Inside Out 2: Three takeaways for developing healthier emotions and lifestyle.

Heads up dear readers, there will be spoilers for Inside Out 2 in this entry!

The other evening I finally had the chance to go see Inside Out 2, which recently came out in movie theaters. It has been on my to-watch list since I saw its previews. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed the first one (Inside Out). I was blown away after watching the second one! After the credits rolled I looked over to my husband and told him we needed to talk about this movie in the car because of how much they did well. 

“It’s ok, I know you were just trying to protect her.”

At one point in the film, Anxiety (the name of the emotion of anxiety in the film) is swirling around what is essentially the emotions control panel in Riley’s brain trying to figure out what to do about a stressful situation. Joy (another name for the emotion of Joy who is one of the characters in the film) then comes in and helps calm down Anxiety and tells her, “It’s ok, I know you were just trying to protect her (she is referring Riley, the person in the movie these emotions reside in).” This moment really highlights that the emotion of anxiety is not the bad guy in our brains. It’s an emotion like any other that we have. It has a purpose just like other emotions. Do you ever get that “gut feeling” that something isn’t right? The emotion of anxiety is part of that gut feeling. It is there to help us explore, interpret, and communicate in our world.

Let me be clear, what Riley experienced was a panic attack. Which can happen to people with anxiety disorders and without them. We’ve seen this in our client’s stories from time to time. What is important to know is that if we only act from that anxiety and not a mixture of our emotions, panic attacks can happen. Learning to manage emotions correctly is important.

In the movie, Joy was able to help Anxiety be more understood and thus settle down. Joy helped to guide Anxiety to make a choice rather than being lost in the whirlwind of uncertainty. We get to choose how we react to situations; our emotions don’t get to choose for us. So, when we are feeling a bunch of emotions at once (which tends to be the norm), we can actively decide to lean into one or the other using some techniques listed below.  If you feel that you struggle with anxiety and controlling it, it may be helpful to learn some tools to better get a handle on it. If you struggle more after trying these techniques, maybe counseling would be beneficial.

Mindfulness and breathing 

There was a moment when Riley was using mindfulness and deep breathing techniques when a final game was being played. I can not tell you how excited I was when I saw her using these techniques when she was upset! Deep breathing is helpful when we are feeling upset or when we have elevated moods because these activities help to physically slow down our heart rate. They also help drive more oxygen to our brain and body. Both of these tools can calm us down when our emotions get out of whack. If you have ever heard of the fight or flight response. These techniques are used to decrease our need to fight, flee, or freeze. 

As for the mindfulness part. Riley connected to her senses. You know them: Sight, Smell, Hearing, Tasting, and Touch. She used her senses to help ground her when she was emotionally elevated. Grounding is connecting back to the present moment so as not to be focused on the “What if’s” or the pain of the past. We all fear what might come. Grounding can help us stay focused on the here and now. Also, if you get stuck in ruminating on the past, grounding can bring you back so you can focus on what’s important right now. 

Sometimes we know what words mean, but we don’t have the tools. Grounding can be done in different ways. One way to ground yourself is by using your senses. We call this the 5,4,3,2,1 method. It involves identifying 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste. This method helps to reconnect you to the moment. When Riley used mindfulness, she was able to bring herself back to the present moment. This is one way to use mindfulness when we become anxious, worried, fearful, or some other negative emotion. 

A Sense of self and emotions 

The overall theme of the movie is about having a sense of self and how emotions relate to our experiences. In the beginning, Joy and the other emotions are choosing which emotions should have control over Riley’s sense of self. This changes as the movie progresses and at one point Anxiety overrides Riley’s sense of self with her own idea of who Riley needs to be. The emotions even choose to disregard some memories because they think they are too painful or not helpful for Riley. This perpetuates the idea that our emotions are what control our actions. We’ve all experienced how our emotions can do this. I bet you can think of some ways this has happened to you. Emotions don’t necessarily control our actions. We still have choices, but emotions can direct us more than we would like sometimes. 

What really influences our actions is a complicated thing. As in this film, we see that towards the end of the movie, all the discarded memories flood back into Riley’s sense of self. All of Riley’s experiences now make up her sense of self, not just one emotion picking and choosing who Riley should be. It’s a common misconception that I hear as a counselor that our emotions control what we do. That can’t be further from the truth! Our emotions are part of who we are but they are not everything. Who we are is a combination of memories, thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and choices! 

Conclusion

So as you can see, Inside Out 2 has some great applications to help you understand your emotions and who you are. You can try imagining your emotions as little individual characters with strong personalities bent towards a specific emotion. How do they interact with each other? Which ones influence you more? Are there situations in your life that made one emotion more prevalent than another?