GUEST COLUMN: The Impact Movies Have On Our Self-Esteem
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The Impact Movies Have On Our Self-Esteem
by Amanda Winstead
How different would the world be if more people had self-respect, confidence in their abilities and worth, and love for themselves? How much better would each person’s life be if they had more self-esteem?
The world and people’s lives would probably be much happier and more peaceful, among other things. However, as valuable as high self-esteem is, developing it amid life’s ups and downs can be a challenge.
The good news is, there are many ways to approach growing your self-esteem. However, surprisingly, movies can be incredibly impactful.
Build Authentic Self-Esteem
We’ve heard about high self-esteem and low-self esteem — but have you heard about false self-esteem?
When someone has false-self esteem, the beliefs that form their self-esteem don’t match their real-life circumstances. Like when someone says their financial stability gives them self-esteem, but they aren’t financially stable.
We’re obviously striving for high-self esteem. However, developing authentic self-esteem might be more critical. Whatever makes you feel worthy, valuable, and confident should be genuine and a part of your real life.
Developing authentic self-esteem requires you to face your fears, refrain from envy, set realistic goals, practice positive self-talk, and partake in healthy relationships — all of which movies can inspire you to do.
For example, a movie like The Mighty Ducks can help display how to build authentic self-esteem. Hot-shot attorney, Gordon Bombay, is tasked with coaching a hard-on-their-luck group of pee-wee hockey players after a drunk driving charge.
Coach Bombay has to face some issues and people from his past to evolve into a humbler, more genuine version of himself. He also has to inspire belief and self-confidence in a team full of kids that aren’t as talented as the other hockey teams. He brings the best out of each by celebrating what makes them unique.
Learn to Overcome Hardships
It’s challenging to see hardships as positive, growth-inducing experiences when living through them. However, overcoming adversity is one of the best things for our self-esteem.
This is because, often, people feel like they won’t make it through what they’re experiencing. But when they do, life becomes that much more meaningful, and they start forming a new perspective on what hardships can do for their personal development.
Hardships teach us how to overcome fear, stay uplifted, and persevere. All are necessary for high self-esteem.
Many movies show us how to do these things, but one of the most notable is Rocky. In fact, all of the Rocky films teach us about overcoming hardships and persevering.
Rocky comes from humble beginnings. He was the muscle for a bookie and made a couple of dollars boxing in underground settings. However, things changed when he got a chance to fight the world's heavyweight champ at the time.
He didn’t have much money or the best trainers in the world, but he did have heart. He kept on keeping on. Even when he lost fights, lost Mickey, lost money and fame, and lost his way, he eventually rose to whatever the occasion was in every movie.
Develop Emotional Intelligence
Our emotions can significantly affect our self-esteem. For example, if you’re always letting someone or something get and keep you unhappy, your self-esteem won’t be as high as it should be. You don’t feel good about life, so how could you feel good about yourself?
You must understand your emotions and keep them in check, so they don’t sway how you see and value yourself every time they change. And our feelings can change a lot throughout the day, week, month, and year.
Movies can be a great teacher of emotional intelligence. Inside Out is one of the most simple yet powerful children’s movies exploring emotional intelligence. We get to go inside the mind and heart of a girl named Riley, seeing how she moves through disappointment, fear, anger, sadness, and joy as she adapts to her family’s move.
She learns how to manage her emotions by first understanding what she’s feeling, why, and what could happen should she express each feeling inappropriately.
Embrace Who You Are
When people have high authentic self-esteem, they’ve usually mastered being who they are most unapologetically. They’re themselves, through and through — no matter who’s watching, who won’t like it, or what people have to say.
It’s essential for anyone looking to build their self-esteem to embrace who they are entirely. Hiding parts of you that you think the world won’t like or understand only makes it more difficult to show up in the world in your truest form, with the utmost confidence.
The first Harry Potter movie offers a great lesson in embracing who you are. Harry was an orphaned boy who had no idea who he really was for a while. But, as the movie progresses, he discovers the truth about himself, his powers, his family history, and the magical world.
He is initially resistant to a lot of the information, but eventually, he embraces who he is and where he comes from.
Movies can bolster our self-esteem. It’s all about watching the ones that offer the lessons necessary for learning how to value ourselves, love ourselves unconditionally, and show up authentically in the world.
