Why Larger than Life Stories Can Improve Your Life At Any Age

{Collaborative Content} Have you ever noticed how children tend to be highly imaginative and optimistic about the future, whereas as adults we so often end up becoming jaded?

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Of course, there are many different potential reasons for this dynamic – but it might be that at least part of the equation is the fact that we encourage children to engage their imaginations and enjoy fun and larger-than-life stories on a regular basis, whether that involves structuring their birthday celebrations around Disney's Frozen party ideas, or dressing up to go trick-or-treating.

Here are some ways larger-than-life stories – in the form of films, books, and more – might improve your life at any age.

By helping you to get back into a worldview and outlook of wonder and appreciation

One great thing about larger-than-life stories is that they move your mindset from a fixation on the regular practical routines of your everyday life, to a frame of mind that causes you to once more notice things like wonder, awe, and adventure.

Sure, you may be accessing these feelings through a fictional tale – but this very often ends up helping you to experience a sense of wonder in the various dimensions of your everyday life as well, as well as a bit more of an outgoing temperament and some extra appreciation for the great things you have present in your own life.

The world tends to be a magical and exciting place when we aren’t moving through it on autopilot. Larger-than-life stories can help you to see things with fresh eyes again, and renew your sense of being enamoured with the world at large.

By encouraging you to dare to dream big

Whenever someone watches a film or TV show, or reads a book that focuses on a great adventure, the overcoming of challenges, intense drama, and all the rest, they are naturally conceptualising things in terms that are a lot more lofty than the small chores of everyday life.

One good thing about this is that it can encourage you to dare to dream big. It can remind you that there are many different ways to live, and many different adventures out there to pursue.

It’s not that you need to live an extravagant lifestyle, of course. But being reminded that there’s more to life than just making it from one day to the next can be very uplifting.

By shifting your perspective to the extraordinary in everyday life

There are many things that happen – or can happen – over the course of everyday life that could seem exciting, dramatic and remarkable, if only we would take time to notice them.

Engaging regularly with larger-than-life stories can remind you of the significance of things that you might normally take for granted in your everyday life. It might remind you, for example, that the hobbies you spend your time on are essentially threads that you’re weaving into your life story.

In one sense, great stories can remind you that you are always in the process of writing your own story – and in that way, virtually everything can be very significant.