Destiny is a short animation film by four students from the French school Bellecour Ecoles d’art. The story launches a powerful message from an impossible that, even if it turns out to be magical, proposes an intelligent reflection on how we live the moment.

It raises different aspects that can help us to enjoy the present more fully.

A short film that invites reflection on the present moment

With the following story, the team of the Mensalus Institute for Psychological and Psychiatric Assistance opens an interesting reflection on how to live the here and now.

First of all, you can watch the video below:

The short shows a range of magic options. How can we understand this message?

History poses a wide repertoire of impossibles, it is true, but we can understand them as metaphors that promote changes in different vital aspects.

The outcome is a clear example. Stopping to look 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 in different occasions the possibility of “stopping time”. With this message the authors invite us to make a STOP to reflect, that is, to leave a space to think instead of facing the day with the automatic pilot.

It is 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 away from the self-critical voice and from which we elaborate positive-realistic thoughts.

How often do we come to a constructive conclusion once we have distanced ourselves from the conflict? The most functional options are born from this exercise. Likewise, connecting with objectivity can also go hand in hand with asking for outside help and sharing concern.

We all look for moments when we can breathe, contemplate a ray of light, take a step back, etc. However, we do not always find them…

Right. This has a lot to do with functioning under pressure. The feeling of “I can’t get to everything” and “I must be able to,” sometimes increases self-demanding thoughts and leaves out individual needs. The metaphorical act of taking in air can justly respond to this contact with one’s need.

On the other hand, “breathing” is sometimes just that, breathing. In that instant when we focus our attention on taking in air and letting it go, we slow down demanding thought and leave space for unencumbered thought.

Mental permissiveness is what later leads to a healthy request: rest, have a cup of coffee without rushing, sit down and enjoy the landscape, contemplate and observe the details, perceive information that, on automatic pilot, you do not perceive. Taking a breath is a manifestation of our right to stop and feel.

The protagonist lets go of the time control. In general, do we find it easy to “let go”?

This is one of the big issues we work on in Psychotherapy and Coaching: letting go of responsibilities that don’t belong to us, letting go of functions that used to belong to us but now have lost their meaning, letting go of thoughts that blame us, letting go of primitive emotions, letting go of prejudices, etc.

We cling to what we know and sometimes find it difficult to change for fear of how we will feel in the new context.

What message can we keep from “Destiny”?

In short, Destiny 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.

That being said, we do have a message:

“How I manage my life moment will affect how I live that moment and future moments.”

We may not know what the future holds, but it is in our hands to ask what resources we believe will facilitate our journey.

Similarly, 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 from satisfaction. From doing it to feeling it, there is a good stretch. This is the difference between living the time and letting it pass.