Five psychologists recommend the best books, series and movies to start the year betting on well-being and mental health

We are entering a new year with all that this implies, new challenges and goals to meet, and the incredible opportunity to focus on self-care and develop emotionally, investing in our well-being and mental health.

With the intention of helping you with this, we bring you a list of essential recommendations according to the experts with the objective that this year bet, above all, on you.

Movies to bet on mental health and well-being

Eat Pray Love

A film that the psychologist Lucía Cuesta recommends because invites us to seek and find our way. Eat Pray Love is inspired by the homonymous title of the autobiographical book by the writer Elizabeth Gilbert, which was taken to the cinema by Julia Roberts in 2010.

It proposes themes with which we can feel highly identified, since an existential crisis arises and the fears inherent in life, such as the fear of illness or heartbreak. According to the expert, this optimistic story leads us to rethink whether the life we ​​have is what we want and have the courage to change course.

“May fear not stop you and nothing stop you. Put passion in everything you do. That’s the difference between reaching your goals and achieving your objectives or staying on the road imagining what could have been, “she concludes.

Life imprisonment

This masterpiece of the seventh art reminds us that good things do not need to be understood. Life imprisonment She is a candidate to see in any circumstance, especially in these times: “Her story tells us about resilience in the face of adversity and generating affective bonds,” says Rina Reyes, a psychologist focused on anxiety, stress, and managing emotions.

Ultimately, the exceptional circumstances we are experiencing they test our immune systems and our psychic resources, just like the characters in the movie do.

An amazing mind

The psychologist Cristina Martínez proposes An amazing mind Because it is the case of a person with a severe mental illness who learns to live with it, showing the symptoms they present and, therefore, bringing mental illness closer to the general population.

“Peace of mind implies knowing yourself in depth, accepting yourself and forgiving yourself for your past mistakes. It is breaking ties that do not add up in your life and understanding that not everything has an explanation. It is let go of what hurts you and go for what makes you happy. It means not needing external approval because your own approval is enough for you,” says the director of the Mataró Center for Psychology and Psychiatry.

the choir boys

This work of art brought to the big screen is a film about the Education in valuesthe perseverance (without effort nothing valuable is achieved) and the desire to live.

“I recommend this film because it helps understand behaviorism through learning and how people change despite personal and social problems”, explains Mercedes Atocha, a clinical psychologist with experience in treating emotional and behavioral problems.

Series recommended by psychologists

This is us

“This is us shows the difficulties that a family can present, The Pearsons, and also deals with current issues such as fatphobia. Each chapter makes you emotional and you manage to empathize a lot with each character”, says Nela Larrinaga, health psychologist, neuropsychologist and director of Moana Psicología.

Modern Love

The members of the Gaztambide 17 therapeutic center like to share part of their lives, both when good things happen to them and when problems or difficulties appear. On this occasion, the psychologist Carolina recommends the series Modern Love. Each chapter tells a love story based on the publications of a New York Times column that bears the same name.

“What I value most about the series is the exquisite sensitivity with which each love story is told, like a unique, human, imperfect story, full of complexities and particularitiesCaroline explains.

Modern Love raises love as something foreign to so many molds that have been instilled in us socially, to both you should artificial and alien to how we function and how we human beings are. It is an approach to love different from that of the fairy tales that have marked us so much (and corseted), an approach in which there is room for so many forms and ways of being and loving as human beings”. An approach to love in all its manifestations.

Books to start the year betting on us

Man’s Search for Meaning

Cuesta also bets on the work of Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, a shocking story in which the author narrates his experience in the concentration camps as the book brings us closer to the inhuman experiences he experienced in that place where, paradoxically, he found the sense of his own existence.

Reasons to continue living

“I found his synopsis very interesting: if you have not suffered from depression, an anxiety disorder or any mental illness, it is easy for you not to empathize with the patient and to end up saying the first thing that comes to mind, something like ‘calm down ‘” Rina Reyes tells us.

Matt Haigauthor of Reasons to continue livinghe experienced a depression in his own flesh, and that is why he tells us about the fear, misunderstanding and loneliness that is felt in moments like this.

The crooked lines of God

The novel The crooked lines of God of Torcuato Luca de Tena is the other proposal by the psychologist Cristina Martínez for the same reasons: people who are with some mental pathology and their ability to cope.

The work in particular tells us about Alice Gould, a woman admitted to a mental health center. In her delusion, she believes she is an investigator in charge of a team of detectives dedicated to clarifying complicated cases… but the reality is different: her obsession is attempting the life of her husband.

This time also, on Netflix we can find the Spanish film starring Bárbara Lennie who gives life to the book.

The gift

“This book talks about dreams understood as projects and I felt very identified,” explains Nela Larrinaga, from Moana Psicología. The gift is a human relations novel that talks about real stories of extraordinary people. In short, a book about the importance of chasing dreams.

The art of not embittering life

Mercedes Atocha A. also bets on the book The art of not embittering life. In it, its author, Rafael Santandreu, establishes a plan to direct us towards psychological change, improve our relationship with ourselves and overcome those feelings and thoughts that in some way embitter our lives.

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Photos | This is us, Life imprisonment, editorials

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