{"id":819,"date":"2024-07-04T17:11:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T17:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/darkcyan-turtle-783204.hostingersite.com\/?p=819"},"modified":"2026-03-01T16:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T16:23:14","slug":"ansiedade-crencas-emocionais-riley-divertida-mente-terapia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andreacruzpsy.com\/en\/ansiedade-crencas-emocionais-riley-divertida-mente-terapia\/","title":{"rendered":"Anxiety isn't just emotion, it's interpretation: what we learnt from Riley in Amusing Minds 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Anyone who has seen the new film Funny Mind 2<\/em> you may have left the cinema with a strange feeling, a mixture of identification, discomfort and even longing for yourself. That's because Riley, now a teenager, isn't just feeling new emotions. She's trying to understand what all this says about her.<\/p>\n

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And that's the main point: feeling anxious, ashamed, bored or envious is part of life. But the way we interpret these emotions can define how much they hurt us.<\/p>\n

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This is the focus of Emotional Schema Theory, developed by American psychologist Robert Leahy. It proposes that we all have a kind of \"personal theory\" about what it means to feel. This theory is built up throughout life (by culture, family, experiences) and determines how we react to what we feel.<\/p>\n

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Riley felt anxious, but the problem was what she believed<\/em> about it<\/h2>\n

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In the film, Riley begins to experience new and intense emotions. Anxiety, for example, comes on strong when she is called up for a hockey try-out. But more than anxious, Riley seems confused, ashamed and insecure. And this has less to do with the emotion itself, and more to do with the ideas she begins to form about having anxiety<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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She thinks that if she's anxious, then something is wrong. That if she feels afraid, she'll fail. That if she's nervous, she'll be rejected.<\/p>\n

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According to Leahy, these beliefs form what we call emotional schemas. And the problem with them is that they are often distorted, rigid and silent. We don't realise that we're believing these ideas, we just feel that everything is \"wrong\" inside us.<\/p>\n

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Emotions aren't the problem... the problem is how you've learnt to judge them<\/h2>\n

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How many times have you thought something like:<\/p>\n

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