How Netflix changed my life.

I wonder how the lockdown would have been if there was no Netflix. When i was a child we didn’t have any tv first. Then Black and white tv came home. We watched just two shows in whole week. One show was for half an hour which came every friday (Bollywood songs) and another show for one hour every sunday(Hindu Mythology). Whole week we used to wait for these two shows. Later came color tv and only after i graduated we saw many channels with many tv soaps. 

Today, after twenty years we watch only Netflix and sometimes Amazon Prime. It’s because of the content we found on these platforms which are so fulfilling. No matter what your interest is- Biology,History, Culture, food, health, you will find amazing shows on any topic.There is so much freedom, exposure i feel with this digital; platform.We have so many options based on our interest that we can choose from. 

My interest is in science, history, food, culture, space, cultures. I get to see so many options based on my interest. I wonder how i would be as a human if i grew up with this kind of freedom and exposure. But now i can watch my kids living a life with this freedom and exposure.

Watching Neflix shows during lockdown with my husband made our bond deeper and we created these memories of having amazing family time which was normally not possible due to long working hours of my husband before lockdown. We enjoyed watching shows, discussed what we liked in the shows and really intended to bring some changes in our personalities and lifestyle to make a better life. This was so fulfilling because earlier there was no time to introspect due to fast city life and work. There is definitely a different quality and deeper relationship i share with my husband after lockdown.

Watching Netflix has made a huge impact in my life in positive ways. It has in a way transformed me.Here are some shows which impacted me deeply:

1. I am Maris– This documentary impacted me so much that after seeing this, i started doing yoga daily resulting in better health and better life.Every morning when i do yoga, i experience a rush of happy hormones in my body. I feel so grateful to have a life, a family who totally love and support me. Before i saw this movie, i always wanted to do yoga and tried many times but due to different reasons i was not regular and it was of no benefit to me.This movie left such a huge impact in my consciousness that i feel motivated to get up everyday, sometimes twice a day to do yoga and i have been regular for quite sometime now. I am reducing weight, feeling happier and healthier. My family enjoy more when i am happier around.

1. Heal- This is an amazing movie which i saw on alternative healing and how our bodies are capable of self healing, how our thoughts and feelings impact our health and quality of life. Being a Psychotherapist, though i believed in this even before but this movie reinforced the power of nature, power of our mind to create a healthy and happy life. Its amazing to see experiences of people getting healed from many fatal illnesses through alternative healing, power of mind. It’s very encouraging and gives hope.

1. (Un) well– This docuseries covers various practices like Tantric Sex, Ayahuasca, Bulking breats milk, Fasting,Bee Sting Therapy and Essential oils.I was unaware of Bee Sting Therapy before and i was very fascinated by how nature has so many elements to cure so many different health issues for humans. Ayahuasca episode really made me want to experience it once in this life. I am very fascinated to experience other realms of this existence. I feel there is more to this life other than what we already experience. I am truly grateful for where i am today in all aspects of life but i want to explore and experience more. Bulking breast milk episode also made me feel grateful to still be able to breastfeed my son when he is 2.5 years old. I remember when my son turned one year old, one doctor told me that now he has to be off breast milk. My consciousness did not allow me to do it. I always believed in the intelligence of nature. I felt if nature is producing it and my baby wants it, why should i try to stop it? Especially when i don’t have to leave home and go to work. Breast milk is like a liquid gold which is priceless. I want to continue to breastfeed my son as long as my body is producing it. I feel very grateful for the fact that my son has never fallen sick in last 2.5 years due to his breast milk nourishment.

1. The Last Shaman– This is a documentary about a person who experienced chronic mental health issues and he was struggling for many years. Hospital treatments were not able to give him a long term sustainable treatment. He was relapsing again and again until he discovered Ayahuasca and tried it. His personal journey of healing is very inspiring and reinforcing in the power of healing through nature. It’s so amazing to watch two plants combining to become a medicine to heal you and also take you to experience another realm which is beyond this body.

1. Minimalism– This amazing documentary is about how many successful people have found a new way of living by discarding all their belongings and only living with the things they need in order to live a simple and happy life. I really liked to hear experiences of people who had everything they desired but were not happy and which made them think why they reached where they are today in the first place? It was to be happy. But they were not. So they found courage to do things differently and found their happiness and freedom by living with limited things which were only useful and needed. Letting go of things which you don’t need is a huge relief and it changes your energies. You feel lighter and free.Unhappy people feel they will get happiness if they get money from which they can buy things and that can make them happy. Happiness comes but its not sustainable. How can we become truly happy then? Only by becoming more free. Even addiction to buy things is a bondage. It is possible for you to have financial freedom to buy what you want but you can definitely choose not to buy something which is going to be of short term use and can be a burden for you in near future by just placed somewhere. The way to freedom and happiness is Minimalism. I have discarded a lot of stuff and still in the process of decluttering unused things from my life.

• Surviving Death- I was so hugely moved to know how death is not the end of our existence and how we can connect with our loved ones who have died in their bodies. After watching the near death experiences of so many people and learning what it is like after you are dead, it really takes away fear of death from you. I realise that what we see is not everything that we believe is the reality. I remember one saying from one spiritual Guru- “What you can see is Illusion and what you don’t see is the reality.” It’s very fascinating for me to explore the unseeable world existing around us and we sometimes are scared about it or sometimes we don’t believe in it. After watching this series i have started to believe in the spirit world and how it is not something to be scared of. We get scared with unfamiliar things to us. When we get familiar, fear goes away. After watching this show, i have felt a strong presence of my late mother around me so strongly and i have been able to connect to her even after she is no more in body.

1. Take your pills– This Documentary is about American students and performers( sports, corporates etc) who take performance enhancing stimulant pills to compete and succeed. Initially it definitely excited me too for trying it to see how it affects my life. It needed to be prescribed for ADD (attention deficit disorder) by a psychiatrist. I really felt that i had ADD and in order to get the prescription of the medicine for the same, i consulted a psychiatrist. He diagnosed me with Social Anxiety instead of ADD and prescribed me a medicine. I have been taking this medicine since some days now and i feel that my social anxiety has totally gone. I was so awkward and restless when surrounded with people earlier. My husband told me that it was just in my mind. Only after i experienced that social anxiety can be cured also with medicine, i realized that there is a possibility. I knew that i had social anxiety before but i never believed that it can be cured by medicine. Apart from that, i also had a stigma for medicine in my mind. Starting to take medicine, i was able to get over that stigma and also enjoy a healthier life. It all started with Netflix show.

I feel so grateful to watch these shows. Many countries, cities and homes still do not have electricity or wifi or the freedom to watch what we are able to watch. I look forward to watching more shows which are there in my list which can help me grow.