Destressed

Caught up in the minute-to-minute hurdles of modern life -- like George Jetson on his out-of-control treadmill or Harold Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock -- managing a multitude of maddening minutiae of everyday life: heavy traffic, communications and miscommunications, the paradox of arriving everywhere on time in a sea of unpredictable delays. There is a tendency to beset small setbacks with undue importance; to forget mountains in the face of molehills. How can we temper the effects of these stressors that we tend to over-magnify and over-inflate with unnecessary and needless drama?

"Destressed" illustrates the value of taking a consciously motivated, broader perspective of our lives, and reaping the stress-reducing benefits of empathy and empathetic behavior for ourselves, while helping others in the process. Professors Frans de Waal and Daniel Batson, among others, have put forth the idea that empathy is one of the most valuable skills of individual, social and evolutionary development. Through the process of "walking in somebody else's shoes" we can be moved to take a greater perspective on our lives and be moved to offer help when and where we can. By lending a helping hand and acting we not only help another person, but we help ourselves as well. We gain perspective. We gain a greater sense of self-esteem. We de-stress.

Roger Ebert remarked, "Movies are the most powerful empathy machine in all the arts. When I go to a great movie I can live someone else's life for a while. I can walk in someone else's shoes. I can see what it feels like to be a member of a different gender, a different race, a different economic class, to live in a different time, to have a different belief. This is a liberalizing influence on me. It gives me a broader mind. It helps me to join my family of men and women on this planet. It helps me to identify with them, so I'm not just stuck being myself, day after day." (Rodger Ebert, Hollywood Walk Remarks, 2005]

"Destressed" is an effective empathy machine.

Those of us with a history that placed us in the in the aftermath of 9- 11 in the New York city metropolitan area might remember the strangely calm turn the city took in the last months of 2001 and well into 2012. The city known for a hard-boiled attitude and gruff demeanor lost its angry edge for a while. People were more courteous, friendlier. There weren't any battles for position as traffic merged into or out of tunnels. Spiteful horn-honking quieted down, people looked at each other in the eyes and shared a common sense of tragedy and loss. We were taken out of our own selves and shared a communal sense of empathy for the victims of senseless violence, and we were all victims to some degree. We came out to help and gave up thoughts of our own trivial struggles to lend a hand for the greater good. If you were there, you remember how lives were changed.

Unfortunately old habits die hard, and after the passage of time, people were honking their horns, rude and self-centered again. Some of us were found to be affected with long-term anxiety disorders: depression, anxiety... stress. We went back to our self-centered paradigms, back to projecting all the imperfections in this world onto a lost button, lost cell-phone signals or traffic congestion. We returned to focusing on problems that, when viewed from a grander and more altruistic perspective, are not very important problems at all, as real as they may seem to us in the rush of anxiety. Yet we have no shortage of real problems. War wounded veterans, Katrina, Sandy, earthquakes, tsunamis, school-shootings, cancer, street violence the list is, sadly, too long.

There's a lot of humanity in "Destressed" – Garry Pastore brings us an important message and his personal story that deserves to be seen and heard. It's a good work, and a movie that needs to find the eyes and ears of as many people as possible, people who are struggling with the same issues of the modern world, minor stressors and who might collectively and individually benefit from the message that this film delivers.

9.55 A look into one man's journey from a stressful state in a stressful world to life is worth living for him and his immediate family & loved ones. He comes to realize he's not alone. His state of mind is not where he belongs.The people he meets along his journey who have been broken in tradegy offer him encouraging words of hope and faith in the healing process... the hope and faith they still possess after tradegy. He comes home to peace and tranquility after witnessing other people'stradegy with positive attitude. He becomes thankful for what he has and realizes that othershave it worse than him without complaint.He has a wonderful home and family while others lost theirlives and homes in tradegy. He walks in his journey in average health andbody while others while one walks in prothesis with only one arm aftertradegy. We see a woman with severe paraplegic and complications since childhood who possesses inner strength that only God can instill in her effort to reach her goals and go on to believe life is worth living.This beautiful film send a message to anyone who sees it and they will walk away enriched. Congrates to writer director actor Gary Pastorewith gsff winning award Frank Amoruso IMDb gugibee16@yahoo.com www.imdb.com/name/nm3851173/ .

I didn't know what to expect, although I knew the premise was about one man's journey to get De-stressed.. It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, this movie's heart and soul will make you laugh, think, love life, love your neighbors, and want to "pay It forward"!! Everyone needs to see this movie!! This movie should be in schools, churches, and every home!! This movie makes you take pause, and feel empathy, sympathy, and pure joy!! From the tornadoes that destroyed lives, the 106 year old woman who told how she lives her life, the very young military soldier who lost his arm, and both legs; the Hurricane Sandy victims in New Jersey, and the Director, Garry Pastore, who went on a quest to see, meet and learn from all of these people and their experiences.. Truly an eye opener!!! The heart spoke loudly through this entire film!! Carrie MonteLeon

Film-maker Garry Pastore and his team brings an great inspiring docudramedy to the big screen. The baseline of the movie promise us to follow one man journey for sanity in an insane world and it gave me much more than that. Destressed could be read as the story of Garry Pastore, through film. Garry opens his heart and soul right from the beginning with very powerful opening scenes and takes you into his world and the cause of his stress. What follows is a genuine personal journey in time and distance and brilliant mosaic of clips, great music, images and moments chosen with masterly flair, and accompanied by Pastore own gentle, pleasant voice-over.

This is such a rich, generous and inspiring documentary with mission to teach the world how to combat stress. I laughed, I cried and experience a broad range of emotions and it took me quite some time to come back to real world. And the most important thing that it made me think about my stress level and what effect it has on other people. So "Destressed" already inspired me to change some small things at home and work. More people should see it.

A thoughtful, introspective film. Really puts this crazy life in perspective. Garry Pastore has done a remarkable job taking the audience on his quest for Zen and leaves us wanting to go find our own. We travel with him across the country where he encounters people from all walks of life who have experienced a major tragedy in their lives. For example, we meet survivors of Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey, the tornado in Moore Oklahoma as well as a severely disabled vet. Through these meetings, Garry begins to feel gratitude for all he has and realizes he has no right to complain. He ultimately suggests that we should all feel this gratitude and do more of what makes us happy. A captivating film!