How Watching Movies Can Be Good For Your Mental Health

There are SO MANY benefits to watching movies that it even has a name: cinema therapy. 

Cinema therapy can be a powerful catalyst for healing and growth for someone who is open to learning how movies affect us and to watching certain films with conscious awareness. 

Watching movies that mirror our own struggles or experience can help us cope in different ways:

Emotional Release

The release of emotions can have a cathartic effect and also make it easier for a person to become more comfortable in expressing their emotions.

Sad Movies Can Make Us Happier

While it may first seem counter-intuitive, think about it! Watching something that is sad or distressing can make you feel thankful for your life and the “smaller” problems in comparison. Others’ tragedies make us more appreciative of everything good in our own lives. 

Help Us Make Sense of Our Own Lives

Stories, such as movies, offer us different perspectives and help us understand and make sense of the world.

Give Us A Break From Whatever Is Currently Bothering Us

We are transported to a different time and place and can just focus on the present moment for a short time. This gives our brains a much-needed rest from “the usual.”

Bring Us A Sense of Relief

Even if they stress us out first. Watching something suspenseful releases cortisol (the stress hormone) in the brain, followed by dopamine, which produced feelings of pleasure. 

Whether you’d rather sit in a movie theater watching the latest release or lay on your couch watching Netflix, the results are the same - watching movies is good for us!

And don't forget to put on your Snoozzze Box pajamas when you do!