When It’s a Wonderful Life came out in 1946 - Frank Capra’s film about a suicidal man whose guardian angel shows him what the world would be like had he never been born – audiences were lukewarm.Reviews were mixed- The New Yorker hated it - and earnings barely covered what it cost to make. It wasn’t until regular airings around Christmastime on TV fostered a dedicated audience that critics took a 2nd look – nearly four decades after it came out. Now we can hardly imagine the holiday season without the story of George Bailey, whose lifetime of dreams delayed for the sake of others and then denied by circumstance comes to a pivotal moment when everything he is and has given to the world comes into focus and he sees the reality that he is, in fact, “the richest man in town.”
Like George Bailey, many people are seeing their fortunes crash and hopes crushed by this roller-coaster economy, family stress, or circumstances beyond their control. But something researchers call the “George Bailey Effect” can be found through a self-empowerment technique that yields an upsurge in positivity and strengthens interpersonal relationships which is directly related to better coping with stressful circumstances. The effect occurs through telling our story through the lense of "what if" a specific event or relationship had never happened, e.g. "What if I had never met my partner? What if I had never gone back to school? "What if I had left my relationship instead of working on it?"
"What if' thinking is always a bit tricky. Too much focus on 'what might have been' can mire us in regrets and feelings of powerlessness or keep us from savoring our good fortunes," writes Wray Herbert on the Scientific American blog. "But some scientists are beginning to think that imagining an alternative reality might have ironic and tonic effects, and indeed might be a practical tool for strengthening commitment to country, workplace and relationships."
The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published results showing that this exercise significantly increased participants’ level of positive emotion – much more than the participants who were asked to write the story about how they met their life partner. Another study – published online in Psychological Science - asked participants to focus on imagining "what if" specific events in their company's or their country's history had not occurred. Imagining their story minus specific stressful events that had threatened the group was found to deepen the participants' level of commitment to the group.
An adaptation of this exercise that anyone can try was very successful in helping older adults facing unexpected and dramatic change. In a writing and verbal sharing exercise, the participants were instructed to reflect on both sides of the "what if" question with regard to the transition they faced. By imagining as many different possibilities as to "what if" the transitional event had not occurred they were able to articulate and express not only what was lost, but also the transformative aspects of their unexpected life situation - the new people they had met, the talents unearthed, and inner strength discovered in the process of getting through a rough experience.
Just as George Bailey’s darkest moments are the opening to seeing his life in a new light, it is just this co-mingling of light and dark in the same experiences that render them rich with meaning. To a recovering addict, the lowest low is often the turning point toward an entirely new and wonderful path. The torturous ending of one phase of life contains seeds of possibilities for the next. We can use this knowledge – and these techniques – to have more energy and creativity to rise above difficult circumstances and focus on the richness within ourselves and in our relationships. “Unlike the movie It’s a Wonderful Life,” write the researchers who gave us the “George Bailey” effect “it is not necessary for an angel to show us what the world would look like if we had never been born. Instead, spending a few minutes mentally subtracting a good thing from our lives can make us feel better.” And if the difference we make to others in this world – if depth of relationship and appreciation for what we contribute could be measured in dollars - many of us would feel very rich indeed.
Catch a live performance of It's A Wonderful Life at the John Engeman Theatre, 250 Main St., Northport, NY through Jan. 8. Call 261-2900.
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