Looking at Riley’s outer world in ‘Inside Out 2′

Source: ©Pixar Animation Studios

Inside Out 2 is the follow-up to Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out. Below guest blogger, Naomi Schaefer Riley, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, reviews “Inside Out 2”. It was originally published on Deseret News. This sequel, which was recently released, takes place inside the head of Riley, a 13-year-old girl who has just hit puberty.

Naomi Schaefer Riley

As in the first installment, this movie includes the personified “emotion” characters of Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear living inside Riley’s brain. But now, thanks to raging hormones, presumably, those characters are joined by Anxiety, Envy, Ennui and Embarrassment. Anxiety is the main antagonist in the new movie, and that’s not surprising, given how many teens (and especially girls) are suffering under the weight of that feeling these days.

There are plenty of clever moments in the movie, which turns our metaphors about the brain into a physical landscape with a “sar-chasm” and the “stream of consciousness.” But the most brilliant moment comes when we find out that Anxiety has taken over Riley’s imagination and is now employing all the little creatures who used to come up with fun stories or ideas to draw sketches of all the terrible possibilities that could result from any of Riley’s actions. If you’ve ever talked to a teenager paralyzed by anxiety, this is exactly what it seems like. You can keep telling them that those things won’t happen — or that if they do, things will still be OK — but they seem to come up with new worst-case scenarios faster than you can argue with them.

It is worth taking note of what’s going on outside Riley’s head, too. Because while one shouldn’t underestimate the power of puberty to make adolescents behave strangely, that has actually been the case for some time. Adolescents today, though, are experiencing an unprecedented mental health crisis. What is happening now that’s new? Is there anything in Riley’s outer life worth our notice?

The first thing you might notice about Riley is that she’s an only child. There are no siblings to compete with or horse around with or tease. She is an A student and a precocious hockey player. She has experienced, from what we can tell, almost no failure in her life. Her parents’ lives revolve around her. They both tuck her in at night. They come to her hockey games, wearing team jerseys and cheering her on. When she goes off to a weekend hockey camp, her mother and father are not quite sure what to do with themselves.

Riley does have friends, but the main activity she does with her friends is play hockey. If Riley has free time, we don’t see it. We see her buried under piles of homework and we see her at the ice rink, but that’s about it. This is all a recipe for anxiety. Riley is under a lot of pressure to perform and has experienced almost no independence. Though her parents are constantly trying to reassure her that they will love her no matter what, it’s hard to be the focus of all that adult attention.

Source: ©Pixar Animation Studios

At one point in the movie, even Joy recognizes that the steps she is taking to help Riley — getting rid of all of her bad memories — are actually hurting her. Those moments, when Riley has been embarrassed or done something that disappoints her parents, actually — to borrow a phrase — build character. It is notable that the word “character” does not appear in the movie. There are beliefs and dreams and memories and a “sense of self,” but character — something traditionally thought of as being forged through adversity — is not part of the landscape. It is not that Riley doesn’t work hard. She clearly does. But she is working as hard as she can taking directions from adults. She is playing high-level organized sports.

Robert Pondiscio, my colleague at the American Enterprise Institute, recently defended the importance of organized sports for shaping young people — noting “competitive sports remain unabashedly old school. Kids are held directly accountable. You show up, work hard and perform, or else you sit; the scoreboard is the last word in accountability and resiliency.” But it is also hard to dismiss the complaint that these activities are completely adult-directed and consume time that kids in previous eras would have spent figuring out how to play and get along on their own.

A final note. Like just about every other 13-year-old, Riley has a smartphone. We see her using it to take selfies, but the coach at the hockey camp takes all the phones away at the beginning of the weekend (Go, coach!). If Riley has this much anxiety without a phone, imagine what she would be like if she were constantly checking one. It is perfect that the only emotion associated with her own device is Ennui. Because, frankly, ennui was really not an emotion associated with teenagers until fairly recently.

“For elementary kids and tweens especially, the movie has proved to be an exceptionally great starting point for important conversations about anxiety and self-esteem. ‘These films are just such a great segue for talking about all the different kinds of feelings and really allowing for and normalizing them,’ says Jenn Wert, a parenting coach and educator who specializes in family relationships and communication.” [1]

For Gen Xers like me, and the Boomers before us, teen years may have been filled with the extremes of joy and sadness and anger, the deep desire for independence and especially risk taking. But rarely was it boring. What would it take to get us back to that kind of childhood? Turning our world inside out.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR 'INSIDE OUT 2'

• “Who was your favorite character in Inside Out 2? Why did you like them?
• Can you tell me about a time when you felt like one of the characters in the movie?
• What do you think caused Riley to start changing what she believed about herself?
• Have you ever felt emotions that surprised you?
• Can you think of a time when you felt a mix of different emotions at the same time?
• How did Riley act when her anxiety was at the ‘control panel’? What did you think about how she responded to that feeling?
• If you were to make a movie like this with you as the main character instead of Riley, what other emotion might you add?” [2]

RESOURCES

• Previous LIAS Blog on Inside Out 1  

VIDEOS

• Webinar Recording: The Science Behind ‘Inside Out 2’
• ‘Inside Out 2’ Official Trailer
• Best Scenes in Inside Out 2 Headquarters! 

MORE ABOUT…

Naomi Schaefer Riley is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she focuses on child welfare and foster care issues. Specifically, her work analyzes the role of faith-based and community organizations in changing the foster care and adoption services landscape. She also studies how race, class and family structure affect foster care placement and services and the impact of the drug crisis on child welfare. She is concurrently a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum. She is the author of “No Way to Treat a Child: How the Foster Care System, Family Courts, and Racial Activists Are Wrecking Young Lives,” among other books.

The American Enterprise Institute is a public policy think tank dedicated to defending human dignity, expanding human potential, and building a freer and safer world. The work of our scholars and staff advances ideas rooted in our belief in democracy, free enterprise, American strength and global leadership, solidarity with those at the periphery of our society, and a pluralistic, entrepreneurial culture.

The Greater Good Science Center is unique in its commitment to both science and practice: Not only do they sponsor groundbreaking scientific research into social and emotional well‐being, they help people apply this research to their personal and professional lives.

 

END NOTES

[1] Ashley Austrew, A parent’s guide to ‘Inside Out 2’: What to know before seeing the movie with kids
[2] Tamar Davis, Talking to Kids About ‘Inside Out 2’

Voices from the Afterschool Field on Self-Care (Part 2)

Source: www.pexels.com

 

By Sam Piha

We interviewed several afterschool leaders on the importance and benefits of youth worker self-care. Below are their responses. This blog is an excerpt from our recently released briefing paper entitled, "Self-Care for Youth Workers."

Q: What experiences in youth work result in a need for self-care?

(LR): I think youth workers are pushed to their limit with capacity to reduce cost for programs; and especially now, the workforce is strained, so without enough staff, folks are pulling double duty. Beyond this, I think staff experience – at the very least – secondary trauma from the trauma their youth experience. Youth workers care so much about the work they do and the young people in their care, and this can be a heavy weight to carry, considering the challenges many of the youth they serve are grappling with. And, many staff are grappling with their own trauma as well. 

(LP): The issues that youth bring to our staff can be overwhelming and daunting; especially for our younger staff who are closer to the age of some of our older youth. The pandemic created situations in which our younger staff felt they could not provide the support needed, because they felt hopeless in solving complex issues. The older staff would assist and tell the younger staff to take a break, take care of yourself – “we understand this can be overwhelming.” Even our older staff needed time away, because they would give and give to the point, of exhaustion.

 

Q: In your experience, what works? 

(SS): Education, group discussion, assessment, and training. Also, building a nurturing organizational culture that encourages personal self-care and genuinely values and honors one another is essential. An intentionally, caring, educational community naturally promotes personal self-care as a healthy shared practice.

 

(LR): All in all, I think the issues are systemic – so, while I think helping individuals figure out how to navigate these challenges and care for themselves is good, I think helping individuals do self-care without addressing why wellness and mental health is such a major issue in our field is a major miss. We need to be looking at how we’re changing roles and positions and pay that results in sustainable jobs and livable wages if we truly want to see wellness in the field.

(LP): It begins with the depth of relationship with your staff. Have you created a safe, nurturing welcoming environment to help them seek self-care. We focus on an Indigenous worldview of self-care, that we are connected to everything and everything is connected to us. The culture of caring, kindness, and compassion in the Youth Institute is shared with all the staff in the afterschool program to ensure they are connected and in balance. Education and reflection (discussion) is our main strategy for

self-care from an Indigenous worldview.

 

Q: What do you do in your organization to address this topic? 

(SS): EduCare Foundation teaches “Eight Skills for Heartset ® Education” tools for self-care through self-awareness, mindfulness, self-forgiveness, and empathetic listening. When these become our personal baseline, then we can create a kind and compassionate climate at school and at home that impacts, sustains, and elevates ourselves and children. As we develop a deeper positive regard (honoring and caring) for ourselves, then we can have a mindset and a heartset that really sees the best in our children and their aspirations. We can be ones who see the possibilities of their bright future, at times when they don’t even see it for themselves. From our growth heartset, we are compassionate sparks that support and lift both our young people and ourselves.

 

Organizationally, we do our best at EduCare to practice these tools for self-care with and for our staff. There is attention to structuring meetings to start with check-ins and centering activities (e.g.- mindfulness & gratitude), offering communication and self-care workshops, providing ample time off to

allow for nurturing ourselves and our families, and scheduling staff celebrations and acknowledgment activities for supporting one another.

 

(LR): We’ve had a lot of conversations in our organization about self-care over the years. It’s not easy in a small nonprofit, but we are committed to the people in our organization so continue to strive to grow and improve. I think organizationally wellness starts with workload. There is no self-care that will change a sole-crushing, impossible workload. This is probably one of the hardest shifts to make though, because the world outside us, i.e. funders, still expect us to do our work for pennies on the dollar, and staff often pay the price. We are doing our best to get to true cost in our budgets and grant requests, and hold the line with and educate our funders.

 

A couple additional practices:

• We have an annual health and wellness benefit that is essentially a bonus for staff to use to support their wellness. 
• We do a compensation and benefits review every three years to ensure we are paying competitive wages and a living wage to all staff.
• We give the week around Christmas off to the full team, which is beyond vacation and personal time.
• We have been experimenting the past two years with what we’re calling the “July Slowdown”, which means no external communication, no external meetings, just time for the team to slowdown, look inward, get projects done that they haven’t been able to get to (i.e. cleaning up files, clean desk, update curriculum) and work shorter days.
• We hold “flex” rules pretty firmly for salaried staff – if you have to work extra hours, you pay yourself back with time off.
• We spend time and resources accounting for our team relationships and staff culture, as we think this is critical for wellness, and wellness is critical for org success.
• Staff are co-designing these solutions, which I also think is important so that we can ensure needs are being met.

And of course, we have a bunch of mental health and wellness curriculum which incorporates wellness for youth but also for adults:  https://www.calsac.org/virtual-training#mh&w

(LP): We stressed with our staff that you need to be in a healthy mind and spirit before you help others, because the youth are counting on you to help them. Encouraging them to practice weekly self-care; by going outside, taking a walk, going to the gym, meditating, learn a new skill (non-work related).

Voices from the Afterschool Field on Self-Care (Part 1)

Source: All photos from www.pexels.com

By Sam Piha

We interviewed several afterschool leaders on the importance and benefits of youth worker self-care. Below are their responses. This blog is an excerpt from our recently released briefing paper entitled, "Self-Care for Youth Workers."

Q: Why should youth workers engage in self-care?

(AB): Positive relationships are key to health, school-engagement, and community. As youth workers and educators, we take care of the needs of students and families every day, but we often overlook our own self-care in the process. Additionally, there are many stressors in life that can be experienced on a daily basis, and it is well-known that stress can also be seen as contagious, if I’m having a bad day, my mood can contribute to you also having a bad day. Therefore, engaging in self-care in order to combat the effects of stress by releasing the stress in order to reset the body by engaging in self-care, it’s a way in order to refill your own cup! 



(SS): In order to give to others in healthy ways, youth workers need to remember to give first to ourselves. Only then can we give from the overflow. We take care of ourselves so we can take care of each other.

As we take good care of ourselves and fill our own cup, giving becomes an expression or act of compassionate service. We can give of the natural overflow. Acts of service to others, it has been said, are the highest form of loving. It is the nature of the unconditionally loving heart, a growth heartset,

to give. The joy of giving is a wonderful gift youth workers give ourselves. It starts however with a genuine necessity to taking care of ourselves. Self-care, rather than being a self-centered or indulgent practice, is truly the essential ingredient that supports our mental health and resilience allowing us to be more fully available for our young people.

 

As healthy, authentic role models, youth workers then can deeply assist our students as they navigate and strengthen their positive emotional and mental health. Our attention to our self-care is at the core.

 

(LR): Everyone needs self-care. We live in a society that expects us to push so hard with a disregard for ourselves, and this has so many negative results – i.e. mental health challenges, physical health issues, etc. Stress (unmanaged) is a major killer.

(LP): The pandemic elevated internal and external stresses that have increased mental health issues among our youth and peers. During this crisis, youth workers where on the front lines providing comprehensive services to meet the diverse needs of the communities and youth they serve. This created undo stress on youth workers, causing many to seek help for themselves. In our afterschool program, we mobilized our resources to ensure that staff had opportunities to step away and take care of themselves. We established extended lunches by eating outside to share and reflect on what issues and concerns that they needed assistance with. Staff become their support group through the pandemic.

 

Q: What have you seen are the benefits of self-care?

(AB): Self-care is the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one's own health. Since a lot of us may have experienced some form of trauma, there are great benefits to identifying trauma and dealing with it through self-care techniques. For example, simply taking the time to participate in an artistic pursuit can be seen as self-care and make the heart rejoice! Self-care can help to combat anxiety, hopelessness or lack of motivation. There is indeed an interconnectedness of stress, self-care, and well-being. 

 

(SS): Educators and youth workers, as did many, went through a tremendously tough time during and post pandemic. The trauma, that they personally experienced along with the secondary trauma from working with their students who in turn were traumatized, caused great stress. It impacted their lives and their ability to truly give to their students in ways that the most wanted to. Self-care was a key ingredient for healing themselves and restoring their resiliency, fortitude, and commitment.

 

(LR): In our society, self-care is often branded as getting a mani-pedi or something like that. And while this is nice and all, I think self-care with depth are things like therapy, boundaries, self-reflection, etc...things that can help us navigate our lives and the world around us better – this is where I’ve personally experienced a true release and recovery. And with that in mind, these types of practices – and even things like exercise and healthy eating, are ways that we take time to invest in ourselves with the intention of a more restorative and balanced life. When we are making shifts like this – major shifts in habits/perspective, the results are transformative. We are able to engage in the world differently, feel differently in our day to day, and are able to support others better.

(LP): Staff are centered, rested, and focused to engage with youth. In many Indigenous communities, self-care is part of being “connected” – to self, to nature and to your community. We follow that same philosophy with our staff about being connected and understanding that we are related to everything, like a web. If one strand of the web breaks if effects everything else – it becomes unbalanced, you lose your way (focus). Self-care is a part of that balance of being connected.