“All our emotions are meant to be felt. Even the hard ones. It’s okay to feel what you need to feel.”
                           – Inside Out 2

I gathered together a few friends and we saw the Disney Pixar movie, Insight Out 2. One of the many brilliant lines in the movie comes from the emotion, anxiety: “While fear protects Riley from the things she can see, my job is to protect her from the things she can’t see. I plan for the future.” This is demonstrated by showing video clips of endless possibilities of all that can go wrong in Riley’s life.

Sound familiar? We have all experienced those 3 am wake up sessions when anxiety moves in and creates chaos and worry. Once anxiety takes charge, all other emotions are suppressed and we are put on high alert, preparing and planning for the worst.

There are times in life when we develop such an attachment to wanting to look good, be popular, win the game, that it becomes almost an obsession. We lose all sense of self. We forget our values and what is important to us.  The more attached we are, the more restricted life seems to be. Feeling restricted can make us feel incomplete and that somehow we have failed.

Engaging in spiritual practices like meditation, journaling and expressing gratitude, we are empowered to free ourselves from anxiety and the constant chatter about what isn’t working. We are then open to discover other possibilities in store for us. When we tap into our inner wisdom and intuition, we let go of the suffering from the past, and the neediness of the future. Learning to live in the moment helps us stay centered in love.

We realign to what is important and allow love’s healing power to take charge when we live in the now moment. Taking time in the silence, we return to a place of peace and harmony. Instead of planning, changing, controlling, and fixing, we allow ourselves to just be and connect with the flow.

Take a breath and live in the flow. Give a gift to yourself and see this entertaining and uplifting movie.