Things which we can learn from the movie 'The Diving Bell And The Butterfly'

About The Movie

The Diving Bell And The Butterfly is a french Biographical drama film based on the real-life story of Jean-Dominique Bauby's, the film depicts Bauby's life after suffering a massive stroke that left him with a condition called 'Locked-In Syndrome' where he can only communicate by blinking his left eye, in his condition his mental faculty remains intact but his physical body was paralyzed.

Despite his condition, he wrote the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by blinking when the correct letter was reached by a person slowly reciting the alphabet over and over again using a system called partner-assisted scanning.


This movie correctly captures the feeling of helplessness and how it's like to live in a dead body, after watching this movie you will cherish your life, your relationships and I guess you will value your remaining time well.

So these are the things which I've learned from the movie The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
 
1. Philosophy Of Life

 “I am fading away. Slowly but surely. Like the sailor who watches his home shore gradually disappear, I watch my past recede. My old life still burns within me, but more and more of it is reduced to the ashes of memory.”

 ―  Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
 

   we spend most of our time complaining about problems and chasing our never-ending material desires, and then one day we realize we never lived and at that time sometimes we can't even do anything.

we live for others, achieving non-sustainable material things and then losing them, this process repeats until most people die or gets old.


but when we realize we don't need everything to be happy, when we realize the value of time and the fact that we are mortal and will die soon all the expectations and desires from people and things fades away.

when we decide to live and to spend the rest of the time expressing our self, helping and loving others, It's only when we realize the value of life and relationships.

2. Self Pity

     
“Today it seems to me that my whole life was nothing but a string of those small near misses: a race whose result we know beforehand but in which we fail to bet on the winner.”
 ―  Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

 

Bauby after getting into the locked-in syndrome start blaming his life, he was full of self-pity and he wanted everything to end which means he wanted to die.

but when he started looking after the meaning of life, when he decided to embrace the situation and to work on things which he can control, he saw hope then he realized that one can always do something to change the reality no matter how bad it's now.

“I need to feel strongly, to love and to admire, just as desperately as I need to breathe.
 ―  Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

I think life has no meaning at all, it's on me, I'm the artist of my life, I'm the one who gives color and a direction to my life, so why don't i create a life as beautiful an art ?

I think it's completely okay to feel bad, to feel negative as long as you know that you are bigger than your emotions, and as long as you embrace it other than to indulge in it and become a victim personality and start blaming the people and circumstances around you.

I think we should focus on becoming optimist rather than being positive and it means we see the reality and then we give meaning to that reality and that meaning always gives you strength and freedom from trap, we shouldn't  cheat our self saying everything is fine when it's not instead we should focus on what's in our control and try to embrace the uncontrollable things by changing our perspective about it.


3.Regrets

  

 “The memory of that event has only just come back to me, now doubly painful: regret for a vanished past and, above all, remorse for lost opportunities.
 ―  Jean-Dominique Bauby The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Bauby felt regret for his past, when he was locked inside his body, he used to think about his past, his relationships, and what could've been done there.

I think the worst thing a man can do is to live a life full of regrets.

I think we should try to make peace with our past, we should try to make peace by apologizing for mistakes whether done knowingly or unknowingly and most importantly we should make peace with our self, we should forgive our self for the mistakes which we had done and should try to live a life without regrets.

It's a great movie and if you love the subject of philosophy, i think you will love this movie.

So I hope you like this blog, thank you for giving your valuable time reading it,
If you have any suggestions or problems you can mention them down in the comments or you can always reach me through social media.