Awareness Through Film: Groundhog Day

What If You're Living the Same Day Without Realizing It?

Good day, friends. No, let’s start with “Good morning, friends!” Imagine if you woke up this morning and realized that it’s yesterday all over again. Doesn’t matter if yesterday was a good day, a bad day, a so-so day…just a repeat of the day before. The same conversations, seeing the same people in the same setting, going through the same motions, the same circumstances, and all of the same headaches and frustrations. Even when you consciously try to do something different, somehow, you land right in the same spot.

I think you get where I’m going. Especially if you know the movie, “Groundhog Day.” If not, well here’s the rub. Bill Murray plays a news weatherman named Phil Connors. I would describe his character as a typical Bill Murray role (in which he plays very well) – cynical. The movie picks up where he is assigned to cover a Groundhog Day festivity in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania (imagine growing up having to spell that out as a child). It starts out as an all too familiar and ordinary work detail until it becomes an endless cycle of the day, February 2nd.

Phil begins with nothing but frustration and selfishness and even then, even adopts let’s say some reckless behavior. But unexpectantly, something begins to change. While the circumstances don’t change, his relationship with them start to shift.

The Moment

What is special about this movie’s pivotal lesson for me was watching Phil gradually start to recognize that his attempts at controlling his surroundings does not equate to changing his experiences of them. As you watch, you see that he spends countless repetitions trying to control and manipulate events in order to get whatever he wants. But eventually, he starts to learn new skills, he starts to help others, and then even develop a genuine connection not knowing whether anything will ever change his situation. So, what opens as a hell like scenario or living on constant repeat transforms into an opportunity to live differently.

Let’s Look Again

Have you ever taken a step back in your life to notice, observe, or witness (NOW) how often we repeat the same emotional and behavioral patterns without realizing it? We wake up and follow our regular routines. We encounter similar frustrations and annoyances and then we respond in our conditioned ways. You know those ways. I call that the autopilot life style. Think about it here briefly. I can describe a scenario I face all the time. Someone says something to me that irritates the heck out of me and then, me being me or the autopiloted me, reacts in the same negative or unproductive ways as I did the times before. When we face familiar challenges, we seem to be prone to approaching them with the same assumptions and the same ineffective resolution tactics. Unlike Mr. Phil Connors, we don’t have to have some supernatural time loop intervene in order to recognize this. We have a special tool on our side: mindful awareness.

Reflect

Routines are not inherently wrong. Don’t let me sway you there. Our familiar routines provide levels of stability and in many cases comfort and structure. On a more serious note, put yourself in the shoes of someone who may not have that luxury when it’s actually useful, like someone living in a war-torn country or families who don’t know where their next meals will come from. While we often miss the opportunities to change our reactions, we sometimes also take for granted the things we do have that we can count on. But from Groundhog Day, I am seeing more clearly that many of the concerns we face happens as the autopilot takes over and we stop recognizing that we do have choices. And we have them constantly within our everyday lives. We just need more practical ways to respond better.

Phil discovers and learns eventually that he can’t force tomorrow to show up differently when it arrives. He can’t control that and none of us can. But what he can control is how he shows up and participates within it today. Mindfulness isn’t about making every day some record-breaking day of excitement nor is it about finding the formula to end frustrating moments. It’s more about living consciously within the time we are blessed with.

KR Connection

The movie Groundhog Day offers simple reminders that we don’t need to sit around and wait for the circumstances around us to change, no. We can change our experiences with them. A Kind Rebirth moment can happen when we start recognizing familiar reactions before we repeat them. Our ordinary conversations with others or just simply noticing something meaningful in our routines easily facilitate them if we are careful to notice.

So, reflect on this: mindful awareness doesn’t guarantee any changes to tomorrow, but it does give new chances and new opportunities to live differently then how we did today and yesterday.

Questions to Consider

How are you experiencing each new day? Are you simply letting the autopilot fly you down repeated pathways or do you take the controls?