Wellbeing with Jaws

We watched Jaws this week, this is one of my favourite movies of all time, I have seen it thousands of times. Have you ever watched it? If not, I am sure you’ll have heard about it – the great white shark terrorising the lovely people of Amity Island. I know, what the heck as Jaws got to do with wellbeing, Read on to find out.

Try new things

The shark is doing its thing, swimming, eating and doing whatever sharks do in their spare time. But one day it realises there’s a lot more interesting things available in the water to eat. It decides to take a chance and try something new. If it didn’t like it, the shark won’t do it again (yes, I know, there are more things to this than if he finds us tasty, like sounds etc, but go with me 😆). The shark isn’t afraid to just see what’s available and happy to give things a go.

It’s good for you to do something different, whether it’s random and unexpected or you’ve been meaning to give something a try for a while. Trying new things, can help with any feelings of boredom or the mundane – particularly at the moment and who knows, you may like it!

Take on a challenge

The shark is being hunted, it gets shot at a variety of different ways including a dart with a rope which has 3 barrels attached to it, so it can be easily spotted. But it takes this challenge on, it can’t take the dart out but it sure as hell can chew through the rope!

You may find obstacles get in your way of achieving things, What can you do to overcome these? Are you putting them there yourself, or is someone else doing it? Find work arounds if it isn’t something you can control. But see each challenge as a positive….lessons can be learnt, it can create new ideas and you will discover a lot about yourself. Don’t be put off doing something, just because it isn’t a straight path. This leads onto the next point quite nicely.

Don’t give up

So the poor shark was facing these challenges, but not once did it give up, it kept coming back and standing it’s ground, maybe with more injuries each time, but it’s instinct was not to quit. It wanted something so badly that it was willing to fight to its death (little did it know, he didn’t stand a chance!)

When did you last give up on something? Was it difficult because of circumstances such as money or time? Or was it too much work? If something isn’t going well, we quite often give up at the first hurdle, we see it as too hard, we want things to come to us easily. However, this isn’t the case, working hard for something can make the end result worthwhile. Pushing ourselves by not giving up can open the doors you want in life. The majority of people don’t get things handed to them, they have to work hard for it. If you are truly passionate about something and really want to succeed, giving up will not be an option.

At the same time, know when to quit, if it isn’t making you happy, if it turns out not to be what you want, then know you tried and let it go.

Curiosity

The shark is curious about all the noises and sounds it’s hearing whilst swimming around, it gets curious, goes to investigate and decides it was worth it as so much variety of things to eat!

Being curious about things in life can lead onto so many wonderous things. Think about it, is there something you were intrigued by and maybe Googled it to find out more and now you have a new hobby or you changed your job because of the research you did. Curiosity can lead to great discoveries, failures and development. Investigating is part of life, so be curious and see whats out there that piques your interest.

Too much of a good thing

The shark eats and eats and keeps doing what it wants, but in the end it over does it. It thinks it’s onto a good thing. Rather than spit out the oxygen tank that Chief Brody threw in its mouth, it tries to chew it and keeps at it (not giving up). A few moments later, after munching on Quint, it disappears. With the oxygen tank still in its mouth, it reappears and swims furiously towards Chief Brody, a gun is aimed, shots fired, but miss. As soon as that shark opens its mouth and smiles, bang and boom! The shark explodes. (Cue me crying as a child).

Too much of a good thing can be a disaster. It can have the opposite effect from what we hoped. For example, we feel sad and blue so we reach for the chocolate/ice cream/alcohol and eat or drink and feel better. But rather than quit whilst we’re ahead, put the food or drink away, we continue, finish it and then feel awful. We hate ourselves for over indulging – it was meant to make us happy. Find substitutes to food in that situation, go out for a walk, run or dance around your living room. Get moving and you will soon feel better. Call your friends and have a chat or a good bitch and moan if you need too! Seek out alternative things to make you happy which won’t make you feel worse if you over do it.

These are just my thoughts on Jaws and the points we can take and put them into practice for our own wellbeing. You might have another movie which provides great wellbeing advice. Another of my favourites films is the Wizard of Oz, have a read for my thoughts.

Thank you for reading, take care and look after you! Oh, and don’t be afraid to go into the water.

Love Emma xx