“A man lives inside his head; that’s where the seed of his soul is”, Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz) says to James Bond (Daniel Craig) in the prelude of a not-so-pleasant scene from the movie Spectre. I’ve been sort of a Bond fan since seeing classics like Dr. No and Goldfinger, because of spectacular 007 stunts, smart M gadgets and charming Bond girls, and there’s a lot of that in this 245-million-dollar movie as well.
The other side is how much nasty stuff we see in these 148 minutes of ‘entertainment’, classified to be suitable from the age of 12 (which should have been 16). Motion pictures like these are mainstream, according to today’s standards, and many of us are watching them with their entire family. And yes, the average Bond is nothing compared to the violence projected in other action, horror or sci-fi movies out there.
However, I feel Spectre is rather cruel. As I’m on a journey to learn about the role of a positive mindset and a high vibration in reaching goals and manifesting desires, I’m realizing what negative impressions may do to us. I don’t have scientific studies to back this up right now, but common sense and gut feeling (clearly felt during that scene) tells me watching horrifying events is disturbing our mental wellness.
‘Every morning, I unwillingly thought of this scene’
You must have a strong positive attitude if you don’t want to be influenced by negative visuals at all. I’ve chosen Spectre as a current example, but I remember seeing an ordinary thriller where they suddenly went into a nasty torture scene. I felt before that I had to switch channels, but I didn’t listen to myself… I guess I was curious in a way. Well, this one scene would end up haunting my mind.
There was a time when this ‘mental picture’ used to pop into my mind anytime when my psyche was (consciously or subconsciously) triggered by something related to this segment, such as anything that was visible or audible in that scene (not even the actual torture). That alone was enough to recall the entire movie clip, illustrating the power of emotional hooks to reinforce memories; a technique used in advertising.
Even more interesting, this scene once flashed into my mind on a morning, while preparing breakfast in the kitchen (a location not related to it in any way). Of course, I ‘told’ myself to think of something else right away. But now it gets creepy – I noticed in the next days that every morning when I was making breakfast in the kitchen (doing the same thing at the same spot, around the same time), I now unwillingly thought of this scene!
‘What else could I’ve done over the last 40 minutes – or even 60 minutes?’
It took a month before this memory slowly faded away. Day by day, I would replace negative images by positive suggestions, exchanging the negative picture with a positive impression, like people who are being good to another. And I was lucky that I’m always gravitating towards the positive (by practicing more positive than negative thoughts) in general, which made all of this easier.
Something else also helped me to, step-by-step, ban this negative scene out of my mind. It’s the fortunate habit to mainly consume positive media content and (deliberately put myself in a position to) ignore negative mental influence as much as possible. I usually don’t see movies or TV series with explicit violence, don’t watch the news, and watch less television anyway. That is (or seems to be) difficult at first.
We all love entertainment. I know I do! After a long working day, I do like to chill out and watch NCIS, just for the sake of relaxation and ‘switching off mentally’. But I’m more and more thinking: I should switch off my TV… I’m also realizing: what else could I’ve done over the last 40 minutes – or even 60 minutes, when I’m watching real-time and can’t fast-forward all those commercial breaks?
‘It’s better to shut our TV off and put our mobiles away altogether’
There are much better ways to spend my time than a daily TV show, which quickly becomes a ‘bad’ habit in the way that it’s filling my mind with useless stuff and it’s also costing me an hour of my productive life every single day! And that’s just one show; I used to sit in front of the ‘tube’ for several hours a day. Imagine what you can achieve when you cut your daily TV time in half (for starters).
To be honest: I’m writing this post after a week where I’ve watched an episode of NCIS every weekday, habitually switching on the show during dinner. It seemed okay to me at first. I have to eat anyway, so I might as well enjoy some entertainment while doing so. Are you in for an art documentary right after your workday? I guess not :-). Problem is: once your TV is on, it’s easy to keep watching after dinner.
I’m now starting to consciously look for valuable content (which can be light, yet positive in nature), record it automatically, and watch it efficiently, like during dinner. But it’s better to shut our TV off (and to put our mobiles away) altogether. Enjoying each other’s company and enjoying our meal is relaxing, too – and conscious eating stimulates better chewing, leading to less consumption and better digestion.
‘We attract the essence of our dominant vibration’
Thinking of that quote from Spectre: “A man lives inside his head; that’s where the seed of his soul is”. That’s actually a positive part of this scene, as this sentence conveys a great truth. Our inner being is growing along the lines of our thinking. Earl Nightingale said that “we become what we think about“; Napoleon Hill wrote that ‘thoughts are things’; Abraham-Hicks explain that we create our reality by our thinking!
It’s said that our emotions are indicators of our thought vibrations, and that we attract the essence of our dominant vibration. When we’re feeling fear (thinking of what scares us) long enough, by Law of Attraction we soon encounter more situations that make us (even more) fearful. When we’re feeling optimism (thinking of what’s uplifting us) long enough, we soon attract more situations that make us (even more) optimistic.
I’ve experienced myself that positive thoughts (where you think about what you want, in a way that makes you feel good) lead to positive experiences in your life. And positive thinking (which leads to success manifestation) is a lot easier when you free your mind of negative impressions and feed your mind with positive influences! So here’s a very important question. Do you mind what you put in your mind every day?
Image: Ticket for the James Bond movie Spectre (credit: Thomas Giger)
