Far be it for me to write the script for ‘Inside Out 3’, but after watching ‘Inside Out 2’ (finally), I am excited to start a conversation about the emotions that might be at play inside an older person’s head (I emphasise the word ‘play’ here to manifest my New Year intention to stay positive). Scrap that; I have Sixty-Something Silver Surfer status, so I need to scope the script for ‘Inside Out The Retirement Years’, because by the time ‘Inside Out 6’ hits the screens, I may not have access to the remote control in my rest home of choice.

If you are late to Pixar’s party, the premise of the ‘Inside Out’ franchise is to animate the emotions fighting to dominate the personality of our young heroine Riley. In the first film Joy, Sadness, Fear and Disgust have all been doing a successful job, but in ‘Inside Out 2’, hormones hit and puberty introduces a complex new set of emotions such as Anxiety, Embarrassment and Boredom who challenge Joy to stay committed to her cause.

Watching the film from the comfort of the sofa in the knowledge that my own favourite kids are now long past puberty and that I nurse a very large glass of red wine, I reflect to Himself how lovely it is to be the age we are. It turns out that while I have been engrossed in the tribulations of Riley’s teenage years, Himself has been having a cheeky nap beside me, so I have to fill in the gaps of the film and explain my rationale.

I am of the opinion that we Later Lifers earn some additional emotions that make these later years pretty wonderful. If we work at it, we do keep Joy in our lives, but we take her less for granted; wrecking balls such as health, relationships and finance serve to keep us nimble afoot and non-complacent. It also helps to focus on outside interests and people rather than living inside our heads.

‘I didn’t know you when I first started blogging,’ I explain to Himself, ‘but my intention then was to navigate through some difficult times and write about it with irreverence. I wanted to remind people that we all just do the best that we can, that we support each other brilliantly and that in later years there are belly laughs aplenty to share. Naturally, I was full of Anxiety when I published my first blog but my friends pushed me on.’

Himself has fallen asleep again and it seems that I have been delivering my elevator pitch to myself rather than to a potential subscriber. I pride myself on my soporific tone (still positive) and decide not to take offence (much easier to let things go in your later years). I promise to return to the topic later – perhaps when Himself has managed to stay awake for the whole film and has some views of his own to share.

Later arrives, and now also nursing a glass of red, Himself engages enthusiastically in this debate.

Firstly we discuss the teenage emotions that we were glad to get shot of. We narrow these down to Embarrassment, Boredom and Envy (so far agreeing with Pixar) however the jury is out on Anxiety. I reminisce that my teenage nickname was ‘Beetroot’ on account of a superpower ability to burn bright red whenever attention was directed towards me. I am convinced that I hear Himself mumble, ‘Very different to your jazz hands current self, my lovely’, but then my hearing – like my sight – is not so powerful these days and I accept these blessings with grace; these days I rarely hear any negative comments and, according to my view of the mirror, I have no wrinkles. I know I will soon forget what I think I have heard anyway (glass half full).

We debate Anxiety.

Himself: ‘Surely your renowned ability to overthink must fuel your anxiety – it must be as useful to you as sawing sawdust?’

‘I like to think that I have crafted a ‘mature’ anxiety over many years of practice. I now look for evidence that the anxiety might serve me in some way – that it might galvanise me to get off my plumptious sofa-ensconced backside and actually tackle the concern. We all need a bit of adrenalin and I think my anxiety is so ridiculously creative these days that it sometimes makes me laugh out loud in public or in the middle of the night. My over-thinking has certainly given Boredom a run for his money. Besides, 98% of the things that I worry about never seem to happen, so my Anxiety must be a strategic asset. She stays.’

We move on to vote in the emotions that we believe we now have in our Later Years armoury – emotions that we probably should start signposting to the Youngers. It is so satisfying living up to the teenage perception that we ‘Elders’ are curmudgeonly humourless whinge-bags, but perhaps we do have a moral duty to let ‘the Youth’ in on the secret that there is fun to be had ahead; they will of course need to get through the chemical meltdown of puberty; the sleepless nights of early parenthood; the empty nesting years…but who am I to catastrophise on their behalf when their stocks of Anxiety run so high?

For two such opinionated old wrinklies , surprisingly we are able to shortlist the following emotions quite amicably and not a drop of red wine is spilt during this discussion. We give you:

• Patience
• Humour
• Resilience/bravery

We decide that Nostalgia is only just starting to kick in, so we may put her on the back burner and allow her to make her big debut in ‘Inside Out – the Twilight Years’.

‘I think we are flipping lucky to have earned these emotions,’ I reflect. ‘All our friends of similar years are patient, funny, brave people and we are so lucky to be attending the same party. Thankfully none of us take ourselves too seriously. I wonder if we could have been like this as teenagers. I know I lived totally inside my head back then – totally self obsessed – or presenting as a beetroot if I was actually bold enough to leave my bedroom.

‘I love the colour these emotions bring to our Sixty Something years. Life is much more interesting when you work at being less fearful; I am determined to be more fearless in 2025. We have all been through tough stuff – and no doubt will do so again – so we might as well enjoy our well-honed dexterity and rebooted confidence levels. Joy, we hear you, sister.’

I do confess to feeling a little anxious about contacting Pixar directly with our proposal but also realise that they will need to get a head start on the animation for ‘Outside In – Get Over Yourself’ before Nostalgia overwhelms our creativity. My rest home of choice has already agreed to host a creative writing workshop for your’s truly and my future in-mates, so the script should write itself.

I nudge Himself, still sitting beside me on the sofa, ‘You are welcome to join the workshop on agreement that you will be patient, funny and resilient and promise to stay awake. I am bringing the outside in on this project’.

‘