 With the launch of The Last Jedi, I think it's about time how we talk about how the dark side actually relates to mental health. First, we're going to talk about how this adorable young kid turned into this dude, right? When I was working on my mental health, I was such an angry person. I was the angriest person you could ever meet. And so many people kept telling me that my fears were actually leading to my anger and my hatred. And I thought they were full of a bunch of, you know what? But in this video, let's talk about how my man Yoda might actually know what he's talking about. So stay tuned. What's up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. And yes, we're going to talk about how fear really drives to poor mental health as well as a bunch of toxic behaviors. So let's take young Anakin Skywalker here for example. So for those of you who haven't watched the prequel movies about how Anakin turned into Darth Vader, basically young kid, this Jedi, this chosen one if you will, he falls in love with Princess Padme. He breaks the Jedi code, ends up doing a little elope action and marrying her on the side. And he starts to have visions that Padme is actually going to die while giving birth to their child. But it's actually twins Luke and Leia. Anyways, out of this fear, Anakin starts being manipulated by Emperor Palpatine. And Palpatine is actually Darth Sidious. So by using Anakin's fear, he helps to turn Anakin to the dark side. This led to a whole bunch of stuff, him fighting his master Obi-Wan Kenobi and then starting to destroy planets and all sorts of terrible stuff. Now what are the quotes from the prequels that Yoda actually says is, and excuse me while I do my terrible Yoda impression, this. Fear is the path of the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. And this was very, very true. I never thought that this was the source of my toxic behaviors. Now for me personally, my fears not only turned into toxic behaviors, but it also turned into my drug addiction and alcoholism. But let's take a step back and talk about how your fears might actually be affecting your mental health. Something that I talked about in a previous video, which will be linked up in the info card, is how this fear of being alone leads to a lot of toxic relationships. So let's take a look at this real quick. Getting into toxic relationship after toxic relationship after toxic relationship, not being able to be single and wait for the right person. Fear of being alone and fear of not being loved. Makes sense? One of the things that I started to realize too about myself when I started to get angry with my son was that this was fear driven as well. And often times when I look at parents snapping at their children, I try to acknowledge what kind of fears are actually driving them in this moment. So let's say a parent is out in public at the grocery store with their kids and their kids like freaking out, right? And the parent just snaps on their kid, right? Without even realizing it, they are being driven by fear. Which fears? Fear of not being in control of the situation. Fear of their child making them look bad, which in essence is a fear of being judged by everybody else around them, right? Now, let's look into some of the toxic relationships you might have been in and some of those jealous rages. Maybe this jealous rage came from seeing a text message or your own paranoia. Some of us are crazy out there, we make up these stories, but this jealous rage. This can come from a fear of being abandoned, fear of being lied to, and fear of being taken advantage of. Now, let's look at one of my favorites, road rage, right? Let's say somebody cuts you off and that anger that builds up inside of you. Is that maybe a fear of being disrespected? Is that where that anger and rage is coming from? Or what about that anger and frustration that you get when you're stuck in traffic and you need to get to work? Could that be a fear of being late? So without even realizing it, our entire lives are being run by this fear. And in Star Wars, it leads to the dark side, and I'm not saying you're going to go blow up a planet, but when you started acknowledging that your life is being run by fear, now you can start doing something about it. Today, I'm able to sit back and separate myself from this anger, from the loneliness, from the depression, from the anxiety, and recognize that these are a lot of fears. And then I can start to categorize them and start to ask myself, okay, is this irrational or is this an irrational fear? Right? And one of the things when we're first working on our mental health is that a lot of the irrational fears sound very rational. So one thing that you can do is, before doing something crazy, run this by somebody else, a completely objective point of view, and say, hey, is this rational or is this irrational? Is this a rational fear? Right? Because when you start doing that, you're able to start rewiring your own brain. So something that you've heard me talk about in a lot of my other videos is the amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for fight, flight, or freeze. This is our fear response. This is the most powerful part of the brain lying in the limbic system. So knowing how powerful that part of the brain is, we start to kind of understand why it is taking control over our lives and how so many of our actions are based on these fears. So once we can start realizing what this thing up here is doing, we can start turning towards the solution and getting out of that problem. So I hope this helped you out, and I hope you're also stoked for the new Star Wars movie like I Am, my son and I are seeing it opening night. It's going to be sweet. But anyways, if you liked this video, give it a thumbs up and share it with somebody out there who might have a life that's being run by fear so they don't turn to the dark side. But anyways, if you are new here, please click that little round subscribe button right below. I'm always making videos to help you out with your mental and emotional well-being. And check over to the left of me right here. Click on one of those thumbnails, check out some of the other content on this channel. But anyways, thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.