Embracing Your Limits to Become Limitless

Embracing your limits make you limitless. Such was the message conveyed in Disney’s Limitless. The documentary tells the story of Chris Hemsworth's search to become his optimum self. In this journey, he challenges his daily stressors by exposing himself to extreme elements, such as freezing temperatures and towering heights.

Facing these challenges is consistent with a recent New York Times article that discussed the benefits of exposure therapy in facing your stressors. Exposure therapy has been found to be effective in treating anxiety. If repeated exposure to stress is effective in treating anxiety, then why is anxiety so common in our society?

Being in hibernation during COVID allowed many of us to avoid our fears and vulnerabilities. As a consequence, we are experiencing a mental health crisis in the United States. Perhaps adding credence to the belief that avoiding anxiety does not fix it. The demand for mental health providers has soared, which suggests that many are tired of being crippled by their fears.

To confront your fears, you have to be willing to be vulnerable.

Jonah Hill’s, Stutz, which appears on Netflix, is another documentary about confronting your limits. It is the intimate story of Jonah Hill’s relationship with his therapist, Phil Stutz, M.D. In exposing the audience to his therapist, Jonah Hill hopes to share some of the useful tools that he has learned.

One of the lessons learned is about confronting your “X,” which is represented by all your fears and reasons why you can’t. However, you can’t identify your “X” unless you are willing to be vulnerable. The fear of being vulnerable is the facade that keeps us from true human connection. Many are fearful of being vulnerable, because they feel that they will be attacked. As a result, they need to be in a “safe place” to reveal and confront the “X.”

Stutz and Jonah Hill have created an intimate partnership with each other, which has created a “safe place” where Jonah was able to share his fears. This relationship is often referred to as a therapeutic alliance. This relationship is so important that the strength of the relationship between the therapist and the client is the best predictor of treatment outcomes.¹

In a therapeutic alliance, the client typically shares his own vulnerabilities and fears. In Stutz, for the first time, Jonah Hill explores with Stutz what it's like for him to live with Parkinson’s and to have lost his brother at a very young age. Stutz is courageous and brave in acknowledging his own vulnerabilities to his client and the world.

The same courage is demonstrated by Chris Hemsworth, who purposely (spoiler alert), left in the part of the documentary where he learns that he is at greater risk of having Alzheimer’s Disease. In learning of his possible fate, Chris Hemsworth confronts his “X” and reprioritizes his life. He embraces his newfound limit by accepting it and taking preventive measures that will make his life more meaningful. By embracing his limits, he accepts Stutz’s theory that in life, there will always be pain, uncertainty, and constant work. Accepting and embracing these constants is what makes you more resilient.

In lieu of a list of New Year’s resolutions, it is my hope that we can find the courage to be vulnerable and embrace our limits to become limitless.