5 Takeaways (even for Adults) from the movie “Inside Out”  E155

July 23, 2024

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This episode is kind of a review of the animated movie Inside Out which is all about Emotions. Given that the second Inside Out movie is currently in the cinema, I thought I finally had to watch the first one. I will share with you my 5 takeaways from the movie and good reasons why you should watch it, too. Let’s get started!

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I finally got to watch the movie Inside Out this weekend. I know, I know. How can it be that I never watched this movie given how much I love to talk about emotions? But hey, I finally made it and as you can imagine, I love it.

If you don’t know what movie I am talking about, Inside Out is an animated Pixar movie about an 11-year-old girl named Riley. Riley and her parents end up moving from her hometown in Minnesota – where she grew up with happy memories of ice hockey, silly jokes with Dad, and fun times with friends – to San Francisco. Though at first Riley tries to make the best of a hard situation, she soon begins missing Minnesota. School is hard, their new house is not as nice as the old one, and she feels her parents don’t understand her struggles.

The main characters are Emotions

But the movie is not so much about Riley, the character, as it is about her individual emotions. There are five of them: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust. Each emotion is its own separate character: Joy is a glowing, sparkly fairy-like cheerleader oozing positivity and optimism. The short, frumpy-looking Sadness is your typical Debbie Downer: mopey, teary and lethargic. Anger is a stocky, square fire-breathing ball of irritation. Wide-eyed Fear is always trembling and biting his nails. And the green-bodied Disgust is quick to cross her arms and wrinkle her nose any time she encounters something repelling.

I can only recommend watching this movie with your children or by yourself. It’s a fantastic representation of how emotions are created, how personalities are formed in our childhood and how easy it is to mismanage our emotions – especially the ones we deem as “negative”. So let me share with you my personal 5 takeaways from the movie Inside Out.

Takeaway No. 1 – All Emotions Have Purpose

I like that all 5 emotions starring in the movie get explained to have their own purpose. All of them get explained pretty quickly at the beginning. For sadness, this is part of the storyline to find out how sadness has a valuable purpose which you find out at the end of the movie. It teaches kids and us adults, too, that there is value and purpose in all our emotions. The mix of emotions we experience makes life so much more interesting. and that is shown at the end of the movie where experiences create various emotions instead of just one.

I talked about this just in last week’s episode, how important it is that we feel the full range of emotions and don’t shy away from the ones we call negative. That’s what creates a lot of issues in our lives. All emotions have their purpose and are valid to be felt in different situations in our lives. But by suppressing or escaping certain emotions like anger or fear, we get ourselves into trouble. So the first takeaway is that all emotions have a reason to be part of our human experience.

Takeaway No. 2 – Childhood memories form our personality

The movie describes so well how a personality is created when we are young. It uses the idea of core memories that are so strong and impactful that they end up becoming a personality trait. One of the examples is ice skating. Riley has fond memories of ice skating with her parents when she was very young. And as they kept this activity alive as part of her childhood she ended up choosing ice hockey as her hobby.

In Riley’s case initially, all of her core memories that made up her personality were all positive, linked to the emotion of joy like ice skating, spending time with friends and family, and making jokes with her dad. But if you take this idea further, you can imagine how a less joyful memory in a child’s upbringing can become a personality trait that we might then struggle with later in life.

An example could be that a young girl observes her mum struggling with her weight and restricting her diet. If this girl observes this for a while it can become a core memory and part of her personality which can turn into all kinds of weight and eating issues later in life. Another example could be a boy whose dad is travelling a lot for work. And because the boy misses his dad, he creates this core memory of his dad leaving a lot and the feeling would be sadness or abandonment. And if that is part of his personality that can have an influence on his relationships in later life.

So takeaway number 2 is that childhood memories with strong emotions form our personality. And if we come across something in our lives that we would like to change, it helps to discover where this might come from and why we struggle to change. Linking it back to a core memory, as described in the movie, helps us to see it from a new perspective or to release it so it doesn’t hold us back anymore.

Takeaway No. 3 – Joy is important for our overall wellbeing

When Riley was born her first emotion was Joy. And Joy, the character, stays the unspoken leader of the emotions throughout the movie. Yes, we said in takeaway number 1 how all emotions have their purpose but the movie shows as well what happens when there is no joy anymore in your life.

It’s when Riley goes through a hard time because of the move to San Francisco that the emotions characters anger and fear start to overpower joy. And when Joy is on her adventure in the movie and not even present anymore, Riley falls more and more into a depressed-like state where she starts to not feel anything anymore.

And I think this is something that most of us can probably relate to. I remember when I was burned out that nothing brought me joy anymore. I could go out with friends, or go to a movie or be on holiday – and yes, I would enjoy some of it. But it was a dampened way of feeling joy. It was not true joy that you might remember from your childhood.

The thing is that we should still all feel joy at times exactly as we did when we were kids. And if we don’t then this is a sign to work on your emotional well-being and bring it back into balance. For years, I was out of balance and hardly anything brought me joy anymore. And now, that I left this time behind and looked after my emotional balance, I can feel pure joy in the smallest things.

Takeaway number 3 is that feeling actual joy is important for our overall well-being. And if you don’t then this is a sign for you to improve your emotional state of being. And you know where to find me if you want some help with that.

Takeaway No. 4 – Unvalidated feelings create problems

This is shown so beautifully through the character and emotion of sadness. Throughout most of the movie, sadness is always pushed to the side by the other emotions and classified as dangerous, useless and unwanted. And as you can imagine that creates a lot of problems as sadness is creating one disaster after the other.

But the reason is that sadness is not validated as a purposeful emotion. It’s cast to the side and classified as wrong as if there is no use for sadness in our human experience. Which there is and that is discovered later in the movie. In the end, sadness is the actual hero of the movie once the other emotions realize its value and purpose.

There is even a scene where Riley’s mum asks her to keep smiling even if times are hard. Riley feels like she can’t show how sad she actually is. If she would feel safe to show how sad she actually was, all of the problems that followed could have been avoided. It shows how dangerous it is to stop humans from experiencing certain emotions and how we create a cascade of unwanted situations by resisting certain emotions.

So the fourth takeaway is that suppressing, denying and locking certain emotions away, create huge problems later on. A healthy balance of all emotions results in a healthy human life. So validate all of your emotions for what they are: valid and purposeful.

Takeaway No. 5 – It’s useful to understand your brain

This is probably my favourite takeaway. The movie describes so well how our brain works so kids can start to understand it. Knowing how something works always means that we can do things better with it. And the same applies to the brain. If we know how our brain works, we can make it work better for us.

This is something I would love every child to learn at school or at home. Once you understand how memories get created, how short-term and long-term memories work and the subconscious mind, the better we get to leverage all of the brain has to offer. That’s why I focused a whole module inside Energy Academy on the conscious and subconscious mind.

Watch it! You’ll love it!

I’m sure you actually get to learn a lot watching this movie as an adult. So don’t shy away from it just because it’s animated. The amazing thing about Inside Out is that it teaches all these lessons while being fun and entertaining, all at the same time. It does so in a way that the entire family can understand: there’s material in the film for adults, for teens, and for little kids – and it never gets too corny for adults or too complex for kids. It hits the right tone the entire way through, which is why it’s a must-see for almost any family going through any changes, large or small.

Two easy ways to show your appreciation!

If you found value in today’s episode, here’s what you can do to show your support:

First, consider making a donation to the podcast. Every little bit helps to cover the costs of producing and hosting the show. And ensures that I can continue to bring you the latest insights and opinions on the topic of energy and improving your life.

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So whether you choose to donate, leave a rating and review, or both, know that you’re an integral part of my vision. You are helping everyone who struggles with burnout or high-stress levels to experience how awesome their life can be. So, thank you for your support!

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