Life Lesson #67 ~ Riding an Emotional Train Wreck ( Part Three)

Part 3

Finishing up our chat on emotions there's no doubt life is difficult. Let's be honest. Maybe your day or even your year has been anything but serine or relaxed.  Maybe you want to shout and scream and throw yourself on the ground. But let me encourage you; Joy can still keep you balanced. Even Fear from Inside Out blurts out after a bad day, “"All right! We did not die today, I call that an unqualified success!" We’ve all been there right?  In fact I can say with confidence our family has been all over the emotional chart. I think this is why Inside Out became a quick favorite, as it struck an emotional cord. Listening into Riley’s emotions I can almost hear what must go on inside my kiddo’s heads at times.

“Joy: Oh c'mon, it could be worse... Joy: Oh c'mon, it could be worse...

Disgust: Yeah, Joy. We could be lying on the dirty floor. In a bag.

Joy: Okay, I admit it, we had a rough start. But think of all the good things that...

Anger: No, Joy. There's absolutely no reason for Riley to be happy right now. Let us handle this.

Fear: I say we skip school tomorrow and lock ourselves in the bedroom.

Disgust: We have no clean clothes. I mean, no one should see us.

Sadness: Yeah, we could cry until we can't breathe.

Anger: We should lock the door and scream that curse word we know. It's a good one!”

Let's face it. Emotions left on their own, reacting at will are a total mess. They will and do cause internal chaos if we don't rein them in. A bad situation gets worse. A simple misunderstanding becomes a line drawn in the sand. Before we know what's happened our emotional state is sinking in quick sand. Pride, bursting on the scene has quickly taken over and we're in deep uncharted territory. So what to do about all this? Honestly taking a step back, getting off the runaway train and not only facing but confronting Fear, Disgust and Anger is the first step. Sadness and Joy, they will take care of the rest.

The truth is as a family we’ve worked very hard to keep our memory train on track and headquarters in line.  As sad as it may be, we've let go of memories long due to be hauled off to the memory dump. We’ve rebuilt our many ‘islands’. Some have been put back together with the old core memories while new ones have been added to our foundation. Headquarters is still running on all the key emotions, just a little more balanced. Joy is at the helm, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust all get their two cents worth and shift at the console. Life is good. Taking a cue from Joy, I quote, "All right everyone, fresh start! We"re gonna have a good day, which will turn into a good week, which will turn into a good year, which will turn into a good life!"

~Christina