If you regularly consume artfully-crafted, well-written media, it’s not hard to experience intense, thrilling, tragic, and often violent television, movies and games. If you like music of a certain intensity, you may find yourself listening to the sounds of love lost, of frustration felt, or of the blues, a staple influence of any genre worth listening to.
After a little while, you may come to realize that absolutely all of your media consumption is, in some way, related to conflict, hardship, difficulty, fighting, or struggle. There’s nothing wrong with that of course, we connect to these stories because they cut right to the human condition and can help us feel a sense of power in overcoming those odds, even if we see another fictional character do it.
However, it’s very healthy to alter your tastes from time to time, such as by focusing on “happy” or peaceful media. This can refresh your palate and also gives you a reason to be content in your free time rather than thrilled or shocked. Moreover, sometimes the aforementioned genres fail to deliver.
Let’s consider how you might achieve this:
Curate A Peaceful Movie Playlist
A peaceful movie playlist can be a wonderful thing to have on hand. Even if this is just added to your watchlist on a streaming service or a collection of Blu-Rays ready to go when you need them, a comfortable place with movies that are fun to watch, hopeful in their messaging and peaceful in their presentation will make a huge difference. For instance, you could watch these movies during Christmas in July, have a full series like Harry Potter ready to go, or even watch slice-of-life anime with no real major conflict, just pure vibes presented in each episode.
Play Farming & Relationship Building Games
Anyone that plays video games regularly knows that harming other people tends to be the number one practice and activity in many titles, even if they’re light-hearted and fun like the Uncharted series. It can be nice to consume media away from all that, such as Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, Mario and more. Relationship-building games such as these can also help you use gifts to grow connections, like in Disney’s Dreamlight Valley. There’s nothing like exploring a peaceful world to keep you going.
It’s Okay To Relive Your Childhood
We all have remnants of our childhood we still feel appreciation for, and there’s no shame in going back to relive some of it from time to time. If you love watching films like Muppet’s Treasure Island, if you were addicted to Avatar: The Last Airbender for some time, or you simply enjoyed drawing and creating your own comic books using a specific arts and crafts set, why not spend a little time on that? Connecting with your inner child can be a beautiful thing from time to time.
With this advice, you’re sure to see the value of focusing on happy media from time to time. Does this mean you have to do this all the time, or avoid mature content you usually consume? Of course not. But at least this way, you can give yourself the break you need.
