Gratitude and Inside Out Movie
The Emotional Ride
I recently watched the movie Inside Out 2 with my children. As I remembered the first movie, Inside Out, it led to a great discussion about emotions that even my youngest child could understand. In the first movie, a young girl moves across the country to a new home, new school, and new neighborhood leaving behind the only life she has ever known. As she adjusts to all of the changes, the viewer gets an inside view of her brain as it personifies the emotions of joy, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust. In the second movie, they take on the challenge of puberty and its plethora of emotions. These emotions include anxiety, envy, and apathy (or listlessness).
What a great reminder for adults and children alike that anger, fear, sadness, even anxiety at times are not bad emotions. They have a purpose. Fear can help to keep us out of danger. Sadness helps us to grieve losses and gives us empathy towards others. Anger can indicate injustice and motivate us to change. Anxiety can act as a safety measure or provide the urgency needed to compete, complete, or be aware.
Where’s the Feeling of Gratitude?
I wonder why an important emotion like gratitude was not added as a character? Our western culture does not promote thankfulness. In fact, our system seems to point towards deficits insinuating we always need more. I was hoping that the sequel, Inside Out2, would add the character of gratitude. Gratitude is an often ignored emotion that can have very positive effects on our health and well being. Research shows that gratitude is positively associated with physical health, mental health, coping with stress, optimism, and contentment.
Wonderful Tips to Get you Started
If you are looking for ways to incorporate gratitude in your own life, consider these ideas:
- Writing a note of appreciation to someone important to you.
- Hesitate before your consume food and appreciate its abundance.
- Meditate on the things you have to be grateful for when you first wake up in the morning.
- Set the tone for a better day by noticing the pleasant moments.
- Try paradoxical gratitude in which you connect with thankfulness within the negative thing happening to you.
In balance, these emotions are perfectly healthy but as the movie demonstrates, we don’t want just one emotion to “run the show”. The movie missed an opportunity to show that we are in control of our feelings. We can accept our emotions by reducing our reaction to them. We can guide our emotions by the thoughts we have and the actions we choose. For example, the main character in the movie, Riley, had a memory of losing an important hockey game. When she thought about the missed goal which lost the game she felt sad but when her thoughts shifted to her parents and teammates comforting her after the hockey game she felt joy. Her different thoughts about the same event produced two different emotions.
If you feel the emotions of anger, sadness, fear and anxiety are taking control of your life, we have caring and empathic therapists at Silicon Valley Therapy that can start from the inside out or the outside in! Complete our quick and easy form.
Add’l content provided by:
Heather D. Morris, LCSW
David A. Morris, LCSW
