IW Ep 11 - The surprising spiritual themes in the Barbie Movie

In this episode we explore the surprising spiritual themes that can be found within the new, record-breaking 'Barbie' movie and discuss how it's central message is so much deeper than it seems.

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Transcript

Tatiana: 0:00

Welcome to the Integrated Wisdom Podcast. I am your host, Tatiana Da Silva. Join me as we discuss what it means to live an integrated life and explore ways for you to create a life filled with greater meaning, peace, and connection by integrating the wisdom of spirituality, psychology, Neuroscience, Epigenetics and Energy Psychology are hoped to empower you to create deeper and more loving connections with yourself and others, whilst also paving the way for humanity at large to be reimagined and inspired to become the very best version of itself. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the integrated wisdom podcast. Thank you so much for joining me again for yet another week. Now, unless you have been living under a rock. You would have heard about the most talked about movie currently. At least something about it. And yes, I am talking about the Barbie movie. Now just hang in there with me, bear with me. I am going to be talking about the Barbie movie today, but there is a method to my madness. So hang in there. And. The reason I want to talk about Barbie movie is. Like most of you. I imagine I have been hearing all the reviews and opinions that are being shared on social media and mainstream media about the movie, since it came out. And I was really, really struck. By how. Contradictory the, the reviews seem to be you. You know, some people absolutely loved it. Other people absolutely hated it. And whoever's views, I was reading or hearing whether they loved it or they hated it. They seem to be talking about vastly different. Themes, right? Like the, they all seem to have latched on to. messages. about the film. That reflected their worldview. but seem to be at odds with How other people had seen. The movie and interpreted the, the essence of what the themes were about. And so just struck by this polarity and just being curious to. To learn for myself. What this movie is actually about. I decided, against. my initial intentions of not watching it. I went to watch it yesterday. I had no plans of watching the movie myself. Even though I was a Barbie lover when all the child. But I think just hearing all this polarizing views and the way that these movies being politicized. Made me really want to go watch it. And so I did yesterday. And I thought I'd talk about this movie today because. Despite all the, like the political themes that people seem to be latching on to. for me, at least from my perspective, there was an overarching. Theme to this movie that was beautiful. The message was beautiful. It was a message that we should all be. Internalizing and embodying. And it linked. Quite nicely with a lot of the things that I've been talking about. You know, I don't know if I'm the only person that has walked away from this movie with this impression. I don't think I am. But it definitely felt to me, like there were some. Subtle spiritual overtones or undertones to this movie. And, and so I just, I just wanted to, just to speak to that today. So I'm not going to be talking about whether or not the movie was a feminist. Manifesto, whether it was all about criticizing the patriarchy. You know, you can watch the movie yourselves and have your own opinions about that. I think definitely it's it's undeniable. And that those themes are discussed directly and indirectly. But I think, but for people who walked away from the movie, thinking like that was the main takeaway. Have really lost the opportunity to. To understand some things are much more. Meaningful and so much more beautiful about the essence of. What this movie was trying to get us to think about. I don't even know if that was the intention of the producers and the script writers. Because some of the interviews that I've read. Certainly don't seem to be alluding to it as, as overtly. and it's a much more complex movie than you would think from watching it in terms of the themes and the undertones. it probably warrants a second watch to really internalize everything that's that's been presented. But for me, The movie isn't, it's not about feminism and it's not about patriarchy. And it's not about, whether women should aspire for careers or motherhood. Which I think are some of the themes that people have latched onto and walked away with. For me when I watched this movie. I felt like it was really speaking to. The human experience. I felt like that's really what this movie was trying to convey. That we spend so much time. Fighting. Each other, we spend so much time trying to fit into boxes, creating rules and structures. to try to control our environments into try to make sense of our environments. But that really underneath. They're, our coping strategies for the fact that having a human existence is challenging. Right. as human beings. We have to experience emotions. That are uncomfortable. Right. It's not just partying and happiness and like this endless bliss. There are moments in our human life where we need to experience. Fear. Where we experience discomfort, where we experience self criticism. Where we question what our purpose is and. And all the. The uncomfortable and painful feelings that come with that questioning. You know, that's what it means to be human. And. I think for me, what this movie was really talking about was that all this noise. That we create. You know, the, again, it's the demarcations of division man versus women. Women being. Career-minded versus stay at home moms. Like there's all these labels and there's all these value system that we add to these things with trying to. Paint things as good or bad. Worthy or unworthy. That just distractions. They're just distractions for us from. The real. Complexity of being a human being. And I don't want to give any spoilers away. But I think what really highlights this beautifully is when. You know, Barbie eventually is. Given the choice. To, to become a real woman. And. I think. That very last bit of the movie. It's it's really a celebration. Of humanity of the human experience. Of the fact that yes, we have to experience pain and we have to experience discomfort. And we, you know, we experienced all these emotions that are uncomfortable. But that's the price that we pay. In order to experience all the good stuff. That we experienced whilst here. The joy, the love. The fun. The elation. The satisfaction, the compassion, the closeness, the connection. You know, it's really beautiful. I don't want to give any spoilers of any, it's hard to talk about this section of the movie without giving some of it away. But. You know, in essence, Before Barbie gets to fully commit to being human. She's encouraged to connect with, to get a preview of what. What it really entails. And she's encouraged to feel to connect with it on an emotional level to feel the sensations and the emotions. And. And it's, it's actually one of the most emotional, it's the most emotional part of the movie for me. I got, I got quite teary myself. And I've heard from other people that they also cried in that part of the movie. And it was. It was like informed decision. She got to experience the emotions of being human before she decided to really commit to being, to being human. And she still made that choice. And, you know, from a spiritual perspective, In many ways. That's what we do too. Right, like we elect to leave the comfort of our spiritual home. Our spiritual essence, which, you know, in. By all respects and accounts. Is bliss compared to what we have to go through here. You know, we don't have pain. We don't have illness. We don't have these divisions, And fighting and, and wars and all this, all the things that we have to go through as humans. But we come in here to learn these lessons that we have to learn. But also because we can only experience some of these. Emotions and sensations. When we're in a physical body. And so for me, and I guess, because I have, I could look at this movies. Through this spiritual lens. That's what I was seeing. Like, to me, that was a beautiful illustration of this process. That we have this level of. Power where we get to decide. Yes, I am willing to go in there to incarnate. To feel the discomfort of being human to go through challenges. And painful situations. Because I also want to experience cause I want to grow. I want you to do. Two. To evolve and in some ways, Those are the only mechanisms for that. At this stage of our evolution. But also because. The rewards that come. With that with those experiences so far outweigh. The cost. Of those painful and challenging experiences. Right. We get to be, to feel this love, to feel joy. To feel. Like the delight of feeling the sunshine on our skin, the breeze of smelling salt air on when your water. Of feeling like the physical, warmth and craziness that we experienced. When we give those, we love a hug. You know, these are these sensory experiences. Can only happen in. In the material world. Right. And so we also choose to come here. In order to have that. And. Again, like even though Barbie understood, she understood the assignment. She understood that. Yes, it was going to be challenging at times. She still chose the experience of. Coming. Into a physical form and being a human woman. Because to her. You know, the. It's that expansiveness. Right. She went from being a. This one dimensional being to being a more complex. entity and. She, she craved that depth. So for me again, this movie, ultimately. Was a celebration of humanity of, you know, the beauty. That comes with being a human being. So it was a celebration of the complexity. Of human beings. But also of the fact that we all possess inherent value. You know, I, like I said before, I don't want to be talking about feminism or patriarchy or any of that stuff. I'll leave that to those that enjoy the political debate, but. What I will say. Is that. Anything that was coming through. Under those umbrellas for me. Was the fact that as human beings. Right. We have. Inherent worth. We are all worthy. Of dignity. Of respect. Of being able to live a life that's authentic. And aligned. For us. That we don't have to jump through hoops and wear all sorts of hats and be all sorts of things in order to be worthy of love in order to be worthy of respect. We are worthy of these things just because we exist. That is the message for me. Me. And I don't know what those people. Who are saying that this movie is anti man or is anti motherhood were watching. They were clearly not watching the same movie as me.'cause I, I genuinely walked away from the movie, not with not having that perspective at all. For me, it was just such a beautiful message of. Equality. Right. I mean, equality in our differences. That we have the right to be. Ourselves and, embody. Who we are, our essence in whichever way is authentic to us and that we all have a part to play, that we all have something to contribute. That the world is more beautiful because of each and every one of us. And that we don't have to be in competition with each other. It doesn't, it doesn't have to be. These game of winners and losers. That anyone who purports to. Divide us in that way to create these lines of. Divisions and these labels for us. It's just, they're creating distractions from our true essence from our. our true purpose. Which is to be loving beings to be here, to learn from, from, and with each other. And everyone is worthy of dignity. Everyone is worthy of respect. Every single person is worthy of love. Nobody needs to do anything. To earn it. Right. And then only these. Narratives of. Division. That keep pitting us against each other. end up causing these problems for us. You know, in the absence of these structures, we would all be able to coexist peacefully and lovingly because we would no longer be in this mind frame of scarcity. We would be coming from a place of abundance that there is enough for all of us. You know, that we gained so much more from working together than working against each other. But ultimately I think the movie's just trying to celebrate. Our enoughness, you know, it's, it's trying to remind us that we are enough. Just as we are. And. I, it made me really sad. I actually, and disappointed after I watched it too. To think that people watch this movie and all they saw. All they latched on to. were, themes of division and hate. And. conflict. I mean, could, could a person walk away from this movie? With those perspectives? I think so. Yeah. There's definitely enough. mention of feminist ideals and. You know, the word patriarchy does get used multiple times throughout the movie. so I kind of understand why people walked away from the movie with those perspectives. But. I found it really disappointing that that's what they walked away with. Because there again, for me, there was just, the message was so much deeper than that. It was so much more nuanced. Than that. And it really was. I believe trying to highlight the fact that all of these. These labels, these, Political stances. Are just noise. They're not helping us. They're just causing problems. They're just pitting us against each other. They're just making life more challenging and more difficult than it needs to be. Now I have many, many colleagues who. Might hear me speaking about this from this perspective and vehemently disagree with me. You know, it seems to be a real focus these days. Even within the therapeutic community. To focus on. And these political aspects and. There's such an excess focus on. You know, structural inequality and. These mechanisms of division and oppression and injustice. And. Don't get me wrong, right? Like, I am a humanist at heart. I believe all human beings have inherent worth. And are deserving of a dignified life. So of course, anything that is designed to, to create injustice, To create divisions to create. Oppression to prevent people from, accessing the fullness of their potential. And living a dignified life. I am against all of that. Right. I long for a world where we all get to just be able to be ourselves and to live. A dignified life. That's authentic to who we are. No, we don't have to be jumping through these hoops. I guess where I differ from some of my peers is I don't know that this emphasis on the divisions, and the problems. Is actually taking us down the path towards finding solutions. I think so much other the focus is on. Pointing out the problems. And I'm a big believer that where our focus goes, we amplify the energy of that focus. Right. And for only focusing on problems, we're amplifying the problems. We're not really trying to find solutions. The solution can't be. To put others down so that we can elevate ourselves. Right. The solution can't be. to. create other types of injustices to, to compensate for the injustices that we may have experienced. I can't legitimize my existence and my experience by completely. De-legitimizing and. Destroying the lived experience of other people. So I think. Whilst well intentioned. Some of these, these, Some of these focuses actually working against us. And I think. In many ways. That's what this movie was trying to highlight. I, I mean, sadly, it doesn't seem to have done that job. Very well because people still walked away. From this movie latching on to these mechanisms of, division even more strongly than before. But I genuinely believe that the essence of the movie. Is that. You know, it was trying to get us to understand. The structures aren't serving us. They're just causing more problems. They're just leading to more pain. And. We need to find another way. To remember. That. We are worthy of love. We are worthy of respect. That we. We can't truly have freedom and. a fulfilling, meaningful life. If other people. don't also have the freedom to be themselves because a lot of the conflict and a lot of. The horrible things that we experience are coming from. From These structures of inequality. Right. So, yeah, so that's the, that's really what I walked away from this movie. The fact that we are. We are all. Deserving of a dignified life. We're all deserving of having the freedom to define what a successful life looks like. And that being human in all of its complexities. With all its highs and all its lows with all its amazing expansive emotions and all its challenging. Painful emotions. Is worth it. Is is the point. I think that's ultimately the takeaway that that's the point of life. Like. To be, to be here, to have all of these experiences. To be willing to pay the price. Of uncomfortable experiences in challenging moments. In order to obtain the reward. Of of love and connection. And self-exploration. So. Yeah. I guess I wanted To talk to this take away because I think that is really the most important takeaway from this movie. It's getting lost in the noise. But again, you know, this is only my perspective. That could not have been the intention of the movie at all. But I think it speaks to what we like how sometimes we see what we want to see. And I definitely could see. Some of the more beautiful. Potential. In the messages that were being presented. But I would love to hear from you. If you have watched this movie, what did you take away from it? And if you haven't yet, and you're curious to go, I encourage you to go and watch it. And then if you're, you know, if you're so inclined, please share with me. Your thoughts on this? I think there's an opportunity here for us to be having such. a, more meaningful conversation. About the nuances in this movie, then the politicals. crap. That's flying around. So, you know, I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can find me on Instagram. At integrated underscore wisdom, please DM me, your thoughts, DM me your impressions. If you watch the movie, if you loved it, if you hated it, I'd love to hear from you. And I'd love to hear why, why you experienced whatever you experienced. So I thank you once again for listening. Thank you. For joining me. I hope you all have a lovely week and I will see you all next time. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Integrated Wisdom. It is my sincere wish that today's episode may have intrigued and inspired you to reclaim your power and step into becoming more fully integrated spiritual beings. New episodes are published every Wednesday. And I hope you'll continue to join us as we dive deeper into what it means to live an integrated life. So if it feels aligned to you, I invite you to hit subscribe and share it with others who you feel may benefit too. You may also find me on Instagram at integrated underscore wisdom. Remember, each moment is an opportunity to embrace your divine potential and create a world that is more frequently inspired. So for now, stay connected, stay inspired and keep shining your light into the world.