What is Emotional Genuineness?

Puberty is the first red alarm signaling the greatest changes in an individual. It comes with messy thoughts and mixed emotions. Being a teenager often comes with a new title, REBEL. However, few people notice that becoming a teenager is the biggest transition in life because it equips each individual with more emotions. Thanks to the new emotions coming at that age, the painting of LIFE is vividly colored with a medium called “Ups & Downs”. And the question is, ” How can an individual effectively deal with his/her puberty and then form his or her personality?”. 

Riley is the name of the main character in Inside Out 2, she reaches puberty and experiences her first lifetime of ups and downs with her old and new emotions. Afterward, she brings the movie watchers a precious lesson about Emotions – “Know and respect your emotions; they come to color your life!”.

Riley and her first five friends

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I admire the story writers of Inside Out, they meticulously researched emotions and the theories related to human emotions. They set the appearance of Joy in Inside Out 1 as a person’s first and most pure emotion. When somebody comes to this life, joy is the first life companion they have on the journey, then Sadness silently comes and always stands side by side with Joy. These two emotions remind us of the balance of life. According to the research done by Robert Plutchik, he showed us an emotional wheel which states that there are 4 pairs of emotions Sadness and Joy, Fear and Anger, Disgust and Trust, Anticipation and Surprise. Among the emotions, 5 of them are the pure emotions that Riley had during her childhood. Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear, and Anger are the commonly seen emotions in a kid. They react to their surroundings honestly, sincerely, and truthfully. Thanks to these emotions, a kid can form the very first moral figure of himself or herself which is ” I am a good person”. Parents and teachers often remind kids of being good and doing good throughout the kids’ childhood.

Back to the emotional wheel, we can see the position of the emotions. The opposite emotions have a tight connection with each other. It means that when somebody reaches the strongest level of one emotion, they can direct to the other emotion right after encountering any favorable catalysts. For example, when you are on cloud nine, you can get grief if something unexpected happens. It is the rule! That’s why you can see Joy and Sadness be best friends through 2 seasons. What about the other emotions in Inside Out 1? Anger represents what is against your expectations, Fear symbolizes what you recognize as Danger in life, and Disgust reflects what you dislike. When you were a child, what highly concerned you could be Unexpectations, Danger, and Dislikes. The rule that a kid controls his or her life is that he or she is trying to do good to achieve Joy, carry fear to help stay away from danger, freely express anger and disgust, and set his or her sadness free with tears. It’s simple and very simple!

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Riley with the new 4 friends

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Life never gets as easy as we expect. Puberty can be seen as a big transition for a human. It signals physical, biological, and emotional changes. It’s time for Riley to see her new “friends” on the new chapter of her life journey. They are named Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui respectively. Being a teenager is not easy at all cause the “Rebels” are supposed to step out of their comfort zone. They are meant to learn how to deal with others’ evaluations, failures, social acceptance, hardship, and limitations. The Rebels do not want to be Rebels, however, they must be Rebels since they have to go through this stage to form their permanent-like personalities.

The new friends came to Riley naturally on a morning and they were likely to change Riley’s emotions. She became more anxious about every single event of hers. She worried about her performance, she started caring about others’ feelings and thoughts, and she noticed every small detail from others’ facial expressions or actions. Finally, she got drowned in her messy thoughts and anxiety. She built up all the scenarios that she supposed were possible. With the anxiety, she couldn’t stand being lost or behind others, she started sacrificing her old relationships to earn new ones, and even losing herself to get acceptance from her coach and dream team members in return. She accepts to hurt others and break her rules to achieve what she supposed was “good or beneficial” to her future.

The anxiety along with the encouragement from envy caused an uncontrollable reaction inside an individual’s head and body. As a result, people tend to do ridiculous things and put themselves in dilemmatic situations. Everything will end up in embarrassment and ennui. These ending emotions will kill humans’ hopes and ideals in life.

The four new friends of Riley remind us of the impacts of social factors on us. We cannot stop ourselves from anxiety, envy, embarrassment, and ennui when we are growing up. They are indispensable emotions that help you recognize your limitations such as what you do not know, what you haven’t got at the moment, what you are mistakenly doing,  and what makes you lose all motivation. They are considered useful navigators to help build a better version of a person every day.

When you were a child, you did your best to prove that you were a good person. When you got older, you realized that you were not good enough. However, being good can never be your destination. Instead, learn to deal with your emotions effectively, and allow the “primary” and “secondary” emotions to work well together. The mixed emotions will color your life events, but you are the one who directly plays with them and regains the balance you should have.

Inside Out and Outside In 

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The movie has ended with 2 seasons titled Inside Out which reminds us of what is happening inside each of us might control what we are doing outside. Whatever we have done might be caused by the factors inside. Learn their mechanism well and then deal with them properly. When using the concept of Inside Out, we are meant to deeply understand the root of our emotions and then learn to put them under our control. Also, you should carry out the concept of Outside In at the same time. Outside In will train you to be able to effectively observe your surroundings, understand what people need, and then find proper solutions based on your knowledge of Individuals’ “Inside Out”.

“Well control your Inside out to map out your Outside-in strategy”- Derek Nguyen