Fantasy vs Reality

There's been a lot of talk recently about Post Avatar Depression. In short, people are depressed because their own lives don’t measure up to the fantasy. Wow... that sounds familiar!

Here's what one person said: “Ever since I went to see ‘Avatar’ I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na’vi made me want to be one of them. I can’t stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it.. ” - Mike

Some of this sounds similar to what happened to me the first time I watched Lord of the Rings, and I have been wondering what would happen, how would our world change if, instead of being depressed and playing the "can't go there because it isn't real" card, the people having those feelings of depression got inspired to create a life for themselves that contained within it the key elements of Pandora and the Na’vi people. If the people who were deeply touched by that movie pulled nature and living things into their lives, connected with the Earth Mother, and began to "do life" the Na'vi way... we might have the beginnings of a completely different relationship with the environment, the people around us, and the planet we all live on.

Part of the problem is that there is a perception that because something is a "fantasy" or a "work of fiction" or "just a movie" it can't possibly be real, that it's impossible to "live the fantasy" or be "larger than life" and that all your dreams can only come true if they are ordinary, commonplace, mundane, acceptable, and "real."

I reject that kind of thinking. I reject it because I'm planning to live my fantasy life. I'm going to be Aragorn, Buffy, and Auntie Moss... I'm going to pull all those fantastic magical characters that inspire and move me out of my imagination and move them into action. I'm not content to sit around wishing things were different. I'm ready to take some chances and, like Buffy, I'm ready to kick ass. Actually, I'm much more interested in doing the impossible than I am in doing what's realistic.

And that's what we're doing here on the Prosperity Project this time around... looking at how to bring magic and fantasy out of the "wishing" realm and into the "being" world. So, tell me, what movie, what book, what story really speaks to you... what fantasy, or piece of fiction pulls on your heart? And when that happens, what do you say to your heart? Do you talk about all the reasons why it isn't possible? Do you tell yourself that maybe someone ELSE could but you couldn't? That you're not young enough, old enough, experienced enough, or strong enough? That you don't have the money, the opportunity, the knowledge? What would your life look like if you allowed the impossible to be possible? And isn't there at least one small thing that you might be willing to change, add, subtract, give, give up, express, or actually do that would begin, even in a very small way, to make your life more magical, interesting, meaningful, etc?

And here's something else to think about.... if there is something in a book or movie that really speaks to you, it's because you recognize it in yourself. It's not that you are trying to "be" someone else. What's happening is that there is something larger within you that longs to be expressed. How would if feel, what would your life look like if you allowed it?