“Fun Mind”, A Movie To Teach Emotional Intelligence
But mommy, you don’t have to worry. There are several books and movies that can help with this difficult but important task.
In this article, we’re going to talk about a really useful movie to teach your child emotional intelligence and understand the internal mechanisms that exist in every human being. Therefore, in this article we will be focused on “Fun Mind”, an animated production by Disney Pixar.
This audiovisual production drew a lot of attention from children and adults, being also highly recommended by psychologists, as it focuses on the importance of our emotions for optimal mental health, in addition to forming our personality and ability to socialize.
At the same time, the film highlights the need for when we are in difficult and traumatic situations, typical of this multicolored life and not just pink, to give us time to process what we need to face and simply feel, both good and bad, avoiding creating incongruities between the interior and the exterior.
What is “Fun Mind” all about?
The movie “Fun Mind” stands out from other Disney Pixar productions for recreating the role of emotions in our daily actions. The story centers on Riley, an 11-year-old girl, an age at which, according to several studies, positive emotions decrease in frequency and intensity.
This girl needs to move to another city due to her father’s work, which means leaving behind her home, friends, activities, familiar places and leaving only with her memories. But the real story takes place inside Riley and the protagonists are his emotions.
Thus, Alegria, Anger, Sadness, Fear and Disgust, basic emotions of every human being, begin to work anxiously in order to guide the girl through this difficult transition. However, each of them will fulfill very specific roles in the preadolescent’s behavior.
Teach Emotional Intelligence and More
However, this attempt to teach children’s emotional intelligence demonstrates that human beings are not only composed of emotions, but also short- and long-term thoughts and memory, dreams, the subconscious, fantasy, abstract thinking, and personality.
This film has the merit of clarifying to children that emotions are responsible for organizing rational thought. Because they are what guide our perception of the world, our memories and even all moral judgment around good and evil.
Definitely, the message of the film would be none other than to learn to positively value all emotions, regardless of the weight that each one has. The ideal, then, is to respect and value emotions equally, to maintain a balanced personality.
The Importance of All Emotions
- Happiness. It is responsible for keeping the protagonist positive. It celebrates your successes, awakens your optimism and feeds your good mood. It is also responsible for ensuring the repetition of behaviors that were good or pleasurable.
- Disgusting. It’s the one who is in charge of protecting Riley from any internal or external factors that hurt or harm us. Then, it will be the one who will check that the girl does not smell bad, does not eat or drink something in a bad state of repair, does not walk in dirty or smelly places and that she dresses well.
- Fear. Its function is simple and complex survival, deciding what is the fine line between danger and insurance. It’s simple, without fear we don’t survive. Thus, fear – especially in children – is capable of acting in both real and imagined dangers.
- Anger. It is responsible for defending our loved ones and, of course, ourselves. Therefore, anger breaks out when limits are crossed or when the girl becomes excessively irritated. This emotion also acts in the face of injustice, as an advocate of integrity and coherence.
- Sadness. Even though it is an emotion apart from others, given that many consider sadness as non-useful, as it only gets in the way, this is not true. Sadness is one of the most important. It is a fundamental pillar in personal growth, as it takes care of remembering to take time to ourselves to think and meditate on the changes needed to complete steps. That is, we need the sadness to put together our parts that were broken, after being in tatters to finally reintegrate us as people.
a lesson in sadness
Without a doubt, “Fun Mind” leaves children with an enriching moral lesson and capable of teaching emotional intelligence. Thus, the teaching of this film suggests that it is not convenient to hide or run away from any emotion.
It must not mask anger, ward off fear, inhibit joy, and even less drown sadness. The best thing is to live, experience and manifest each one of them, because every emotion needs its space. Therefore, the ideal is that the child does not repress crying, laughter, anger or affection.
Often, we have stigmatized both anger and sadness, mistakenly believing that being sad is bad or that crying is a sign of weakness.
The first thing we do is force happiness or forget to solve the child’s problem, preventing him from enjoying and building on his sadness.
Yes, children should take advantage of sadness, this emotion as useful and valid as any other. Because it allows the child to give way to their pain to reflect, build and – why not? – share it.
May the child not run away from this discomfort. It is better to listen and explain to your children that they must release negative feelings and charges.
