Essential Life And Relationship Lessons We Can All Learn From Avatar

One of the shows that I have been borderline- obsessed with lately is the animated series of Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Lastairbender. I discovered this when my 7 year-old nephew asked me to watch it with him, I was instantly drawn to the story and the characters. For a “kid’s” show, it has the tightest plot and characters ever written, and some of the best life and relationship lessons ever inscribed. For those who haven’t heard or seen it (watch it now) here’s a backgrounder. Avatar: The Last Airbender centers on a 12-year old (technically 112) boy named Aang, who is the next Avatar. In his world, there are four kinds of people: The air nomads, the water tribe, the earth kingdom and the fire nation.

Each kind centers around the element it is named after and within them are “benders,” people who can control the element (with remarkable martial arts move) at will. Only the Avatar has the power to learn and master all the four elements. He needs this in order to fulfil his destiny to keep the balance of the world.

As Aang takes his journey to master all elements, he took us along with him in learning our own life and relationship lessons. Here are some of the few relationship lessons we can reflect upon.

Acceptance brings out our best potentials. In Book 1 Water, when Katara asked Aang why he didn’t tell anyone that he’s the Avatar, he answered, “because I never wanted to be...”If Aang didn’t make the decision to accept himself as the Avatar, then he wouldn’t have discovered his real strength and power to save the world.

In order for our relationship to work, we need to accept who we really are, for us to give real love. The same goes with our partner, only then we can see our partner at their best when we show them true and unconditional acceptance.

Confront and conquer deep-seated issues. In Book 2 Earth, when Aang decided to finally master his Avatar state, he went to see a guru who taught him how to do it. He told Aang in order to master the Avatar state, he needs to open all his chakras first. As the guru educated Aang about chakras he used the creek as the metaphor in explaining it. He said the water that flows in the creek is like the energy/ chakra that flow through our body; the muck that swirls around the creek stops it from flowing freely. For the creek to flow freely, one should get rid of the muck inside the creek. The same holds true in our lives. Like the muck that hinders the creek from flowing freely, we tend to allow our deep-seated issue to stop us from having a meaningful relationship. Deep- seated issues rooted from our fears (fear of rejection, commitment, getting hurt...), it’s not easy conquering them, but if you want to be truly happy in your relationship, you need to overcome them.

Rule with love, not with fear. In the Book 3 Fire, I was impressed with Mai who defied Princess Azula by helping Prince Zuko escape in Boiling Rock. When Princess Azula confronted Mai, she bravely answered, “I love Zuko more tha
I fear you...” I don’t want to spoil you with the ending but it all turned out well. In our relationships, sometimes we let our selfishness take the best of us. We go to certain extent to win the power play in the relationship, we scheme, we blackmail, and we take advantage. We let our partner hang on to us through fear, instead of love and respect.Princess Azula ruled others through fear, and in the end she ended up alone and crazy, learn from that.