How a Cartoon Teaches Us to Lead a Stress Free Life
by Marc on April 29, 2009
in Health and Relaxation
You can learn a lot from cartoons. Take Edna Mode here from Pixar’s The Incredibles. As costume designer for the superheroes you can be forgiven for thinking she has a fast paced, stressful job. Indeed she moves along very quickly, both physically and verbally taking little notice of what people are trying to tell her!
Amidst her myriad of one liners is the following,
I never look back, darling, it distracts from the now.
It’s true that whenever we are stressed about something it’s almost always something that happened in the past or something that may happen in the future.
Let Go of the Past
Another favourite quote of mine comes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth; “What’s done is done and cannot be undone”
No matter how much we want to, we cannot change the past. Instead we must learn from any mistakes, cherish the memories but ultimately let it go.
On the same front we cannot truly affect the future. Look at it this way; if there’s a problem and there is no solution, then there is no point worrying about it. If you have a problem and there is a solution, then there is no point worrying about it.
I’ll leave you with one more quote, this one from Plato:
No human thing is of serious importance
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It’s probably just me and my pesky Internet Explorer, but I can’t see the picture thumbnail. Love the quotes though. These short crisp posts of yours will hopefully encourage me to stop writing chapters of my autobiography in your comments boxes!
Yeah it seems to be broken in IE. I’ll investigate further. Thanks for the heads up.
Yeah decided to experiment a bit with a condensed post. I think the topic lends itself well here.
Hey Marc, I too enjoyed the shorty.
It’s funny how such a silly character with an annoying voice on a fun, animated film could speak such wisdom. It’s so true that pining over the past and worrying over the future is a futile waste of time. The only time we should have concern about our future is when we know we are not going down the right path. In other words, if we’re doing something we know we shouldn’t be, or not doing something we know we should, we must make a change or suffer the eventual consequences. But beyond that, it’s really not in our control and therefore not worth the brain energy.
Excellent stuff! Off to tweet it… Eric
Hi Eric
Thanks for dropping by. Like my theme?
Yeah totally agree. It’s about striking the balance between focusing on what we can affect, say saving financially and what we cannot.
As for dealing with the past, one way I’ve come to terms with my own regrets actually comes from a Star Trek episode
It’s called Tapestry and the premise is that Captain Picard is offered a chance to go back in time and undo his biggest regret. By doing so he essentially screws up his life and never makes it to Captain of the Enterprise.
At the end he likens life to a piece of tapestry where the frayed edges are our bad decisions and our regrets and by pulling on one of them we will unravel our entire “self”.
Thanks for the social love as well mate. Much appreciated.