Movies for Mood

The practice
Be selective about what you watch this week. Try a fast on violent, disturbing, crime-centred TV and movies, and instead watch things that promote optimism and hope. Movies are a fast, effective way of changing your mood and shifting your perspective.
Here are a few suggestions:

Shifting out of loneliness and feelings of not fitting in:
The Station Agent
Bagdad Cafe
Ma Vie En Rose
Chocolat
Bend It Like Beckham

Shifting out of feelings of despair, injustice, stacked odds:
The Shoreshank Redemption
Erin Brokovitch
Jackie Brown
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Monsoon Wedding
Seabiscuit
La Misma Luna

Shifting out of feeling stuck in a rut in a boring or depressing life:
Shirley Valentine
The Full Monty
Eat, Pray, Love

The theory
Humans throughout time and across cultures have been thrilled by love stories, transfixed by scary ghost stories, or motivated by rousing tales of heroic achievement or battles against injustice. The Ancient Greeks knew the healing power of stories. Their theatre was a tool for emotional catharsis--people went to the theatre not to be entertained, but in order to be moved by powerful emotions. Movies are the modern equivalent, providing a powerful emotional experience that sweeps us up and moves us. They can reframe our experience and shift our perspective on our lives.

Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh stresses the importance of being mindful of what we take in, whether it's food, drugs, or media, because whatever goes into us affects us more profoundly than we may realise. If we want to be calm and happy, then we need to set ourselves up for that. He's referring to a phenomenon called priming--a psychological process described by Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Blink. It refers to the fact that whatever you're exposed to sets your neural networks up in a way that influences your subsequent behaviour. So, people who are asked to read a text full of rude words are more likely to interrupt an investigator than those primed with neutral words. People primed with polite words are much less likely to interrupt.

If you watch a story that fills you with feelings of hope, even temporarily, you're more likely to feel hopeful afterwards. Likewise, watch out for movies and stories that do the opposite.