So I went and saw Inside Out on Friday night. And I loved it so much that I went to see it again on Sunday. As a healer of emotional and mental stresses, I believe that this movie has a very powerful message for all of us. So what is it that Inside Out can teach us?
Inside Out teaches us that each emotion is important and that there is a time and place for each one of them. Happiness, Anger, Sadness, Fear etc are all important emotions and it’s ok to experience them.
In the movie, the emotion Joy believes that she has to keep Riley happy at all times. “Team Happy as she calls it. And that means making sure that Sadness stays locked away and can’t touch anything (like the core memories). In fact, Joy draws a “Circle of Sadness” and tells Sadness that it’s her job to stay in the circle at all times. This is equivalent to suppressing an emotion. And suppressing emotions can have long term negative effects.
When Riley’s mum goes up to Riley’s room and asks her to be happy for her father’s sake. The flip side of this request is saying that Riley cannot show how sad she is about her world being turned upside down through the big move. She has to pretend that she is happy so that she doesn’t let her parents down. And this is how limiting beliefs can be born – Boom – “I always have to be happy for my parents, because I will upset them if I am sad”. And this gives Joy further incentive to keep Sadness locked away within the Circle of Sadness.
While Joy & Sadness are stuck in long term memory trying to get back to headquarters, Anger, Fear and Disgust try to maintain the status quo. They also believe that Riley needs to have happy “core memories” so they believe that they can make some new ones if they just go back to Minnesota. So they hatch a run-away plan. By the time that Riley hops onto the bus, she is so shut off from her emotions that she becomes apathetic. And if we stay in apathy too long it can lead to depression.
Meanwhile, back in long term memory, Joy accuses Sadness of hurting Riley. Stating that Riley needs to be happy. So she tries to ditch Sadness and get back to headquarters through the recall tube. This leads her to fall into discarded memories. It is down here that Joy discovers the importance of Sadness, through the memory of the play offs back in Minnesota. Joy realises that Riley’s parents and team came to support her and cheer her up after the hockey game. And that wouldn’t have happened if Riley wasn’t sad.
In the end, it is Sadness that saves the day. It is Sadness that shakes Riley out of her apathy, and it is Sadness that brings the family back together. Riley – “I know you don’t want me too, but I miss my friends, and our house. You need me to be happy but I need my hockey team, my friends my life back in Minnesota”. I will confess to a tear or two on both viewings of this movie at this point.
And when Riley’s parents share their feelings of doubt and homesickness with her, a new core memory is formed. One containing both Sadness and Joy. And a year on, you see that most of Riley’s core memories are a mixture of emotions, not just happiness. Because as my fiancé always says “All sunshine makes the dessert”.
I am sharing this all with you because I see first-hand the long-term detriments of shutting off certain emotions with my clients. And also through my own experiences: a major Liver inflammation due to tonnes of suppressed rage & I too was cut off from my Sadness due to comments made by my grandfather. Both of these issues, I only healed last year.
If you think that you have cut yourself off from some of your emotions then Kinesiology can help you to reconnect with them in a safe way.
