Sometimes we all feel a little stuck in a rut. Caught up in the treadmill of life and feeling like there’s something missing.
It may seem unlikely, but perhaps Groundhog Day can help us find a way out.
In The Wisdom of Groundhog Day, Paul Hannam uses the tale of self-entered weatherman Phil Connors – stuck in a single recurring day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania – as the inspiration to help you get more out of your life.
Hannam defines the Groundhog Day condition as a constant state of worrying, multitasking and busyness, involving one or more of the following five symptoms:
- The feeling that you are stuck
- Compulsive thoughts and feelings
- Living on autopilot
- A sense of meaninglessness
- Powerlessness to change
Much of the wisdom Hannam derives from the film is based around the need to live more in the moment. For Phil, stuck in a never ending narrative where the same thing happens every day, he doesn’t have any choice but to live in the moment. Initially, this drives him to distraction. But eventually, he learns to use the tight constraints of his recurring day to craft a better life for himself.
Hannam uses the film’s inspiration to identify a number of key lessons:
- Why it’s important to get beyond your ‘conditioned self’ and back in touch with your authentic self.
- The importance of everyday practice in establishing new routines, and savouring each day by being more mindful. As Phil is forced to repeat one day over and over, he eventually learns to find ways to look at the same things in a fresh and different way. We can take the same approach too.
- There is only a never ending series of ‘nows’ – so it’s important to appreciate each one by practising mindfulness and gratitude, rather than being lost in the past or the future.
- Only by engaging with the world, and becoming less self-centered, does Phil overcome his condition and break free from his predicament.
‘In essence, the wisdom of Groundhog Day encourages you to recreate yourself: to evaluate your old conditioning and ‘recondition’ yourself by choice. You have the power to develop the qualities, values and habits that will serve you best. You can direct your own life. So choose the life you want – one that you will love each and every day.’
Paul Hannam
While I sometimes found it to be a little short on practical advice, I also found that Hannam had a knack of saying things that made me feel somewhat uncomfortable, and which forced me to reappraise aspects of my life which I’d been ignoring.
And if anything, Hannam’s book has become even more relevant since the COVID-19 pandemic, where local and national restrictions and lockdowns have impacted our usual freedoms. That’s meant less variety in our day-to-day lives, echoing the situation Phil is forced to endure – though in a more limited way. Accepting the situation for what it is, and making the best of it, has been a learning curve many of us have had to go through.
Above all, The Wisdom of Groundhog Day encourages you to take stock of your life now. To re-evaluate how you experience each day. And to go and watch the film with a fresh perspective.
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