-year-old nephew, and I'm his youngest uncle, so I'm working on being the cool, modern uncle these days. A few days ago I had to do uncle chores and take care of my nephew for an afternoon, and do I love spending time with him, I'm not going to lie, sometimes it can get a bit difficult to keep him entertained. If you are anything like me, and you don't have children but there are small children in your life, then I'm sure you’ve already learned to love the wonderful world of kid's movies and animated shows, they are simply hypnotizing.
However, I could not find what we could watch together (me and my nephew), and since I am not a fan of leaving him in front of the TV like a zombie while I do other things. I spent a few minutes of uncertainty Googling options and out of nowhere Eureka! I remembered that a new Disney Pixar movie had just been released: Soul. It couldn't be more perfect, he would be hooked on animation and I would enjoy the plot as I did with Toy Story or Inside Out.
It wasn't what I expected, but don't get me wrong. It was a great experience and my nephew stayed still for at least 90% of the movie. I just didn't expect a “kids movie” to make me rethink all my life decisions.
The afterlife, life before life and the purpose of living... In a kid's movie!?
Obviously, I'm not going to spoil the movie for you as I want you to watch it and enjoy it as much as I did, so I will only talk superficially about its plot.
We follow the journey of Joe, a jazz musician in New York who is beginning to see his dream of being successful in what he loves to come true and suddenly DIES. Like dead dead. We then see how he tries to return to his normal life while he helps 22, an unborn soul to achieve its purpose in life before going to the world of the living. Don't worry, all this information can be obtained from the trailer, so I didn’t reveal any plot twists. Seriously, I hate that! It ruins the whole film.
I honestly think this movie is more for us, those of us who grew up watching Toy Story and are now in adulthood and Pixar tried to give us a warm and deserved hug (Thank you, Pixar, I needed it). And although as an audiovisual work it is a piece of art, it made me rethink certain things about how we see the meaning of life.
Is the meaning of life really a healthy concept?
During the film, they show you that the purpose for which you come into the world is different for everyone and manifests itself in different ways. For Joe it was music, for others it is their profession, for some it is charity. However, I realized that not all of us have something so specific that we can point to and choose as the meaning of life. We are not all musicians, nor are we particularly good at a sport, or we have outstanding talent, does that mean we don't have a purpose? For Joe it was easy, since he was interested and fell in love with jazz from a very young age and everything that he has done with his life revolved around jazz. But if I am an accountant, it does not mean that my whole life revolves around accounting. So what then?
That conversation spun in my head for hours, even after my sister came to pick up my nephew, I went to bed with that idea still ringing between ear and ear, so to speak. Then I imagined the millions of people that watched or will watch Soul and I thought if it would have this effect on everyone, “that cannot be healthy for your mental health”, I said to myself.
The meaning of life has many interpretations. For some, it is a purpose that God gave us before we were born, something that is directly tied to our soul and we are simply destined to discover that on the earthly plane. Other authors like Kierkegaard argued that the meaning of your life is in your hands and it is your responsibility to build it, that meaning will be what you do in your life with it. From childhood they push us to find out what we are good at, some children do it quickly, for others, it takes us a few more decades.
Is the search for meaning really healthy for the brain? Are these impositions burdens that can result in mental illnesses, such as depression or low self-esteem? Or is the desire to achieve this meaning a reason to find peace of mind? Is the meaning of life a calm mind? Forgive me if it all got too deep, but blame Pixar for this.
Spiritual life and a healthy mind
Many people associate the meaning of life with a spiritual search. Purpose is not something material, it is a state of mind. There are many studies that have linked the spiritual lifestyle with greater mental health, people who claimed to work on their spiritual side have less tendencies to consume drugs or alcohol, in addition to being less likely to suffer from depression or anxiety.
A large number of patients who suffer from depression and other disorders tend to describe the feeling of “existential emptiness”, they express that they do not find meaning in their lives and do not have any intention of continuing to search. So for many professionals, the idea of searching for a purpose in life is natural and a sign of a healthy mind and the lack of that desire to search is an emotional imbalance.
Live here, live now
The only thing similar to a Soul spoiler that I can tell you, and this I do only to alleviate the crisis that could have caused you reading all this, is that in the end, you understand that the purpose of life is not an unattainable dream, it is simply to live life. That's it. We should not go through life looking for a reason to live it.
Be grateful for the place you are today, for those around you, for what you have, for the breeze, the singing of the birds. Pizza! Some of the fuller sensations come from a conversation with your friends, a nap with your spouse, or the smell of coffee in the morning.
Let yourself be surprised by the every day, each person you meet on the street has an incredible story to tell. The butcher on your block may be a great painter. Your neighbor may have met David Bowie. Maybe your mom wanted to be a dancer when she was a child. Take a moment to listen to their stories.
Let go of the past and don't occupy your mind with the future, appreciate the now. Feel the present without tension, worry or nostalgia. There may be a life without purpose, but there is no purpose without life, and you must first live.
Mindsmatter is written by Bola Kwame, Mauro Herrera, Emma Buryd and Jack Graves. De-stigmatizing mental illness one day at a time.
Photos courtesy of Isaac Smith and Mollie Sivaram on Unsplash
Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash
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