Adaptivity and our personality
© Disney/Pixar
Adaptability, our personality and our brain: 3 essential elements to navigate smoothly through this changing environment.
Why does one person succeed and another person not in adapting smoothly to changes? Why is it possible for me and not for others? Bizarre, and to understand this, it is necessary to bring in neuroscience for a moment. Boring, you think? Thanks to Disney it doesn't have to be.
The Disney movie Inside Out is much more than a comedy with a happy ending. Many children have had a good laugh at this film but there is much more to it: it is a film with a profound neurological meaning about our adaptivity.
This film, highly recommended for family viewing during this Easter break, employs the most modern neurobiological view of humans and takes us inside what goes on in the brain of Riley, an adolescent girl who is having a hard time adjusting to her parents' move from Minnesota to San Francisco.
Riley is portrayed as a person who is controlled by a collection of contradictory biochemical mechanisms, embodied by fun cartoon characters: the yellow, cheerful Joy, the blue, sombre Sadness, the red, hot-tempered Anger... These characters regulate all of Riley's moods, decisions and actions from the Headquarters in her brain. From behind a large screen, all her actions are carefully monitored.
Riley's inability to adapt to her new life in San Francisco is the result of an imbalance in her brain, an inner struggle at Headquarters. The big moment of revelation comes not when Riley discovers her own authentic self (which is what Disney films are often about, after all) but when it becomes clear that Riley cannot be identified with one clear core and that her well-being depends on the interaction between all sorts of different mechanisms. Riley discovers that she is not Pleasure, or Sadness, or any of the other characters, but that she is a complex story that arises from the conflicts and collaborations of all the biochemical characters together.
These are wise lessons for us: our behaviour is not easy to express or, let alone, predict. Self-knowledge is therefore crucial to navigate smoothly in changing circumstances. Are you more of an animator type, looking for movement or more of an administrator, striving for maximum safety. This will certainly have an impact on your attitude towards change. In addition, our stress management plays a fundamental role, and this for everyone! In calm circumstances the different characters in our Headquarters work smoothly together, but when something important changes in our lives, this biochemical balance is turned completely upside down. Our control room loses control and old parts of our brain kick in. Suddenly one character can dominate and we often don't recognize ourselves anymore.
Knowledge of our personality (which drivers, which temperaments steer our behaviour?) and knowledge of our brain (how can I protect and strengthen my executive functions, which stress management techniques are best for me) are crucial foundations of adaptivity. Would you like to know more about this? Here is the link to our white paper "Our brain, a curse or a blessing".
Working on our adaptivity, on increasing our AQ, starts from this basic neurocognitive insight and techniques to work with it in a concrete way can be found for example in the chapters Energy and Balance. But also the other themes, such as Essentialism, Focus and Growth Mindset will contribute to more peace in our brain, to more overview and serenity in our Headquarters.
Inspiration: 21 lessons for the 21st century (Yuval Noah Harari)
Adaptability, our personality and our brain: 3 essential elements to smoothly navigate in this changing environment.
Why does one person adapt smoothly and another person fails to adapt to changes? Why do I succeed and at other times I don't? Weird, no, and in order to understand this it is necessary to bring in neuroscience. Boring, do you think? Thanks to Disney, this doesn't have to be the case.
The Disney movie Inside Out is much more than a comedy with a happy ending. Many children enjoyed this film a lot, but there is much more to it: it is a film with profound neurological significance about our adaptability.
An absolute must to watch with the family during this Easter break, this film takes the most modern neurobiological view of the human race and takes us to what goes on in the brain of Riley, an adolescent girl who finds it difficult to adapt to the move her parents made from Minnesota to San Francisco.
Riley is portrayed as a person controlled by a collection of contradictory biochemical mechanisms, embodied by cute cartoon characters: the yellow happy Pleasure, the blue gloomy Sadness, the red hot-tempered Fury, ... These characters all control Riley's moods, decisions and actions from the Headquarters in her brain. All her actions are closely followed from behind a large screen.
Riley's inability to adjust to her new life in San Francisco is the result of an imbalance in her brain, an inner battle at Headquarters. The big moment of unveiling in the film is not when Riley discovers her own authentic self (which is often the case with Disney films) but precisely when it becomes clear that Riley cannot be identified with one clear core and that her well-being depends on the interaction between all kinds of different mechanisms. Riley discovers that she is not Pleasure, or Sadness, or any of the other characters, but that she is a complex story that arises from the conflicts and collaborations of all the biochemical characters together.
These are very wise lessons for us: our behavior is not easy to express or, let alone predict. Self-knowledge is therefore crucial to smoothly navigate in changing circumstances. Are you more of an animator type, looking for movement or rather a controller, striving for amaximum of safety? This will certainly have an impact on your attitude towards change. In addition, our stress management skills play a fundamental role, and this for everyone! In calm circumstances, the different characters in our Headquarters work smoothly together, but if something important changes in our lives, this biochemical balance is completely upset. Our control room is "losing control" and old parts of our brain are playing up. Suddenly one character can dominate and we often no longer recognize ourselves.
Knowledge of our personality (which drivers, which temperaments determine our behavior?) and knowledge of our brain (how can I protect and strengthen my executive functions? which stress management techniques suit me best?) are crucial foundations of adaptivity. If you want to learn more about this: here is the link to our whitepaper "Our brain, a curse or a blessing" (dutch)
Working on our adaptivity, increasing our AQ, starts from this neurocognitive basic insight and techniques to get started with this can be found, for example, in the chapters on Energy and Balance. But also the other themes, such as Essentialism, Focus and Growth Mindset, will contribute to more peace in our brain, to more overview and serenity in our Headquarters.
Inspiration: 21 lessons for the 21st century (Yuval Noah Harari)
