NO SPOILERS
If you haven’t watched Stranger Things, you don’t need to have seen any of it to read and learn. Stranger Things season 4 has broken the Netflix record for the biggest premiere weekend ever for an English-language TV show with 286.79 million hours viewed. It was also the first season to reach # 1 in 83 countries on the Netflix Top 10. I personally have described it as The Goonies meets a Sci-Fi psychological thriller, with a fun, witty, and nostalgic, 80’s twist. Due to its justified popularity, I found it pertinent to explain how the actors/actresses in Stranger Things, demonstrate and teach the use of mental toughness to survive.
What is ‘mental toughness’? According to Wikipedia, “Mental toughness is a measure of individual resilience and confidence that may predict success in sport, education, and the workplace. As a broad concept, it emerged in the context of sports training, in the context of a set of attributes that allow a person to become a better athlete and able to cope with difficult training and difficult competitive situations and emerge without losing confidence.” This is the essence of my online mental training program, Mental Training for Confidence and Resilience.
The characters used mindfulness to intentionally change negative self-talk and tell themselves what they needed to hear to stay in line with their objectives and goals. If they weren’t able to change the negative thinking, at least they were mindful enough to be aware of it and ‘keep pushing’. In particular, the characters Max and El, intentionally thought about positive moments. In reference to my last blog, 3 Steps to Change Negative Thinking, Max and El supported positive self-talk with proof and justification. As I like to say, they chose to go down the positive rabbit holes. This is an example of how to ‘keep pushing’ when the words in themselves are just not enough. Max and El used mental rehearsal and visualization to burrow themselves and remain in these positive rabbit holes. Our negative self-talk does the same thing leading us down negative rabbit holes of feeling anxious, depressed, stressed, fearful, and decreasing our sense of self-worth. Why can’t we choose to go the other direction? This is exactly what we need to do to ease stress, depression, fear, anxiety, and increase our sense of self and self-worth. We have a good level of control over this, which is also demonstrated so beautifully in this Netflix series.
When we choose to focus on what we DO KNOW as well as what IS IN OUR CONTROL, we can more easily dismiss the “what-ifs”, decreasing symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress. This feeling of being in control increases our confidence. We’ve all experienced being overwhelmed. When emotion takes the upper hand, it can distort our thinking and we may behave in ways we wish we didn’t or say things we wish we could take back. We are human! We are going to get overwhelmed and feel intense feelings. We can be aware of them and choose to have a certain level of control. Therefore, we can choose how long to stay in our upside-down world by using and practicing the skills demonstrated mentioned above.
Whether you’re an athlete or professional looking to increase performance, a Mom looking to increase self-care and have a better life balance and relationships with your family, or anyone who is interested in learning and honing these life skills for yourself, contact me today and let me support you in your fight against your upside-down world.
I applaud the Duffer Brothers and the entire cast and crew of Stranger Things! Thanks to the brilliant Winona Ryder, an 80’s thread woven throughout every season! I am a forever fan as we all fight our own upside-down world!
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