Pixar Does Parts Work
As Within, So Without
tldr; my summer (personal development) book on repeat has been No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz. Imagine my surprise watching Inside Out 1 & 2 with my nieces this week only to discover that Pixar is normalizing not just feeling our feelings, but befriending our parts! Summer has come full circle ⭕!
I joined my nieces for a summer-last-hoorah at the movies this week to see Inside Out 2! One of the film’s most powerful messages is the importance of embracing all our emotional parts.
As the saying goes:
As within, so without.
The notion that who we are on the inside shapes our external experience.
But who are we on the inside?
In the movie, the main character Riley’s PARTS (joy, fear, disgust, sadness, anxiety, etc) make up her INTERNAL SYSTEM. All the parts are working together (eventually) to form belief systems for her greater good.
THIS is Parts Work and Internal Family Systems (IFS) played out in a Pixar film 🤯!
IFS is a type of therapy based on the notion that we have a lot of internal parts (like Riley in the Pixar film) that are trying their best to keep us safe at all times. Unfortunately, our parts don’t always get it right, so even when they are trying to keep us safe they could be holding us back. We see all of this play out in the plot of Inside Out 2.
The good news for us IRL: we can work with our parts! It’s called Parts Work. And when you work with your parts, your WITHIN gets healthier so your WITHOUT gets better!
Here's my guide to exploring Parts Work:
Entry Level: Watch Inside Out 1 & 2!
Tell Me More: Check out these podcast episodes with Richard Schwartz the mastermind behind IFS: Gabby Bernstein, Tim Ferriss, Rich Roll
Ready to Deep Dive: Check out the book No Bad Parts, by Richard Schwartz. I use the exercises in the audible version to talk to my parts and it feels like therapy but better because it’s on demand! My favorite is the “Daily IFS Meditation”, the exercise at the end of Chapter 4. 10/10 recommend!
To see the concepts of Parts Work played out on the big screen in vibrant animated colorful characters through the Inside Out movies is wild and exciting. The future looks so bright!