Have you ever seen a preview or trailer for a movie and thought to yourself “I can’t wait until this comes out”? You just know that you’ll be in the theatre on opening weekend. Well there are quite a few movies that I felt this way about, and generally I tend to go see them at my earliest convenience but there are always a few that slip through the cracks. Inside Out was one of these movies, and like most of these movies that slip through, I happened to watch it right when I needed it most.
Let me first start by saying this movie is one of my favorite movies and I think everyone should watch it regardless of age group. I’ll spare the extensive details as well as a review, but the premise is that everyone has 5 emotions in control of them. These are joy, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger. The main character is a girl around 12 years of age and joy is the emotion who has the main control. Most of the time spent inside her head shows joy panicking whenever she feels another emotion. Joy also aims to keep all of her core memories joyous. At first I had no problem with this and I hated sadness and found her annoying, but after the movie ended I changed my perspective. I know, a 27 year old who is learning lessons from a children’s movie, how mature.
There’s a lot to unpack in this movie, but for the purposes of this piece I will focus only on the aspect of emotional balance. I related a lot to joy, because growing up I always felt that I needed to be happy and optimistic. I downplay terrible things because I don’t want to show sadness or anger. The problem with this is that a person who only let’s one emotion control them is an unhealthy person. The movie made it a point to explain that emotions cannot quit, and in that moment you realize something very important. Though one emotion can drive, the others exist and need to be given appropriate attention.
I honestly believe the reason I hated sadness was because it was a reflection of how I’ve been feeling lately. I’ve been trying to suppress it and let joy be the main emotion I show, but that simply isn’t feasible. Like in the movie, one must learn that sadness is needed. So is anger, and fear, and disgust. With balance a person can truly be mentally healthy. Those who only show one emotion are unbalanced and more than likely suffer in silence.
If I had seen this movie in theatres I am sure that I would’ve gotten the message but I think watching it when I did allowed me to really FEEL the message. I have to actually deal with my sad memories and my sad moments, I cannot downplay them. I cannot just sweep them away. They are inside of me and a part of me. With my embracing of them I can actually heal and grow and be healthy. Everyone mentions health when it comes to weight or blood pressure but many seem to avoid speaking about mental health. Emotional balance is just as, if not more, important than physical health. If I aim to be a healthy person, I need to start living like a character from inside out. I need to let all my emotions have a turn and allow them to work together to allow me to be the best me I can. Thank you Pixar.
