This past weekend, my family and I went to see the new Disney Pixar movie Inside Out. I love every Disney Pixar movie so I knew this one would be amazing too. What I didn’t know, however, is how much this movie would make me think about life!
While watching Inside Out, I really began to think about how the human mind works. As a school psychologist, I have to do this every day, and while in college and grad school of course I learned all about the way the brain functions along with all the different theories of personalities. Inside out, however, made me look at things from another perspective. It made me see things as a parent and as a child.
As time passed after seeing the movie, I continued to think about what the underlying meaning was in this film. Now maybe I looked too deeply into it, but I believe that is what Disney Pixar wants us to do. They want us to evaluate our lives. They want us to wonder about and explore the fine line between reality and fiction. Through their movies we learn about ourselves and society as a whole.
Many things happen to us in our lives but how we deal with them is what shapes us as a person. Do we get sad and give up? Do we get scared and run away? Do we see the happiness in each experience no matter how hard it may be? Or do we just get angry and lash out without thinking? Better yet, do we combine all of these emotions to help create a positive life journey?
Without emotions life would be pretty boring. How we feel about something helps develop our personality and makes us unique individuals. How we perceive each experience also helps shape our lives and even our future. Inside out made me really think about this concept and many others.
Life Lessons Learned From Inside Out
Savor each moment. Life goes by so fast and if we don’t take the time to pay attention we will miss it. All we have is our memories and even those fade, but the memories that we truly appreciate will stay with us forever. So pay attention when your kids take their first step, say their first words and even just hold your hand because those are moments we will miss when they are grown.
Joy and sadness go hand in hand. We need to experience sadness in order to truly appreciate happiness and joy. It also seems that in times of deep sadness, joy finds it way to break through just when you thought you would never smile again. We need both to survive but it’s the delicate balance between the two that is the most important. It is when these two emotions become off-kilter that life can get complicated. (This is where I would like to delve into the world of depression and bipolar disorder, but that may be for another post.)
We all have the basic human emotions but each person handles life in a different way. Where one person sees joy another person may see fear. Where you may become angry at one thing another person may become sad. We are all unique individuals with our own unique emotional system.
We cannot let anger, fear and disgust (hatred) control our lives. Is it okay to get angry and upset? Of course it is, but we need to learn to cope with these emotions and use them to our benefit and not allow them to become our weakness. We need to be okay with crying but then pick ourselves up off the floor and push on.
These are just a few of the things I learned from watching Inside Out. I am sure I will continue to develop more theories and ideas as I continue to ponder the meaning of this amazing movie. Thank you Disney Pixar for making me really think about life in a new way!
What did you think about Inside Out? Leave your theories and ideas in the comments section below!