Bring Your Present Self To Your Daily Activity

Many people are quite fond of villains and antiheroes. This means that if our clients identify with particular heroes, embodying those heroes can positively influence a change in that person’s behavior. Maybe you’d like to wear a cape, a tiara, a Harry Potter necklace, or a Green Lantern ring? It could be something like brushing your teeth, washing your face, making breakfast, or taking a shower. For this exercise, you may want to choose an action that you can do while you are sitting down. Or you may choose to stand up and do an action if you are able. I typically have my feet on the floor, my hands in my lap, my eyes gently closed, feeling my shoulders fall away from my ears and relax. Bring awareness to the breath. To begin, I invite you to bring your present self to your daily activity. Your present self is just whatever is here right now. Whatever thoughts, emotions, physical sensations you may be experiencing. So if you are brushing your teeth, for example, go through the motions of opening the drawer with the toothpaste, uncapping the toothpaste, putting it on your toothbrush, raising the toothbrush to your mouth, and so on. There is no rush to this activity, and your pace during it may be different than your pace during the day.

Out Of Time

When you reach the end of the daily activity, start again from the beginning, and keep doing so for the next minute or so. Now, I invite you to step into your superhero self, whatever that means to you. It may be a version of yourself that has superhero qualities, it may be the embodiment of a specific character, it may be the augmentation of a characteristic you really admire. It could be superhero endurance, unending amounts of patience, or the ability to get up if you’ve been knocked down. As you embody your superhero self, I invite you to notice any change in your posture, any change in your facial expression, any change to your thoughts or emotions, any changes to your physical sensations. I invite you now to begin again the physical movements of your daily activity, using the stance of your superhero self. Notice the difference of how it feels to move, in your body, using your superhero self. Notice the thoughts you experience, as you go about your daily activity from this stance. Notice the emotions that are present, as you engage in your activity. You may slow your activity, and let your hands drop, and return to the here and now. Let’s turn our attention back to the breath. Does this mean that we, as clinicians, need to assess our clients for homicidal ideation? The mere identification with a villainous character does not indicate that the client has homicidal tendencies.

Accidents Never Happen

I tend to favor villainous characters or antiheroes, as they can often be more interesting than some of the heroes that we see or read about. Some people see themselves in that character’s story and therefore might feel a sense of compassion toward them. Others might vicariously live out their desires or fantasies through the villainous character. For some viewers who are holding onto a lot of pain and anger from a past injustice, seeing bad people being brought to justice might be cathartic. Inquiring about this can help to guide the course of the client’s treatment to help them better address their unresolved hurt and anger. Similarly, some individuals might be intrigued by the villain’s lifestyle. For many watching or reading about these characters, they might see a representation of a wish fulfilment, such as freedom. But do villains get to live by their own calendars. They can have ice cream for breakfast. They can go to the beach in the middle of the day. What would it look like if our clients learned these messages from the villainous characters that they like, but in a productive way? She also reported that she was the only woman in her workplace and the only person who had not been given a raise in 5 years. When asked about her favorite fandoms, she mentioned that she loved Star Wars.

Come Go With Me

When Jane mentioned his name, she sat up, propped up her body, and projected her voice. In other words, when Jane mentioned the name of her favorite character, she was no longer that mousy woman who walked through my door. When I asked her what she liked about this character, Jane mentioned that she liked that he gets angry and is not afraid to show it. Although Jane was not initially aware of this, she was holding onto a lot of anger and resentment toward her boss and many of the workers in her company. After a few months, she was able to ask her boss to meet with her and requested a raise. To celebrate, Jane and her husband went to Disneyland, where she built her own lightsaber. Jane continues to practice her dark side assertiveness skills and now enjoys cosplaying as various villainous characters. In helping the client to become the hero of their journey, our job is to be their sidekick and their biggest fan. Some clients might have never previously felt supported by others while other clients might believe that they ought to be able to handle any obstacles they are facing on their own. However, every hero, even a superhero, has sidekicks. Sidekicks are essentially the client’s sources of support, which can be present in person, virtually, or even in a fictional sense. The following activity is one way you can help your client to identify their potential sidekicks. For example, Batman has Robin, Superman has the Justice League, and Harry Potter has Ron and Hermione. These can be your family members, your friends, your pets, your neighbors, people with whom you play online, members of your favorite fandom, or maybe even fictional characters. First, what are some of the qualities that sidekicks have? They are reliable, supportive, and kind.