473. Redefining Entertainment

Or walking a process of my relationship to movies and TV series into a supportive part of my reality and self-creation

 

I read a timely post on the Desteni Forum about media consumption – which I suggest to read through because this blog is a response to that – and I definitely got some points to share because I’ve been exactly on that same spot for a long time until a year ago or so.

When I first started this process, I quit most of the media: from TV to music, movies, series or anything of that kind. I was a bit too radical in that sense because I then judged that it was all just mind numbing stuff or of consciousness etc., which I didn’t realize were judgments and reactions to it all, leading me to judge people that would be watching movies and series and seeing that as a waste of time while we could be ‘doing more relevant things.’ However here I also got some cool support from Bernard on this and how I could not just focus on ‘things related directly to process’ or ‘focusing on changing the world out there’ all the time, but that there was a need for an equilibrium in my life in relation to this– and by ‘focusing on process’ I mean the very action of self-writing or self-forgiveness or reading/watching Desteni information only, or assisting others or writing blogs or doing vlogs etc. That is but a part of our day to day living, of sharing principle in this process from consciousness to awareness which yes, becomes a daily thing to do – but it’s obvious that it cannot be the ‘only’ thing we do or participate in.

In reality, walking process is a matter of living in reality, of self-creation – not only about ‘reading/learning’ information or writing or sharing blogs, nope not at all but it is about who we are and can correct ourselves to be in our everyday activities. Here watching movies, series or participating in anything considered as entertainment is then something that is not to be ‘given up on’ or restricted, otherwise we would be creating a separation again towards what is here as part of our reality, because movies, music, TV series, music are not the problem, the media is not the problem in itself – it is who we are and our starting point when watching/listening or participating in anything of entertainment that matters.

Therefore, after I let go of my restriction towards it all, I’ve realized how participating or consuming media becomes also a very cool way to test oneself in relation to reactions, judgments, characters that we can even develop while watching/consuming media. This is essentially something that I’ve begun doing more from the past two years, because I was the kind of person that was judging the whole watching movies and series – and consequently existing in judgment towards media and/or people that watched all of that – and noticing that I was creating then again a personality around it, as in taking a ‘high horse’ again of ‘I don’t consume that media, I can’t be entertained while the world is falling apart’ – that type of martyrdom where I create a ‘superiority’ in judgment of others as ‘inferior’ for indulging in it, which I have been deliberately working on to stop as a judgment and reaction within myself. Therefore I’ve been going out more to movies and watching documentaries and instead using that time and exposure to this media as another way to test who I am in it, seeing what kind of emotions and reactions come up or if I develop a character affiliation.

What is a ‘character affiliation’? lol – well I thought I had just made up that concept but now I’ve hyperlinked an explanation around it which is yes emotional ‘empathy’ towards a character. I wrote a blog exemplifying this precise experience when watching the movie 438. Louder Than Bombs

and one resonates so much with a character to the point of starting to generate the same or similar emotions the character is going through based on personal identification – example, me having a similar ‘pattern’ to the person on the screen and so starting to ‘see myself through them’ but not in an objective manner, but through/within the character, which is something that I then have to identify when and as I am doing this – which means I am simply becoming emotional – and snap out of it to then rather work on seeing what is it of that character that was ‘resonating’ with me, how are those patterns still existent in me and so how can I spot myself from living those reactions or emotions in my everyday life.

This becomes a very interactive way to participate in watching movies or series, even if they are fiction as well. And when it comes to consuming media like news or world info, I’ve also shared before how I relate to it nowadays, like in this one: 447. Interacting with the News/Media: from Helplessness to Personal Empowerment.

So with movies I’ve found that for example I’ve been able to work through my deeply rooted childhood fears to anything related to terror/horror/paranormal type of stuff, the thriller/supernatural type of movies intended to get one to boil in fear – lol, I can swear I would not have gone there by myself to watch those but for almost a year I watched several of those with my partner, every single time testing myself to breathe, to understand the fiction of it, how everything is orchestrated to peak one’s emotions and instead see what is of relevance in those stories, how the paranormal is exemplified in those movies – or mostly misinforming in those movies – and comparing it to all the actuality and reality of those phenomena that is explained to the T in the Paranormal Series at Eqafe.com and so rather see how we are also misleading each other with these kinds of movies, and missing out the real stories.

So! I actually have made of my visit to the movies something that has been supportive for my process in facing my still existent fears and reactions towards all things ‘spooky’ and definitely getting better at it, or any and all reactions to the plethora of characters and living situations presented to us on a screen because even if the stories are completely ‘fictional,’ they are still representations of our human mind, our life experiences that can serve as a way to see ‘where we are’ in relation to those situations/experiences and if it is something that still makes me react either in affinity or discordance towards a character or situation. Here as part of my process and self-responsibility, I can then make sure I get myself to clarity to place myself in their shoes – even if fictional – and understand that situation, and at the end understand what kind of outcomes would have been more suitable if implementing certain preventive measures or solutions. This actually has become a cool process when finishing a movie, a series or book to write it for oneself or discuss with others what could be re-written or how someone in the movie could have changed their fate if testing out this/that solution – of course this also coming as a way to ‘face situation’ in life and redirect to a solution based on the process and principles I’ve been walking.

This becomes also a way of expanding ourselves in relation to what we watch/consume and so it is not only a mind-numbing type of hypnosis that one is entering within a starting point of ‘evading the world’ or being merely ‘entertained’ and shut down all self-awareness through it, but it becomes a very interactive platform where I can go checking myself, my body, my reactions based on what is being consumed through my senses, just as I would with any other thing I participate with during my day.

Now on the field of documentaries, I have become quite an avid consumer of those but I also slowed down a bit because once that you get the basics of awareness of many difficult situations around the world, in various types of lives, countries, situations one creates an awareness yes, but there’s also a ‘gap’ that one can fall into because one tends to then feel disempowered when it comes to actually ‘doing something about that problem’ and one then wants to do something to directly stop child trafficking or the production of GMO’s or stopping corporate tax havens or change the prison system or educate people about how to eat better… etc. The list becomes endless and I did walk through that project in terms of watching documentaries or movies and making a commentary in podcast format so that I could have an outlet to share my perspectives about all of these documentaries or movies and so, promote a solution to that. All of them can be found at www.marlenvargasdelrazo.com – many topics covered there.

And it’s interesting to now write about it because I also ‘hit a wall’ around this point  last year, because I saw that in one way no matter how much I could advocate some solution ‘out there’ I was still missing something very ‘here’ as myself, something I can directly do with and by my own thoughts, words and deeds besides sharing a documentary commentary. And that’s where after some months of a kind of personal processing and transition I wrote out a sort of personal declaration of my intent with ‘changing the world out there’ in my blog 442. Back To Self: My Current Story which became a personal redirection statement within my process, which I also have to make sure doesn’t mean that I will ‘only’ focus now on myself, my mind and my life – not at all. I definitely keep abreast of daily news, stories, situations developing – documentaries exposing/explaining either the problem or potential solutions, but I keep myself very grounded and settled in realizing that after watching all of those either problems or solutions, if there is nothing in my direct hands I can do about a problem that say is happening in the slums of the Philippines, then I have to focus on understanding how that situation there is an outflow consequence of our inherent separation as human beings, of disregarding our very own lives as equal.

So I have to remind myself that everything that I watch is essentially an outflow consequence of who we have become as our ‘human nature’ in our bodies, in our minds and so in everything that we have individually and collectively accepted and allowed to exist within us, that then becomes or transforms into the atrocities that we get to watch or become aware of through documentaries.

I have been personally supported by ‘sensitizing’ myself through watching many, many documentaries on many topics, sometimes even choosing to watch based on the degree of resistance I would have to ‘learn about a subject’ – yet I also faced that same situation of watching them all and then perceiving that it is ‘unacceptable to now keep going on with my life and do nothing about those problems out there.’ And realistically, it is so, I cannot change ‘the world out there’ but I can for sure and by all means I shall Change Myself here, in my every thought, word, deed including what I decide to consume in my mind and for what purposes – to be clear in my starting point and so, use these points I become aware of as a point of understanding our manifested consequences in a better way, and challenge myself to always relate every single problem back to self, back to our own minds, back to our accepted and allowed limitations.

That has become quite more empowering to be honest and so, I don’t say ‘no’ to watching a documentary or become helpless about it afterward, I use it as points of awareness to understand ourselves as humans even better, to understand the extent of our responsibility, to place myself in the shoes of people’s lives this manner, because it’s the only one that is available for many of us and so, continue focusing on myself to ensure I am not taking a ‘side’ on what I watch, to understand a problem holistically considering equal responsibility of all situations and always reminding myself that such seemingly ‘out of our hands’ situation, will too eventually be able to be walked, process and corrected once that we work through our own self-responsibility in our own minds, lives and so in how we live and interact with others= this is what We CAN work on and focus on in our lives, what we can correct, align, process/work through to change, to better, to improve in our very own minds and so in our lives, to become a living example of a ‘changed human being that lives and considers what is best for all’ which in turn can create ripple effects that we certainly many times have no awareness happen or exist, but they do.

 

I actually wanted to share today about this particular series called ‘Real Detective’ of real crime cases that have been re-enacted and it’s focusing on the emotional experiences that  detectives have gone through when working with cases that affect them at a personal level and how difficult it is for them many times to keep ‘living their life’ while being consumed and literally obsessed solving some cases – very similar to the documentary ‘Into the Abyss’ by Werner Herzog as well as “Profilers, A Gaze Into the Abyss” which is by all means a very recommendable one on the same topic. And so one thing that my partner shared with me after we finished watching this series yesterday is that there should be a kind of documentary that can be a way to support people on how to interact with documentaries or series like that which cover reality situations and cases. Because he was bringing up how someone can completely see it only as entertainment and forget about the realization that this is part of our reality, this is happening everywhere in the world and there is a solution and preventive process to it.

So he started explaining how these series are lacking a focus on the human mind that causes both the criminal-mindset so to speak and the way that detectives could be able to understand their emotions and so prevent such effect on their bodies and their personal lives to the extent that it is shown in this series. He explained how it is necessary to have series that can now focus on how a particular criminal came to be, their life history to know more about their emotional and behavioral patterns and tendencies that they had throughout their life, the context of their upbringing, their parenting – or the lack thereof – as well as explaining how through an accepted and allowed participation in the mind within those particular ideas, beliefs, experiences and tendencies, they got to become the ‘monsters’ as they call them in this series, which also creates a one-dimensional way to look at crimes in the first place, which I ponder if many people also reflect back on this kind of series to also consider the human beings that become criminals and trying to understand them, so as to not simply judge them and create yet again another veil as an emotional reaction toward ‘the criminal’ or ‘the bad guy’ and forget – or not even be aware – that we are all ‘them’ and ‘they’ as well.

Here then is an example of how when walking this process of developing self-awareness – even when watching seemingly ‘mind numbing’ entertainment – can become a process of understanding oneself, of expansion at the same time where we can device solutions and considerations in – why not – creating our own media at the same time, because: we can! No one is preventing us from writing our own stories as well, so here’s a hint: if you don’t like the current fiction or entertainment because you see it is lacking real support for people to change, to thrive in this reality: start making your own in whichever way it is possible to you: from a blog, to a vlog, to a podcast, to reviewing movies which we’ve been doing as well in the Desteni Channel too, to writing your own books, doing your own movies or comics or short films = all is possible if you see yourself able and capable of taking on a project like that.

I personally find this subject of a prime interest in my current life because after focusing so much on economics and politics and that one field of our reality, I noticed that there is still a great lack of interest in people’s minds to anything related to money/politics and one then starts only preaching to the same crowd that only focuses on those topics. So, I started seeing how there’s a hell of a lot more people focused on entertainment, on series, on movies and you might not always be able to talk about politics with friends or family – and sometimes it even only becomes another source of disputes for the most part – but I am sure we can always bring up a particular movie or series we watched and discuss about it – bingo, it works.

So in my case and life, after having completely ‘given up’ on series and movies, I have been definitely watching many more movies and a few TV series, still also having to ‘push’ myself to do so when I don’t get appealed to it based on my personalities and character definition, I must be honest I am still walking through that – but I appreciate recommendations from people/fellow Destonians that tend to have a good eye on cool stuff to watch. So I’ve been taking some of those recommendations and verified how cool it actually is to watch stuff while remaining interactive, inquisitive, reflective about what one is watching.

Another point that opens up to me is the ability to be ‘closer’ to what is being presented to people as characters, propaganda or simply seeing what is being ‘propagated’ in terms of beliefs, morals, social norms, concepts, etc. Entertainment is certainly a way to ‘read the matrix’ if you will – or sometimes how particular subjects are approached, like in the recent series The OA and the whole relationship to ‘the afterlife’ which was interesting as well considering the information we have through the Desteni material as well . Therefore, through watching more of this stuff I was able to start relating better to other people through watching the same stuff they watch, to understand what kind of ideas are being propagated and so challenge myself to also ‘follow the patterns’ which has become a very interesting process as well for me to identify and be aware of, so as to not accept also indirect/subtle ‘brainwashing’ through entertainment, which is of course rife and abundant as well.

Therefore through stepping down from my previous high horse of ‘I don’t watch movies or series, I don’t engage in entertainment’ I have been able to take on quite an expansion around it and yes, directing myself to a personal project on it, so this point overall hits home for me and I’ve seen the importance of us all people that are aware in this world to not underestimate the power of media, the power of entertainment and how widespread it can be, from my personal perspective much more than a political party or economical solution. Here, I’m not saying ‘that’s not the way either’ but it is simply My personal point, positioning, location and a purpose that I’ve been opening for me to do my part on this regard, which in turn becomes a self-creation process as well to contribute something back to this world that can be a statement of ‘who I am’ and how I’ve learned to see and understand reality throughout this process.

I enjoyed very much sharing about this part of my current process, which I have precisely intended to do only in relation to the series Real Detective, but it opened up to so much more to share about my investigations around it and current location in relation to ‘media consumption’ which we can in fact decide who we are in it:  do we judge it, refrain ourselves from it, see it as pointless or meaningless or decide to watch, face that part of our reality, see what we can learn from it to correct ourselves in those same aspects in our day to day living – or even give one step further into deciding to create your own media and do it the way you see would be most beneficial for humanity, creating a gift for our current times and future generations to come since this is also an aspect of our reality to transform, and a very popular and wide-spread one therefore we can start taking the positions of author-ity in this field as well. In this day with the internet, having a blog or spreading your perspectives is widespread situation and no point is ‘small’ when it comes to spreading principles and awareness in relation to this process –  ‘social media’ must not only mean Facebook or Twitter, but actual sharings from peer to peer that assist each other to wake up and transform the way we live and see the world as our creation.

That’s up to each one of us J

Thanks  to Tyler for opening this topic up and thanks for reading

 

 

Check out these great sites for self support and self development :

• Get Real with Cerise & Joe

• School Of Ultimate Living | Facebook

• EQAFE.Com : SELF Education and SELF Awareness Store

• 7 Year Journey To Life Process : People Sharing their Processes of Self-Forgiveness and Self-Correction

• Desteni Radio

• Desteni Articles

• Destonians

• Desteni I Process

• Agreement/Redefining Relationship Course

• Desteni Forum : Discuss and share with us

• Desteni Wiki

• Desteni Español

• Creation’s Journey to Life

• Heaven’s Journey To Life