Those of us who were fortunate enough to see the movie “Inside Out” in 2015 were excited about “Inside Out 2,” which is now available in several theaters.
Riley’s life, now in her adolescence, promises new challenges as she experiences the arrival of four new emotions (Anxiety, Boredom, Shame and Envy) that, without a doubt, we all know very well. I leave you the trailer in case you haven’t seen it.
You can read this article without fear of spoilerswell I will tell you about lessons that remained with me when I saw the first part of “Intensely.”
Now that the movie “Inside Out 2” has been released, I think they are still valid for understanding how to relate to our emotions.
Lessons from the first movie, before watching “Inside Out 2”
In the first film, Alegría is the central character. She lives running from here to there trying to solve any complex situation that Riley has, because according to her, the girl should always be happy. So in her desire to maintain control she tells the other emotions what they should do.
She has been the “boss” for years, but faced with a significant change in Riley’s life, it becomes a challenge to try to get the girl to find reasons to be optimistic.
This is without a doubt one of the greatest learnings that the film offers us. Well, it turns out that life is full of tests, complex situations, problems that we have to learn to solve. So if we only judge the success and well-being of our lives by experiencing permanent happiness, we will most likely feel like failures.
Therefore, it is important to remove the masks that we often use on social networks to pretend to have a perfect life that is far from what it really is. Accepting that we all have challenges in our work, in relationships, and in our spiritual realm does not make us less. It shows us humans and that is key, because life is worth living with all its imperfections.
Emotions are not judged
Do you remember how, in the first movie, the character of Joy dismisses other emotions all the time? Precisely, she ends up outside the headquarters while trying to prevent Sadness from touching Riley’s central thoughts and “infecting” them with an emotion that she considers bad.
Psychologists and therapists precisely recommend that we do not assign labels to our emotions, that we do not classify them as good or bad. The idea is to assume them, embrace them and recognize why they are present, what sensations they produce and how we can manage them.
It is not about staying in them, but learning to move through them. Discover what they come to teach us and how they can be useful to us.
Emotional stability starts from giving each emotion its space
It is then about being aware of our emotions and giving space to each of them according to the experience we are going through.
If we know ourselves well enough, we can understand what emotion is natural to arise and we will allow ourselves to experience it.
So feeling angry is normal, feeling frustrated too. Fighting against it makes no sense and ends up exhausting us more. Let’s think rather, why we have anger or frustration; That’s how it makes us feel, what we get out of it and how we can manage it in our favor. Let us remember that well-used frustration is, in many cases, the trigger that drives us to not stop trying.
Spirituality, a solid basis for managing emotions
This review that I have proposed to you of the film cannot close without us keeping in mind that as human beings we have a fundamental element for our growth and that is spirituality.
Knowing that we are children of God, that we have Jesus as our model and that we have the grace of the Holy Spirit makes all the difference.
God showed us the love with which He loves us and gave us the ability to love in the same way. Our management of emotions must undoubtedly go through love, to find a greater purpose in them.
When Jesus was incarnated as a man, he felt joy, sadness, fury and even fear. And in each of those experiences she always turned to his Father to find in Him the joy, consolation, determination and strength that would allow her to continue with his mission.
Likewise, the action of the Holy Spirit through his gifts is capable of transforming our thoughts, feelings and emotions for the benefit of our reason for being and our evangelizing task.
Therefore, in our faith we find the seed from which our emotions can bear better fruit. Let us feel free to live them, to manage them and to make them part of a better version of ourselves, which benefits others.
