Page 28 - HERE AND NOW Dec 2022

experiences and becomes more depressed, culminating in her running away and shutting off her emotions
until Joy and Sadness finally return to the headquarters. After Riley returns home and expresses her true
feelings to her parents, each island is rebuilt in course of time and newer islands are also formed.

I loved that Sadness, rather than Joy, emerges as the hero of the movie. Sadness connects deeply with
people as a critical component of happiness—and helps Riley also recognize the same process. When
Riley’s long-forgotten imaginary friend Bing Bong feels dejected after the loss of his wagon, it is Sadness’
empathic understanding that helps him recover, not Joy’s attempt to put a positive spin on his loss.

In the film’s final chapter, when Joy cedes control to some of her fellow emotions, particularly Sadness,
Riley seems to achieve a deeper level of happiness. Emotions indeed shape our personality, and makes us
understand why there happens to be a link between being happy and being outgoing, between
competitiveness and athleticism, and between love and strong family ties. The film has some deep things
to say about the nature of our emotions and has moved viewers - young and old - to take a look at what
happens inside of their own minds. I commend the movie's depiction of a girl's mind and how it matures
due to the change in environment where the same feelings and same people exist, yet for her, everything
has changed.

I was able to distil a few other insights in our emotional lives, findings that are also backed by research:

1) Happiness is not just about joy - There is much more to being happy than boundless positivity.
2) Don’t try to force happiness – I felt an old, familiar frustration when in the film, Riley’s mother
tells her to be her parents’ “happy girl” while the family relocates and her father goes through a
difficult period at work. As a child, I got similar messages and used to think that something was
wrong with me if I wasn’t happy all the time. Research suggests that making happiness an explicit
goal in life can actually make us miserable. The more people strive for happiness, the greater the
chance that they would set very high standards of happiness for themselves and feel disappointed
and less happy when they are not able to live up to those standards all the time.
3) Mindfully embrace—rather than suppress—tough emotions, especially Sadness which is vital to
our well-being - With great sensitivity, the film reflects on how difficult emotions like sadness,
fear, and anger, can be extremely uncomfortable for people to experience—which is why many
of us go to great lengths to avoid them. But in the film, as in real life, all of these emotions serve
an important purpose by providing insights into our inner and outer environments in ways that
can help us connect with others, avoid danger, or recover from loss. Rather than getting caught
up in the drama of an emotional reaction, a mindful person keenly observes what they are feeling
without judging it as the right or wrong way to feel in a given situation, creating space for
themselves to choose a healthy response.

The film’s fundamental messages about emotions are consistent with scientific research even though the
movie may not be entirely accurate about the human psyche, since neither humans nor their psyches are
that simple. Viewers across the globe have commended the movie for the values it projects. Even when it
is an animation movie, adults as well as children are able to enjoy it and in the process, get in touch with
feelings and, possibly, foster deeper and more compassionate connections to themselves and those
around them.

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