Is it possible that we can learn to be healthier, better, and happier from fictional characters?
In a culture where iconic fictional characters from mainstream movies, comic books, and TV shows are becoming a greater center point of attention, this is an important question.
Obviously, fictional characters aren’t real.
At least, they aren’t tangibly real in the physical world.
But that doesn’t mean that they’re not real in the sense that they can’t teach us lessons about how to live and become better.
See, one of the issues with health and wellness is that it takes some kind of motivation or inspiration to begin the journey of getting better.
When it comes to things like working out, counting calories, exercising, and adopting better sleep habits, there’s one simple rule of thumb that a lot of people don’t pay enough attention to:
All of this stuff is difficult to do, especially in a culture that seems to run contrary to the best practices in all of the most important health and wellness categories.
In other words, we all know that healthy sleeping patterns are good for us.
But on the same token, almost everything in our real-life culture works against our actual ability to put that knowledge into practice.
For example.
We are all constantly glued to devices that emit blue light, which disrupts our circadian rhythm.
We’re constantly bombarded by noise, streams of distracting data, fast-paced lifestyles, high-pressure work environments, odd working hours, etc.
But by contrast, when you circle back and you look at some fictional characters, there might be some valuable lessons to be gained from those fictional worlds that could actually help us to make our life in the real world better.
For example—fictional stories about Samurai warriors who put their health, wellness, exercise, diet, and training before everything else to achieve an optimal ‘state of being’ could be stories that have the potential to have a very positive influence on people who live in the real world today.
True, not all of the characters in the stories may be real, though they may be based on some real history.
But are there no lessons that we could possibly learn from such stories?
We can also learn moral and ethical lessons from fictional stories—such as those outlined in many super-hero and comic-book adventures that deal with themes of good vs evil.
These are important questions that really bear asking.
It’s possible that as modern humans, we could maybe even learn more important lessons from some fictional characters than we could from some of the real-life celebrities who grace the tabloid covers and demand attention from us on a regular basis.
I mean—when I compare the stories of characters from comic books to real-life people—it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the comic book characters, while fictional, are also generally portraying a higher standard of healthy and ethical living.
And that’s no small thing.
But of course, this is all very situational.
At the end of the day, you have to decide for yourself where your important lessons are going to come from, and what you’re going to do with those lessons.
And the simple answer may be this:
If a fictional character is better at teaching you how to be a healthier, happier human—well, perhaps you should listen to those lessons and incorporate them into your life.
