Do you like movies? A colleague once told me of the reason why he liked to go for movies. He said that movies give him a chance to experience emotions and experience that he has not had the chance to feel in real life.

As you watch a movie, you become one with it. You can feel the excitement as the hero battles the enemy, the pride and glory as he won. You feel the warmth in your heart as he falls in love and the sadness and pain as he lost someone he cares for. You feel the anger and frustration as he seeks revenge. At the end of the movie you feel the closure and completeness of these emotions, or sometimes you are left hanging with a question.

Everyone needs to experience all the myriads of emotions living as a human in order to be complete, and to grow as a person. As a person emerged from a challenging phase in his life he grows just a little bit more. If you have lived a sheltered and peaceful life, you will not have these experiences as your teacher. A movie can give you a glimpse of what these emotions and challenges must have felt like. It gives you just a little bit of the emotional experiences that you have not felt before.

There are many other stories other than that of your own life. A good movie tells you of another’s story somewhere else, in a different time, different place. It may be fiction, but usually a good story is based on some real experience that the author has had in his real life. Writing a story is his way of sharing part of his world and his thoughts with you. Seeing another person’s story teaches you that your own story is neither the most important nor exciting one in the world. It teaches you to put your concern for others and not just on yourself all the time. We need to share and care for others sometimes. That is what makes us human.

A movie can ease your emotional pain for awhile and make it more tolerable. When you’re feeling down, a good happy movie can bring you to an emotional sanctuary where people are happy and times are better. You get to escape for a while, and sometimes that little space, that little escapade, is just enough for you deal with the harsh reality.

Movies can be therapeutic. Movie therapy is what psychologists call the technique of using movies to explore the mental and emotional state of the patient. When someone undergoes a traumatic experience, he can build a wall of isolation around him. He is unable to share and talk about the experience - which he needs to in order to start the healing process. By watching the movie with the patient and asking questions that will relate the patient’s personal experience to the movie; the psychologist can breach the emotional barrier and reach the patient.

When the body needs a break, you can stop your activities and take a rest. However, the mind is different. Can you stop your mind from thinking about something? Try that and you will find it a very difficult task. But the mind needs a break sometimes too, just like your body. A movie can help to give your mind the much needed break. A short rest from the endless flow of thoughts and worry. Remember that refreshing feel-good feeling when you walked out of the cinema after a good movie?

So if you have not been to the movies lately, why not go and watch one today!

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