Whenever I get confused in life, I use the movie metaphor to get me back on track. Life and a movie share such an uncanny set of similarities – and that is why we love movies.

We do not go to the movies to stare at a white wall. We go there to get entertained – but the only real thing in the whole experience is the white wall. The rest is a light and sound display that uses the wall to bring about the ‘movie experience’. Disconnect the light and sound, and we are left with just a blank wall.

In life, the only reality is the ‘blank canvas’. There is only ‘nothingness’, upon which we project our own creations. Just as in a movie, we do not come here on earth to marvel at the ‘blank canvas’. We are here to be entertained and the amazing thing is that we are able to be both the entertainer and the entertained simultaneously.

Day after day, we make up stories to tell ourselves. Most of us stick to certain ‘genres’. The love story is a favourite, followed by dramatic action, humour and a fascination with toys. And just like the movies, supporting actors and props appear out of nowhere to make the story line seem so real.

Movies are valued for their ‘realism’, and life does this so well that lifetimes are spent lost in the belief that the creations of the mind are real.  But remember that when you get off your cinema seat and leave the theatre, you do not take the movie images with you. You don’t even get to keep the blank wall. All you are left with are the emotional experiences that the movie was able to generate.

When we leave this world, it is like leaving a cinema. We leave as empty handed as we came – all except for the ‘movie experience’.

There is only one reason for our life on earth – and it is the ‘life experience’. Every other thing in life is either a prop or a supporting actor to provide that ultimate experience generated by the false sense of reality.

And if you ever get so worked up about life that it becomes unbearable, just remember… it is only a movie.