By Dr. Rachel Busman of Child Mind Institute

I took my family to see the new Disney Pixar film Inside Out this weekend. To be honest, all I knew was that it was a movie done by Pixar Studios and that it was about feelings. Given that I have loved other Pixar movies, and that I work with feelings each day in my role as a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, I figured this would be a good choice.

I was blown away – the movie was fabulous and delivered an important message about how we handle children’s feelings. Not only did the film show the inner workings of the mind in a fun and informative way, it also showed us that it is the confluence of emotions that create our memories and essentially make us who we are. Sure, there are memories that are pure joy, but there are also memories and key experiences that became woven into the fabric of our personalities that have bits of sadness, fear and happiness as part of them. This is a great lesson that aunts can help their nieces and nephews understand.

This message, while it might seem overly simplistic, is important because while we want our nieces and nephews to have good, happy memories, we need to remember that sad memories are okay, too. Going through hard times and difficult adjustments helps kids become resilient. Kids can handle emotions including sadness, anger and disgust, if they are allowed to express these feelings, feel supported by their families and are then allowed to draw meaning from their experiences.

Kids will walk away from the film having enjoyed the colorful, vibrant animation, wonderful voice artists and unforgettable characters (my son and nephew loved that Lewis Black aka “Anger” could literally blow his stack!). Parents and aunts will walk away from the movie with a new appreciation of kids’ feelings.  

I walked away from the movie having shed a few tears – in part because the movie made me feel good about family, love and happiness, but also because I was able to have a real conversation with my son afterwards about how the coolest part of the movie was that your brain lets you have mixed feelings. He loved the idea that you can feel more than one thing at the same time about the same experience.

Photo: Inside Out Official
Published: June 23, 2015