Today I would like to use a fantastic movie about emotional intelligence to explain the importance of one of the keys to Mindfulness and its importance in our lives: acceptance (Hoffman and Asmundson, 2008). As many of you have heard, there are 6 basic emotions (Ekman, 1992). These are Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, Surprise, Fear.
All of these emotions have an important role in the development of the story of the movie Inside Out, with the exception of Surprise, who was finally not added as a character in the story. These characters delve into the mental world and give an animated explanation, quite close to reality, on various aspects studied in psychology. Let’s focus, in this article, on the emotional issue.
We tend to view emotions as positive or negative depending on the effect produced on us, well-being or discomfort. In this way, we tend to ignore negative emotions and constantly go in search of positive ones.
This is something that we can see in our daily lives. With just one click, by touching our mobile phone, we enter the world of any social network where everything that appears is perfect. And we begin to have that feeling, which becomes a need, to live all the moments that the people around us (or on our following list) live.
That is to say, although this obviously also happened before, the need to experience positive emotions that we have in the Western world today is much stronger, one could even say that it is almost a social imposition… Or, how many times have you heard that from “wipe your tears, smile and get out there”?
With this I don’t want to say that setting an intention to improve our mood is something negative. Quite the opposite, but first, we must give our emotions the space and time they need to express themselves. One of the key principles of mindfulness is based on this: acceptance (Hoffman and Asmundson, 2008).
What relationship does Mindfulness have with the outcome of the film?
The film Inside Out introduces the viewer to the mind of a baby (Riley). There, you see how he grows and faces different situations thanks to emotions (characters who are in charge of monitoring Riley’s behavior). As time goes by, Riley experiences certain experiences that influence his mood.
However, Joy, the main character in charge of monitoring, does not allow Sadness to take control for even a moment and ends up isolating her so that she does not influence Riley. The result? A set of events that end up causing Riley to make impulsive and drastic decisions. However, The key lies, unexpectedly, in Tristeza’s reintegration into the group , letting it take the reins of the control center momentarily. That is to say, the moral of the film already suggests the importance of the group’s unity to stabilize the situation.
The same thing happens in real life. When we constantly insist on feeling good about a certain situation, we are only isolating our emotion. This has a biological explanation, as living beings, we seek survival, for this reason, we tend to avoid discomfort in every way.
However, Mindfulness has a lot to teach us in this regard. This is a central component added by Hoffman and Asmundson (2008), on which most of this new technique revolves: acceptance. However, we must be careful when interpreting this word. Acceptance does not mean resignation, it does not mean that we sit back and face what is happening. Acceptance means not judging, seeing things as they are and how they make us feel. It means becoming aware, giving ourselves space to pay attention to what is happening to us and letting it communicate to us without putting up any type of resistance. Thanks to this, Mindfulness gives us the opportunity to stop to pay attention to what is happening inside us, and think about what happens to us before making a decision and taking action.
Thus, explained in Mindfulness terms, it could be said that when Sadness takes central control, when Riley experiences the emotion and breaks down crying, she is paying attention to what Sadness was trying to communicate to her. Thanks to this, he gets to know a new internal experience and make a new decision.
Final reflection
With this interpretation of the ending of the film, I intend to show the importance of all emotions in our life. Although it is true that the practice of Mindfulness does not hide the whole secret, its exercises to pay attention to what is happening in the present moment and become aware of it, help a lot in the integration of our emotions. Hence, Mindfulness exercises are being incorporated into current Emotional Intelligence programs.
Therefore, whatever method you use, dear reader, do not forget one thing, take your time to feel each emotion and do not judge it, each one of them has something to tell you. Remember that no one can know what is great without first knowing what is small.
