Peaceful Warrior

          I watched this inspiring movie quite awhile ago, like may be six or seven months ago. This movie was recommended to me by couple people, but I didn't watch it until my dad said I have to watch it. Without reading any reviews, summaries, or watching trailers, I got a packet of popcorn, and while it's popping in the microwave, I went on Netflix, found the movie, and paused it until my popcorn was ready. Then the two-hour journey into wisdom, inspiration, and total awe broke the ground. 
          When the movie first started, I thought it would be like any other 'inspiring' movie, first the guy succeeds, and then he fails, and then by some miracle he succeeds again. Yeah! It was sorta like that, but the difference was, he did not succeed again because of some unknown miracle, but rather a known miracle - realization. The main character of the movie, Dan, was a gymnast, who is soon going to be qualified to represent United States of America in Olympics. His dad has so much money that money is never a worry for him. He is a straight A student at University of California - Berkeley. He has amazing friends, and he never sleeps alone, unless he has to. Dan thought he was happy, but he could not sleep at nights. Why? 

          To make him realize why he could not sleep at night, he had his own private guru, as Dan referred to him as Socrates. Socrates agreed to help Dan to become a better gymnast, but Dan never thought he would become a better person. Socrates made Dan do some "exercises" that were no way related to becoming a better gymnast and at times, Dan wanted to stop coming back to Socrates, but Socrates reasoning behind his activities made Dan more and more curious about his goal, life, and himself. It was a journey for Dan to discover himself beyond his selfishness and arrogance.

          When someone asks you, "What makes you happy?" What is your response? May be good academics, money, brand new house, family, marriage, health, and etc. Whatever it may be...you are only happy when you get what you want. Dan had the same kind of attitude that he is happy as long as he gets what he wants. He never realized that after he got whatever he wanted, he wanted something else, and after he got that, he wanted something else, he was never happy. As the private guru said in Peaceful Warrior, "You don't get what you want, you'll suffer, and even when you get what you want, you'll suffer." 
          We all heard some wisdom points here and there, and most of us when we hear them, we think, "Is that it? I knew that before you told me." But the private guru that Dan has makes him experience how it feels to actually live those wisdom points rather than just knowing them. So from what I said so far, you probably think this is a movie, which basically goes through wisdom points, huh? Well, that's what I thought until Dan gets into an accident and is now handicapped, but still participates in Olympics.

          It's all a miracle! It's amazing how all of this happened, and it's not by practicing to be a better gymnast, but rather by practicing to be a better person. He met with challenges, but he learned how to handle them even at the hardest of times. This is truly an inspiring movie, and the fact that it's based on a true story makes it even more inspiring.

My Thoughts

These are some of the points that I found very interesting from the movie.

 You work hard, you get results.

 Don't let emotions control you.

 All you have is RIGHT now.

 There are no ordinary moments.

 Death isn't sad, the sad thing is, most people don't live at all.

 Life is a choice - you choose to be a victim.

 The journey is what brings us happiness, not the destination.

 You make every move, about the move.