When the famous five come knocking, let all of them in

I watched a movie called “Inside out” about a 11-year-old girl Riley – and what goes on in her head. Five emotions live there – Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust. The famous five, that we are all familiar with.

In the week that went by, I met with all of them.

Got off to a good start, had gone to Bangalore to meet with a client on Monday and by happy coincidence, my parents were also in Bangalore that evening. The anticipation of meeting with them and the memory of the time we spent together had Ms. Joy quite busy through Monday and in bits and pieces during the rest of the week. Ms. Joy couldn’t help herself, she was just so happy for this bonus time with family that she kept popping up in unexpected place, bringing a smile to my face. 

As the week progressed, some sadness crept in. Found out that a team member was leaving the firm. In our business this is a fairly regular affair, lots of comings and goings of people. But try as I might to make it not matter, it still makes me sad. And then the point of the movie dawns on me. It’s good to be sad, it means I valued that team members presence in my life and we did some pretty wonderful things together. Mr. Sad was just reminding me of that.

Master Anger reared his red head on the flight. There was a kid in the row ahead of me who was a tantrum king. Yelled and screamed at his mother and grandmother the entire flight. Helpless airhostess and hapless passengers had to put up with 2 hours of this tireless tirade. For the first 5 minutes Master Anger was all fired up. I cursed under my breath, somehow managed to stop myself from getting up and giving the little fellow and his helpless minders a piece of my mind. Better sense prevailed. With the help of my earphones and Netflix I managed to keep master anger at bay for most of the journey. Also reflected on how blessed I was to have a son who never subjected us or fellow passengers to similar torture. Thank you for that reminder Master Anger.

Shri Fear, fluttered in and out of the entire week. I am trying out something new. A webinar on a topic that I was not familiar with is coming up next week. New technology, new subject, new experience and all of a sudden Shri Fear kept fluttering in and out. Showing up sometimes most unexpectedly. Turns out, it can be a good thing in moderation. Made me work harder at the presentation, read more, ask more questions, prepare, prepare, prepare. Thank you, Shri Fear.

Mrs. D visited too. Mostly directed at myself. Disgusted with the fact that I have lost my stamina. Not been playing tennis for the last 6 months and having put on a bit of weight Mrs. D has been eating into me. Good news here too. Am back to careful eating and have managed to increase my daily exercise and the weighing scale and my belt both say a big thank you Mrs. D.

If you have not seen it yet, I highly recommend you watch inside out (I saw it on Netflix) Inside Out Official Trailer #1 (2015) - Disney Pixar Movie HD - YouTube. This inside out view of the world left me uplifted, because the moral of the story is that we must embrace all our emotions, not just the ones we think are good for us. They each have a role to play in our humanness. We need to be more mindful and conscious of what’s going on in our head. Don’t try and block out emotions as they are all there to help us, even the ones that make us feel bad sometimes. And in the process make a whole lot of memories that will help you on your way into tomorrow.

Whether you are 11 or 21 or 31 or 41 or 81, we all have these little fellows running around in our head, helping or hindering us through the day. Embrace all their help or ignore a few and allow them to hinder your progress. The choice is yours. As they say in the part of the world that I grew up in, just MIND-IT.