“Sometimes the creativity is in the rest.”
~ Joshua Kissi

This has been a demanding summer. Collectively, we are all dealing with the dizzying changes in our country’s political scene over these last few weeks. I’ve also been dealing with some unexpected challenges in my personal life, as have several of my friends and family members.

If you’re a regular reader, you may have noticed I took a hiatus in July to give my loved ones the care they needed, and to process the range of emotions I’ve been experiencing. In a moment of serendipity, I came across this piece today that a friend in my writing group wrote about the need to step back during times like these. Taking a dose of my own medicine, I’ve been doing some restorative self-care during my creative pause, including limiting my commitments and trying to get more rest after a very busy summer travel schedule.

One of the activities I enjoyed most last week was going to the movie theatre for the first time in a couple of years. Two girlfriends and I went to see the animated film Inside Out 2. We had seen the first one and loved it. We thought the sequel was equally good—the perfect mix of humor and fun, with some sound psychological messages blended in. It’s an “all ages” film. Even if you’re not accustomed to watching animated films as an adult, you might want to see this one. The trailers for the movies give you a good sense of them:

Inside Out

Inside Out 2

Both movies feature characters who represent the emotions of a young girl named Riley. They appear behind the scenes running a control panel (Riley’s brain) that guides her decision making. It’s a metaphor, a visual representation of the way our emotions control us and our thoughts and behaviors from moment to moment.

In the original film, Riley has just started school. The movie features the five primary emotions we experience as children: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust, which appear to be somewhat in balance.

In the sequel, Riley is becoming a teenager, and we meet her more sophisticated emotions: Anxiety, Boredom, Embarrassment, and Envy. When puberty hits, her feelings become much more intense. She’s all over the place, alternately bottling things up and exploding. “Welp, that’s a preview of the next ten years,” says Anger.

Seeing our distinct human emotions as characters, especially Anxiety who spends most of the movie freaking out, really does reinforce the message the Disney and Pixar creators are trying to convey:

Although some are terribly uncomfortable to experience at times, all of our feelings are necessary and serve a purpose.

Like the voices in our own heads, the characters in the film are sometimes in conflict and try to grab the controls from each other, while at other times they support and console each other. “We all have a job to do,” Joy reminds them.

During puberty, our emotions are more exaggerated than they are in childhood and later in adulthood when we’re better able to regulate them. As we develop emotionally, the goal is to learn to embrace all our emotions as they work together to protect us. (My previous post about expanding our emotional awareness explores this topic further.)

With my own stress level elevated of late, it was the perfect time for me to see this film. Clearly, I’m not the only one who was excited about the sequel, as Inside Out 2 is already the fifth highest grossing animated film of all time. As one of the commenters on this Reddit site, a mental health professional, explains. “The fundamental message is: Your brain, like every other part of your body, is trying to do what's right for you. And like other parts of your body, it will sometimes get it wrong, but every part is important in its own way. [The film is] “reminding us that we're more than just the composites of emotions—there are interplays here that are so complex we can only give ourselves grace sometimes when they become overwhelming.”

I thank you for being patient last month while I was giving myself grace.

I hope you are taking some time to rest and replenish yourself this summer.

Affectionately,

Elaine