I visualise myself as a boardroom, with a community of members whose job it is to run my life and protect me.” I was struck by this image that 21-year-old Riyanshi shared with me as I realised that despite the history of trauma and despair, she had been able to make space for peace in her life through this metaphor of a boardroom. She shared that her community of members included, “Courage, Kindness, Play and Wisdom, along with a strong presence of Anxiety.” However, in recent months she had learned to consult Wisdom regularly while at the same time being compassionate towards Anxiety because, “It has been my life-long companion and was doing the best to serve me through her nagging, bullying and catastrophising the future. I have learned to welcome all of them as they make me feel I am not alone; they are all there.” I was reminded of Riyanshi’s “boardroom” when I watched Inside Out 2. The movie used the metaphor of the brain as a game console with Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Disgust (from the 2015 Inside Out) and the post-puberty new entries Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy and Ennui. In the past few weeks, I have had conversations on Inside Out 2 with children as young as six-year- olds to their grandparents. I have wondered at the cross-generational appeal and the theme that has resonated with so many across the globe. Most people relate to Anxiety with its orange fizzy energy that can whirlpool out of control at the smallest threat to the 13-year-old Riley. There is something so tender in the way Anxiety declares initially, “My job is to protect her from the scary stuff she can’t see. I plan for the future,” and then later is perplexed when this planning goes awry, “I was just trying to protect her.” Inside Out 2, like some other pop culture icons, has captured the imagination of millions and therefore it becomes important to unpack some of the emergent ideas which makes its story so compelling and yet also problematic. Though my conversation with Riyanshi happened much before this sequel came out, there were so many similar themes. I prefer the idea of a “boardroom” or people as a community of diverse members and not just emotions. Emotions are so intertwined with sensations, cultural contexts and meanings we ascribe to them rather than the simplistic tropes in the movie. Suppose we were to talk of love — is it just an emotion or is it a wistful churn, a flutter of the heart, a yearning located in a cultural context that shapes us to even make meaning of what we experience? The idea of community members invites plurality and playfulness that can invite fascinating conversations which are blame-free and call for a greater sense of agency to correct power hierarchies. After watching the movie, Myra, a 13-year-old sketched out the different members of her community, which included “Stress Bhaiya dressed in a robe of fire, alternating between puffing on his cigarette and asthma inhaler constantly shouting, ‘You have to meet standards otherwise you will bring shame to your family’,” “Guilt who is the abusive ex-husband of Stress Bhaiya,” and “Zen Didi who is too cool for school.” She had me in splits as she acted out each one and we found innovative ways to make Zen Didi’s voice stronger, get Stress Bhaiya to chill and trust her abilities and not put so much pressure on her, and ask Guilt to take a vacation until Myra’s exams were over. It is the respect for diversity that makes us gasp with, “Yay” for Riley as her sense of self goes beyond binaries of “I am not good enough,” and “I am not good enough,” to “I am a good person. I am selfish. I am kind.”. What a powerful message for children that we are multistoried and we do not have to banish or be ashamed of any story. There are no villains and each character, even Anxiety or Envy, is trying to do the best they can with the skills and resources they have. It also did not pathologise Anxiety (though paradoxically the term itself is pathologising) and showed it as part of what it takes to be human. A very important message this movie missed was that some experiences like Anxiety are not inevitable due to some biological changes, for instance, puberty and it also has to do with the socio-cultural context we live in and the normative judgment we internalise. Riley is a 13-year-old who is doing all she can to fit in the complex social matrix she finds herself in. Our struggles in life have more to do with social norms we have to measure up from the “outside-in” rather than what is biologically “inside out”. If you are a parent, grandparent, teacher, or somebody who works or interacts with children, then I have an exercise for you. Depending on the child’s age, you could introduce the idea of boardroom and how it works in a workspace. Then ask them to imagine a multi-membered board in their body and mind. You could draw two circles and first plot and share your board (whatever you think you are comfortable with or is appropriate). Maybe there could be Pain, Fear, and Boredom along with Love, Courage, Fun, Creativity and so on. Let them use their language to personify each or create a little skit on how each speaks and acts. Check with them if there is one that is very loud and troubles them sometimes. Be curious so that there is also an understanding that the most annoying or burdensome could be trying to serve them in some way. Like Riley’s Anxiety was trying to protect her and Myra’s Stress Bhaiya wanted her to do well in exams. Maybe there might be another voice on the board like Riley’s Joy or Myra’s Zen Didi that they want to promote as a leader. Check with them what is it about this member that makes it a good leader and what steps they have to take to amplify its voice? Wrap up the exercise by making sure each member is thanked for their service and care. As a wise grandmother told me recently, “Love is an answer in the inner world as much as it is an answer in the outer world.” Acknowledgment — Narrative Practitioner Poh Lin Lee’s work on Our Bodies as Multistoried Communities
