Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Hello, sadness! :)


As a die hard Disney fan I knew I wouldn't miss Inside Out when i first watched its trailer. 
And yes! it's another brilliant production and the movie somehow, made a whole lotta sense to me.

So there are people who came and tell me,
'yuin there must be too many Joys in your head' ;
'you're just like Joy!!'

and when I get them to guess which is my favorite character in the movie, 
'JOY!'
'confirm is Joy lah'. 

                                                                                                            Hi Joy :b


But BAM! Even to my surprise, i got triggered by this character I'd never imagine myself seeing so much value in it, and it is sadness!

                                                                                      aww hi you cutie pie :3
        

The 1 hours and 42 minutes in cinema gave me a good slap. An enjoyable and convincing one. 


So this is the usual me.
Almost every time in life I'd choose to go for something good. 
Good as in the sense of something more positive, more cheery, less negative. 

And that pretty much explains why;
When a friend of mine shares her sorrow, I'll stuff her with hype with the intention to pull her away from the saddy pool. 
When i sense a little negativity coming from within or out, I'll turn away and facing it would always be my final option.

It might sound like I'm rejecting negative emotions, but to me it's more of a worry that facing or even accepting it will only drown one deeper in the emotion damp.


Now let's have a look at the movie itself. *spoiler alert!*


******
Remember how Joy finds sadness burdensome at first, and she's not allowed to touch the core memories, the headquarter buttons, and even gets her to just stay in her little circle for good?


Joy can't seem to see any value in sadness and is always trying to avoid sadness having any bump in the headquarter, ensuring her not having any real responsibility in Riley's brain. 
While sadness is always showing a more exaggerated thinking in every possible worst aspects,
e.g. that legendary 'I'm positive you'll get lost in there' when Joy tries to escape from the long term memory maze.

No, not this, we can't make this, it's my fault, i'm sorry. ah, so much negativityyyyyy
With other brain bunch not seeing sadness bringing any good to Riley, it's not surprising that sadness is the most unpopular emotion member in the headquarter.
But things change when Riley starts to feel multiple complex emotions when she tries to adapt to a whole new environment; fear, disgust, anger
With both joy and sadness started their journey back to the headquarter, this is when joy slowly realized the hidden potential of sadness in enriching Riley's overall happiness!
And here's one of my favorite scenes.
"You're sad."

When Joy tried so hard to put a positive spin on Bing Bong when he realized Riley may never remember him again; sadness, quietly sits by Bing Bong, thoughtfully listens to his stories, and by simply being empathic, sadness helps Bing Bong understand his own emotions, with the realization that there's someone else who cares about him.
And tadaa! Bing Bong recovers!

 *slap, piak*  


Joy was surprised, so am I!

Then while stuck in the pool of forgotten memories, Joy found a memory that started as sad but then turned to become happy.
And I guess it's now safe to say, if it's not for that sadness alert, Riley wouldn't know that she needs help. And if it's not because that she'd felt sadness, she wouldn't have learned to truly appreciate happiness.


 *slap, piak*  




So this is my biggest takeaway from Inside Out:

IT’S ALRIGHT TO BE SAD

Just like Joy, I learned the hard-hitting fact that, happiness is not all about good jolly joy, and it's absolutely okay to feel sad
In fact, experiencing sad can actually prepare us for more complex emotional challenges!

Proof: I came across this study about variety of emotions and their vital roles in ensuring healthy personal development. Do have a look at it here.


Also there's no need to force happiness and be too harsh over negativity. 

Truly embrace tough emotions, as the truth is, sadness is common and everyone feels it. 
As for one of the best ways to deal with this feeling is to articulate it right instead of suppressing it. 
At the end of the day,
you only know you've been high when you're feeling low.
So thanks the low, as you'll come back stronger for the seek of your high.



That's all bout my little sharing. I hope it makes sense to you as much as it did to me, and if you haven't watch Inside Out yet, I'm sorry to be sucha spoiler :b 


And with this I'd like to thank you you and you who've been there with me when I fell into my sadness pond, and always got me back up into my joyish home. I love you all ♥ :)