Before I became a mom, I used to wonder: if monsters are so scary to kids, then why on Earth do we introduce kids to the idea of them? Wouldn’t some parent who’s spent any number of sleepless nights scouring their nervous kid’s room for the damned imaginary things be kind enough to pass along the word - “Dude, don’t talk ‘monsters’ to your kid!”?
Ah, but here’s the rub. (There’s always a rub). Would putting a moratorium on monsters make the dark any less scary?
For lots of people, the dark is, well... anxiety-provoking. It sends our imaginations into fearful overdrive...something about the unknown. Evil forces? Fear of tripping over something on a late-night bathroom run? A collective subconscious thing maybe, passed down from our ancestors who....oh geez, it just makes us feel anxious!
Monsters. That’s it, that’s what we’re afraid of. Why? Well, monsters are specific. They have a face, a shape, a color. We can chase them, reason with them, invite them to play, name them Betsy. We can kick their ass. Essentially, we’ve taken a generalized anxiety, personified it, made it specific, and in doing this we’ve disempowered the anxiety - and empowered ourselves.
Would this same model work for other anxieties? What fear or anxiety is holding you back and interfering with your life? Fear of failing? Fear of not living up to expectations? Something else? It’s very easy to feel overwhelmed by anxiety, especially one we haven’t yet truly identified, and let it take us over, dictating what we do and don’t do. What if you were to take your most limiting anxiety (seriously, do this with me now!), name it, imagine it wearing a silly outfit, and have a good old fashioned heart-to-heart with it. Yes, exactly...you can walk it over to a chair and reason with it. You could shove it into the closet and lock the door. Listen to it scream. How fearsome does this anxiety feel to you now?
The imagination is a powerful tool, one of the most powerful there is. Maybe it can’t fight off tangible threats like bee stings or fire, but so many of our scariest foes live and exist nowhere except right here in our heads. Why let your imagination limit you, when you can get hold of it, harness it and put it to work for you, in all its boundless glory - monsters and all?
Ah, but here’s the rub. (There’s always a rub). Would putting a moratorium on monsters make the dark any less scary?
For lots of people, the dark is, well... anxiety-provoking. It sends our imaginations into fearful overdrive...something about the unknown. Evil forces? Fear of tripping over something on a late-night bathroom run? A collective subconscious thing maybe, passed down from our ancestors who....oh geez, it just makes us feel anxious!
Monsters. That’s it, that’s what we’re afraid of. Why? Well, monsters are specific. They have a face, a shape, a color. We can chase them, reason with them, invite them to play, name them Betsy. We can kick their ass. Essentially, we’ve taken a generalized anxiety, personified it, made it specific, and in doing this we’ve disempowered the anxiety - and empowered ourselves.
Would this same model work for other anxieties? What fear or anxiety is holding you back and interfering with your life? Fear of failing? Fear of not living up to expectations? Something else? It’s very easy to feel overwhelmed by anxiety, especially one we haven’t yet truly identified, and let it take us over, dictating what we do and don’t do. What if you were to take your most limiting anxiety (seriously, do this with me now!), name it, imagine it wearing a silly outfit, and have a good old fashioned heart-to-heart with it. Yes, exactly...you can walk it over to a chair and reason with it. You could shove it into the closet and lock the door. Listen to it scream. How fearsome does this anxiety feel to you now?
The imagination is a powerful tool, one of the most powerful there is. Maybe it can’t fight off tangible threats like bee stings or fire, but so many of our scariest foes live and exist nowhere except right here in our heads. Why let your imagination limit you, when you can get hold of it, harness it and put it to work for you, in all its boundless glory - monsters and all?
No comments:
Post a Comment