As an emotionally dynamic woman, and as an avid Disney fan,
it is not hard to imagine “Inside Out,” being one of my favorite Disney movies.
I am able to connect to Riley and her emotions on an intimate level. The main
reason why I love this movie, and why I think so many others are able to
connect to this movie, is because it brings awareness to the emotions that we
would rather live without. In the movie’s case sadness is the emotion that is
seen as troublesome. In the beginning of the movie sadness is seen as a burden,
an emotion that nobody wants to live with. I won’t give away any spoilers away (except
one!) but at the end of the movie the other emotions, especially Joy, see the
importance of sadness and how she plays an important role in Riley’s life.
I think Joy’s realization of sadness at the end is beautiful
because society as a whole does not want to recognize the importance of
negative emotions. We are afraid of discomfort and negative emotions are known
for leading us to places of discomfort.Instead, we would rather focus on the happy emotions, such
as Joy, and act like the negative emotions, such as sadness, doesn't exist. Our
society is very much similar to the inside of Riley’s brain at the beginning of
the movie. It makes sense right, focus on aspects of our life that makes us
feel good and not the aspects that make us feel bad. However, how long can we
keep up that façade? If God gave us these beautiful emotions then shouldn’t we
value all of them, even the ones that don't make us feel good. Sadness, anger,
guilt, fear, etc. they are all gifts that we should as instruments of wisdom.
Shouldn't we dwell on why we are feeling sadness instead of hiding it? It is ok
to sit in our sadness, just as long as we don’t let it consume us. I believe it
takes a wise and self-aware person to find the balance between this. I have no
right judging others who struggle with this because I struggle with this as
well.
However, if we don’t give ourselves the space to dwell in
our negative emotions then we are not being authentic with our true selves and
others around us. By wearing a mask that is always smiling, we are not
emotionally available to be empathetic with others, I find this concept
illustrated in one particular scene in “Inside Out.” It is when Joy is trying to cheer Bing Bong up after he lost
his spaceship wagon. Joy, the fun emotion, the happy emotion, the emotion that
everybody loves, is failing. This is because she cannot connect to Bing Bong on an
empathetic level. Joy has never experienced sadness, so how can she expect to
BE with Bing Bong in a time of grief. What Bing Bong needs most during his time
of grief is someone who can sit with him without judgment, something Joy cannot
provide. In fact, if I were Bing Bong I would be really mad at Joy for trying
to make me happy again and not giving me the space to grieve. Her intentions
were genuine but not giving him space to cry is not.
Sadness, on the other
hand, did give Bing Bong space to cry and was able to connect to Bing Bong on
an empathetic level. Sadness, obviously knows what sadness is, and was able to
allow Bing Bong the opportunity to feel sad. Sadness was a peace warrior in
this scene because she did not fix Bing Bong’s problem but sat with him through
it. And she was able to do this because she knows what Bing Bong is feeling and
was able to help him tap into that. In the case of Bing Bong’s grief, it was ok
for him to feel that negative emotion because it was that negative emotion that
got him through his struggle. Ok first off, sadness played an awesome counselor
in that scene. Second off, I’ve been feeling a lot of negativity the last
couple of weeks.
The reason I bring up “Inside Out,” is because it is a
reminder that it is ok to feel the negativity I’ve recently been experiencing.
Ideally, I do not want to feel negativity but if I do, it does not make me any
less of a person. Is Riley less of a person when she feels sad? No!!! In fact,
she is even more of a person when she feels sad. I may feel these negative
emotions sometimes, but you know what, I am still a whole person. I am enough.
I am enough if I feel happy; I am enough if I feel sad. I might have extreme
emotions, but that does not make me any more or any less of a person than
someone else. All it means is that we process emotions different, and we need
to respectful of how that happens.
Now I know some people back home will be like, “Oh my gosh!
Julia’s upset! What’s wrong,” “Is she stressed? Depressed? Is they’re anything
I can do,” “Does she need a care package?” As grateful as I am that I have such
a strong support network, having people say those types of things will just
suffocate me. I am not in an emotional or spiritual state where you should be
worried about me, the phase that I am in is very normal for Dwellers and YAVs
around this time. If you are still worried about me and want to show emotional
support all you have to do is read my blog and pray for me. But the point of
this blog post is not to have people pray for me, the point of this blog post
is to write about giving ourselves the space to be vulnerable with the emotions
it maybe hard to be vulnerable with. I don’t think there is a single answer to
how to do that, all we can really do as people is to be aware of that and show
compassion where compassion is needed.
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