Inside Out

You may have guessed correctly; the first movie is Inside Out. Coincidentally, the movie came out on June 2015, as I started my Master’s program. It marked the start of my formal therapist journey.

Internal summary *spoiler alert

In peak Pixar form, the movie showed the relationship we have with our own emotions. Inside Out depicted difficult feelings to be understood and embraced rather than rejected. That even difficult feelings such as sadness deserve to be heard and not ignored. In fact, it was sadness who helped different characters grieve and ultimately say goodbye.

Personally

Without sadness, I would not be able to do the work I do. It allows me to be fully present to the suffering of others and the world and within myself. Another emotion, anger gives me the courage and strength to do something when I or someone else is wronged. I’ll talk more about these individually in the future.

But because I allow myself to feel these feelings, they do not control me, but I control them as they have become a healthy part of me. These emotions know I won’t neglect them when they want to be felt, will be heard when they need me to listen, and can be confident that I can manage them.

Points to consider

1. To allow yourself to feel isn’t easy. In fact, if you never allowed yourself to feel something, it might overwhelm you completely so I say take caution. This is where a trained professional can be helpful.

2. I am not encouraging you to dwell on difficult emotions. But you do need space for them to co-exist with the rest of yourself. And by acknowledging them, they should feel heard and give you relief.

3. Lastly, there’s a difference between hearing and listening. You can allow yourself to feel something without believing the negative it may be telling you. Building a relationship means arguing with unhelpful thoughts too when you need to.

PS: If you’ve read this far, I appreciate your support and can feel your effort to follow along :).

PSS: The second movie is Suzume, but since it’s relatively new, I won’t talk about it for a while. Watch it on Netflix!

My work

Yoojin Nam LMFT is the author of Thinking to Feel. He has been providing psychotherapy for 7 years and is licensed to practice in CA & TX.

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Disclaimer: These posts are not a replacement for therapy. The information contained within is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be therapeutic advice.