As a company offering HR coaching and training sessions, we care deeply about emotions and well-being in the workplace and personal lives. Emotions play a pivotal role in determining our behaviors, yet they are hard to maintain since they are so many that people don't know how to balance and perfectly manage each. A perfect illustration can be found in Inside Out 2, which follows the story of a 13-year-old Riley Andersen with new environments, new personalities and more emotions. By illustrating Riley's growth through complex emotions, Inside Out 2 offers an engaging way to explore emotional intelligence, a crucial skill for navigating life’s ups and downs. Here are some insights we learn from Inside Out 2:
There are neither totally positive nor totally negative emotions
Inside Out 2 has introduced to us new emotions, namely Anxiety, Ennui, Embarrassment and Envy to depict the maturity of Riley during her teenage years. Although these emotions are often considered "negative", they are important and shouldn't be ignored or hidden. Just like in the first movie, Sadness allowed Riley to express her vulnerability and real feelings toward her parents, leading them to understand each other better. 'Envy' is never pure hatred or competitiveness - it is also admiration. 'Anxiety' helps us to deal with frustrating situations, therefore making us stronger. 'Embarrassment' might give us some uncomfortable moments, but we can learn and reflect from them. And 'Ennui' is the state that we can become "real" to ourselves sometimes instead of expressing toxic positivity. Therefore, every emotion is equally important to one's growth and well-being.
Learn to express joy in little things
One of the popular quotes in 'Inside Out' is "Maybe that's what happens when you grow up, you just start to feel less joy". Indeed, in Inside Out 2, we had a chance to witness Riley's middle school journey with her feeling less connected with her childhood friends, arguing with her parents, feeling anxious about choosing between 2 hockey teams, etc. In the first movie, 'Joy' was the supervisor leading the other emotions, but then she has to take turns with other emotions to nagivate Riley's feelings. Reflecting on our real lives, the more we grow up, the more exposed we are to complex and sometimes negative situations. We gradually need to be more responsible and more mature, therefore we possibly will feel less joy. However, it is not bad, as it enables us to be happy in such little things. Happiness doesn't need to come from marvelous achievements - it can be found through small daily events, such as sunlight in the morning, good meal or nice weather all day.
Emotions cannot control us
Another memorable quote from Inside Out is 'We don't get to choose who Riley is' from Joy. Pixar is successful in illustrating the emotions fighting with each other to determine Riley's feelings, leading her to show signs of panic attacks. This also implies that imposing emotions on other people can leave grave consequences. Emotions are surely complex, but the human body and mind are more complex as they are gradually exposed to many external and internal factors, not just by emotions alone. Therefore, as humans, we should be more sensitive and careful in handling emotions of our own as well as others.
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