“A Beautiful Mind” is an award-winning movie starring Russell Crowe about the Nobel-Prize winning economist John Nash.
This movie illustrates a fabulous lesson for the average person, even though its main character suffers from hallucinations of seeing non-existent people.
The lesson that this movie inspired in me is that of developing your own personalized coping skills for problems in your life.
Nash decides to handle his hallucinations by totally ignoring them, even though they never actually go away. Even though the problem of seeing imaginary people is not solved, Nash finds a way to cope, and his life is transformed for the better.
This is a lesson for all of us in that sometimes, we cannot erase certain problems in our lives. Sometimes we don’t know what to do, but at least we can explore ideas to cope with those problems.
For example, I am not a huge fan of washing dishes and spending time in the kitchen, cooking and cleaning. However, I don’t have a personal cook and my family needs to eat. Eating out is not a daily option. Therefore, I have developed the coping skill of listening to something interesting on Youtube while working in the kitchen. This has helped me immensely in coping with the boredom I had felt when working in the kitchen.
Thanks be to God, most of us do not have to deal with hallucinations like Professor Nash did, but we all face personal challenges in life. Rather than only focusing on erasing those challenges, try finding ways to cope with those challenges. And sometimes, life becomes more enjoyable than it was before.
Masha’Allah very good point. I don’t like driving or long travelling to work everyday, just as its like wasting my time and I feel less productive while travelling, once sharing this with my mom she gave me advice to do zikar of Allah swt and I find it very useful and rewarding Alhamdolillah
That is beautiful that you found a way to turn something you didn’t like into a way to remember Allah. Alhamdulillah. Thank you for your comment.