In case you don’t know what the movie is about, the first one happens inside of a young girl’s mind named Riley, with personified emotions that influence her actions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust. While the second one, yet to premiere, happens while Riley becomes a teenager with a couple of new emotions, such as Anxiety, Ennui, Embarrassment and Envy.
The emotions in Inside Out have to work together like a group, as the movie progresses and show us various reflections about recognizing, respecting, validating, and processing our own complex and fluid emotions, and those lessons are smartly embedded. As Riley grows up and faces new challenges, the team has to cope and work together for her to not forget her core memories.
“When you are a baby, the control room only has one emotion. And as you grow, the place becomes more complex, with emotions, creations and memory storage, which becomes a lot to manage.” says Renata Martorelli, psychologist specializing in children and teenagers.
The film highlights the capacity to understand Riley’s emotions and also empathize with them. It portrays the position of young children to understand and cope with their own emotions. We also learn that these emotions are connected, and you can’t have one without the other.
As Renata mentions, “All emotions are allowed to prepare us for life’s events, they guide us and have purpose, bringing meaning to our experiences. We need to allow ourselves to feel sad when necessary and not force ourselves to be happy all the time, as this is not healthy.”
It’s the way feelings are projected into the world that can lead to positive or negative relationships. Learning to respect all of the emotional centers, acknowledging when people are feeling something and make a choice of how to engage that emotion.
Inside Out revolves around a little girl who just moved cities and is trying to learn how to live a new life and also growing up. Which reminds us to embrace ourselves and give permission to not be “okay”, allowing a chance to work through emotional realizations, not just avoiding the uncomfortable feelings.
The article below was edited by Fernanda de Andrade Silva. Liked this type of content? Check out Her Campus Cásper Líbero for more!