You Are Who You Tell Yourself You Are

For a generation of Pixar fans, who have the term ‘core memory’ firmly in their lexicon, the announcement of Inside Out 2 should have perhaps been met with greater anticipation.

But after lackluster releases like Elementals and direct-to-streaming features like Luca, you would be forgiven to have thought that Pixar, as the kids would say, was washed.

Turning to the famous words of Camus though, Pixar with the release of Inside Out 2 found in the midst of ‘It’s So Over,’ an invincible ‘We’re So Back.’

Like many of its contemporaries in the post-therapy art era, the animated film prominently features anxiety as a theme — and also a character.

Now, as someone who has written more anxiety blogs than what can be considered charming, this subject matter is normally right in my strike zone.

And while it was, I found myself more enamored by the movie’s idea of how one builds their sense of self.

The film proposes that our core beliefs, from key memories, coalesce to form a perspective of ourselves.

Focus on your achievements, and you will be abused with the idea that you are capable of only good. But focus on your shortcomings, and you will only see yourself as not good enough.

The movie edifies viewers with the classic ‘we all contain multitudes, have contradictions, and should love each part of ourselves’ teaching that many dead philosophers have asserted.

For me though, the long and short is that we all tell a story about ourselves inside our own head.

We tell ourselves what we can overcome and crucially, what we can't.

Written in pencil though, that story is susceptible to change. And even though the story is inside your own head, if you’re not careful the world will edit it for you.

Like the movie suggests then, it would be advisable for the story you tell yourself to be robust and comprehensive.

To not focus only on the bad. But also, not only on the good.

What chance, after all, does a clear glass of water have against even a single drop of food coloring?

Thanks for reading and please love yourself!