Destiny is an animated short film by four students from the French school Bellecour Ecoles d’art. The story sends a powerful message starting from an impossible that, although magical, proposes an intelligent reflection on how we live in the moment.
It raises different aspects that can help us enjoy the present more fully.
A short that invites you to reflect on the present moment
With the following story, the team of Institute of Psychological and Psychiatric Assistance Mensalus opens an interesting reflection on how to live in the here and now.
First of all, you can watch the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTrqUjtlVNE
The short shows a range of magical options. How can we understand this message?
History poses a wide repertoire of impossible things, it is true, but we can understand them as metaphors that promote changes in different vital aspects.
The outcome is a clear example. The fact of stopping looking at the clock and taking a breath to appreciate the day allows the character to put an end to “controlling to live” and gives way to “living to be able to control.” Likewise, the short shows on different occasions the possibility of “stopping time.” With this message, the authors invite us to make a STOP to reflect, that is, leave space to think instead of facing the day on autopilot.
It’s revealing when the protagonist can see himself in slow motion. What metaphor do we extract from this moment?
Seeing reality in slow motion is a way of materializing something as abstract as the capacity for analysis. By this we mean a more objective analysis, an exploration from a position far removed from the self-critical voice and from which we develop positive-realistic thoughts.
How many times do we reach a constructive conclusion once we have distanced ourselves from the conflict? The most functional options are born from performing this exercise. Likewise, connecting with objectivity can also go hand in hand with asking for outside help and sharing your concern.
We all look for moments in which we can breathe, contemplate a ray of light, take distance, etc. However, we don’t always find them..
TRUE. This has a lot to do with performing under pressure. The feeling of “I can’t do everything” and “I should be able to” sometimes increases self-demanding thoughts and leaves aside individual needs. The metaphorical act of taking a breath can precisely respond to this contact with one’s own need.
On the other hand, “breathing” is sometimes just that, breathing. In that moment when we focus our attention on taking a breath and letting it go, we slow down demanding thinking and make room for unburdened thinking.
Mental permissiveness is what then leads to a healthy request: rest, have a coffee without rushing, sit down and enjoy the landscape, contemplate and observe the details, perceive information that, with autopilot, you do not perceive. Taking a breath is a manifestation of our right to stop and feel.
The protagonist lets go of control of time. In general, do we find it easy to “let go”?
This is one of the great themes that we work on in Psychotherapy and Coaching: letting go of responsibilities that do not belong to us, letting go of functions that previously belonged to us but that have now lost meaning, letting go of thoughts that blame us, letting go of primitive emotions, letting go go prejudices, etc.
We cling to what we know and sometimes find change difficult for fear of how we will feel in the new context.
What message can we take away from “Destiny”?
Destiny ultimately proposes an intelligent reflection on how we live in the moment. Many times destiny is explained as something that “is already written”, that we cannot change. This short film raises different aspects that can help us live the here and now more fully and thus predict a balanced future.
Having said that, we send a message:
“How I manage my moment of life will have an impact on how I live that moment and future moments.”
Perhaps we cannot know what the future holds for us, but it is in our hands to propose what resources we believe will make our path easier.
Likewise, we remember the importance of seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting. It is worth putting all five senses into what we do if our goal is to experience it with satisfaction. There is a long way from doing it to feeling it. This is the difference between living the time and letting it pass.