Inside Out 2 And Porn

Inside Out 2 , the Disney Pixar film , is actually the highest grossing animated film of all time . It has broken so many box office records , and for good reason . It's a great film . Inside Out 1 was also wonderful and in this episode , we are going

to talk about what we can learn from these films , specifically for sexual recovery and finding freedom and healing from porn . Spoiler alert I am going to share details from the plots of these movies so that you can understand what I'm talking about , and if you do not want to hear those spoiler details , then this is not the episode for you .

First , let's go back to Inside Out , the original movie from 2015 . Inside Out tells the story of an 11-year-old girl named Riley , or , more accurately , it tells the story of Riley's emotions while she is going through a crisis when her family moves from Minnesota to California and at some point , she begins to see her sadness as a bad thing .

She thinks I can't be sad , I can't allow myself to be sad or show my parents that I'm sad , and so she exiles her sadness , she banishes sadness and at one point almost runs away from home . In the end she allows herself to be sad and that saves the day .

Through Inside Out we see the healing power of sadness and as the emotion of joy expresses in Inside Out 2 , I think a great summary of the big lesson we can take from the original Inside Out film is every emotion is good . For Riley , there's no such thing as a negative emotion or a bad emotion .

Certainly , some emotions are less pleasant than others , but they all have a role to play . A huge reason why Inside Out resonates so much is because it draws heavily on internal family systems , also known as IFS . We have done a number of episodes on internal family systems which I am going to put in the show notes for this episode .

Basically , ifs is a theory about who we are as people , how our brains work and what's going on inside of us . Inside Out does a great job of showing how that works and Inside Out 2 takes it to the next level .

In Inside Out 2 , riley goes through puberty , and puberty brings some new emotions Envy , embarrassment , and we which we might call boredom and anxiety , embarrassment and we which we might call boredom and anxiety . Now these emotions and these different parts of us can take control , and that's what happens to Riley in Inside Out 2 .

The emotion of anxiety takes over For many of us when we went through puberty , sexual arousal took control and became our solution for how to deal with the stress of life . In fact , arousal and anxiety often work together . Anxiety is feeling so stressed out and sexual arousal can help to relieve that stress .

So you can see how anxiety and arousal can get stuck in this cycle of repression and release , like they're fighting a war against each other . And many of you have experienced this , going back and forth between binging on porn and then purging from porn , feeling sexually aroused and giving into that and then trying to control it , trying to manage it .

When sexual arousal takes over the control panel of your brain , just like anxiety took over the control panel of Riley's brain your emotions are nowhere to be found .

You're not thinking about how you're feeling , you're not aware of how you're feeling and in Inside Out 2 , we see that happen as joy , sadness , fear , anger and disgust are all thrown out of the control room and they are banished to a place called the vault .

The vault is a secret place in Riley's brain where she hides things , things that she doesn't want to admit to herself and to other people . And in this case , her feelings are being thrown into the vault . So she doesn't want to admit how she's really feeling because it's not safe in the context of the film .

She doesn't feel safe to be real about how she feels , so these feelings go into the vault and they meet a few other characters there who are quite funny . One of them is the big dark secret and spoiler alert . In the film we discover that her big dark secret is that she once burned a hole in the carpet .

However , for many of us , porn is the big dark secret within the vault that we hide . It may be the fact that you have a struggle with porn , or it may be the specific type of porn that you've struggled with . That is your big dark secret .

And in order to save Riley from being controlled by anxiety , her emotions have to find a way to break free from the vault , and I think , in the same way , for us to find a way to break free from the control of sexual arousal . We need to let our emotions go free and be seen and known and loved .

In the crisis moment of the film , riley is having an anxiety attack . When her true thoughts and feelings are released , she finally regains access to them .

All parts of her embrace , anxiety , lets go of control , she can finally calm down , she can breathe and she integrates all of the things about her that Joy thought was bad or that anxiety said no , you can't be here . They're all welcomed back into parts of who she is .

And as Riley finally feels free to be honest and authentic and vulnerable , her sense of self returns .

Earlier on in the film , we were introduced to this idea that Riley has a sense of self that comes from beliefs like I'm a good person or I'm not good enough , and this is one of my favorite insights from the film , one of my favorite insights from Internal Family Systems . We cannot live well without a secure sense of self .

Whenever any single emotion takes control , it cannot lead well . Anxiety and anger and sexual arousal are all self-defeating if they're in charge . We need our core self to be leading the way in order to be healthy and whole and free from porn . So trying to suppress an emotion is self-defeating , and also allowing an emotion to take control is self-defeating .

And I think that is so , so true for our sexuality as well . Trying to suppress your sexual arousal is self-defeating , and allowing your sexual arousal to take control is self-defeating . The only way to not be self-defeating is to be self-led .

Being led by your core self , or what Christians would call your spirit-led self , or your identity in Christ , is the key to lasting freedom and healing . Having space for your emotions , having space for your sexual arousal and yet not letting that control you .

When you can welcome your true thoughts and feelings , feel safe enough to be vulnerable with other people , all the different emotions and voices in your head can relax and calm down and experience connection . So here are my takeaways for outgrowing porn from Inside Out 2 . Number one Puberty is a major crisis .

It is a test of survival Emotionally , sexually , socially and we need to have compassion on ourselves for the patterns that we picked up during that crucial stage of sexual development .

Number two the sexual secrets and suppressed emotions that we hide within us , like in Riley's vault , need to find a safe place to come out , to be told , to be known , to be loved and accepted . That is essential .

And number three , breaking free from self-destructive , self-defeating patterns like watching porn is really only possible through your core self , through your identity in Christ , through getting in touch with who you truly are and according to internal family systems .

Your core self is comprised of courage , curiosity , compassion , connection , confidence , calm , clarity , creativity . So many easy words , calm clarity , creativity so many easy words . When you are

able to access those qualities through connecting with God , yourself and other people , healing is the result and it becomes so much easier to be free from porn . Hope you get a chance to watch Inside Out and Inside Out 2 . And if you have thoughts on this , please share them in the husband material community .

Always remember my friend , you are God's beloved son . That's your core self and in you he is well pleased .