We all need a cheerleader or a hype man. The hype man is the individual who is responsible for keeping the momentum of a show going, motivating the artist, and pumping up the enthusiasm of the crowd. He or she functions like an emotional barometer, constantly evaluating the feel of the environment and injecting energy into lulls and adding exclamation points to the performance. There have been many, sometimes even multiple people on the stage, but no one was greater than the one and only Flava Flav.
We all have a version of Flav in our heads. You could even say that we are that hype man. Sometimes, he's just not able to do his job properly. At this point, you probably are wondering, "what in the hell is he talking about?" Well, hang in there. I will arrive at my point shortly.
Experienced meditation teachers often use a metaphor to explain our inner mindscape. They speak of the "monkey mind." This aspect of our mind is the equivalent of an angry, or my favorite description, drunken monkey thrashing around the confines of our psyche. At times, the monkey jumps and screams and swings around shaking branches and throwing poo. We cannot escape him, so we must learn to live in harmony. This is where meditation comes into play. Meditation is being a witness to the mind and making peace with the monkey.
Well, it occurs to me, that the analogy breaks down in our fast paced and frenetic lives, so far removed from nature. Additionally, this inner self is much more sophisticated and crowded than a single drunken monkey. I see it performing all sorts of complex and creative tasks in myself, as well as others. Luckily, western medicine tackled the complex puzzle of the mind and developed a more detailed, albeit hotly debated, psychological framework.
In the 1920's, the renowned Austrian neurologist, Sigmund Freud, elaborated on the monkey mind. He referred to this primitive, neurotic, pleasure seeking, instant gratification aspect of ourselves as the id. The id craves the basic resources, e.g. food, clothing, shelter, and is characterized by it's violent and sexual tendencies. This new explanation of the psyche was incredibly important because it introduced the westernized, scientific community to this idea of the monkey mind. So, we began to have a common language between mysticism and scientific determinism. Each independent actor in the play of life could get on board with this idea regardless of bias or operating paradigm. Something was in our head and it was making us crazy, or at least anxious, sad, angry, etc...
In order for us to bring this full circle, it's important to become aware of this internal situation. It's also imperative to accept that we are married to this monkey or id for life. We don't judge the monkey because, he appears randomly and we have no control over his initial state. However, with awareness and practice, we can learn to occupy the monkey or shine light on the id's behavior and course correct.
Once we accomplish this task, we get out of our own way, Flav wakes up, and we gain the ability to hype ourselves. This development is a critical step in becoming self actualized. The negative self talk loses it's punch, the damaging narratives that we construct become simple bedtime stories to be discarded, facades crumble, the truth of manufactured urgency and self imposed anxiety is revealed, and labels peel away. Under this new paradigm, we gain a new level and degree of psychological freedom that is peace filled and blissful. Then, we are capable of operating at our fullest potential and we can confidently face the actual slings and arrows of life.
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