We Could All Use an Alter-Ego (Sometimes)

The other day I watched Ant-man.

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It was fun, entertaining and gave me what I was looking for, a break from reality for a bit. However, It reminded me of a conversation I recently had with my nephew. The conversation dealt with the idea of an alter-ego, a separate identity that can be called upon when your primary identity will simply not do. After all, how capable is Kent Clark when he is a mild-mannered reporter? When he is Superman though, he has all the powers of an alien being infused by a yellow sun.

My nephew has an alter-ego, he jokingly refers to as "Josh". "Josh" is a few years older than my nephew and brimming with confidence. Whenever he is asked to do something he does not want to do, I will tease him. Sometimes, I will say things such as: "Josh, loves a challenge" or "Josh always rises to the occasion." My nephew will then come back at me with a witty remark about "Josh" possibly being insane. In my mind, I thought what a great idea, to have access to this older fearless you who would always say "yes" when you fearfully wanted to say "no."

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Years ago, I knew a therapist who used bibliotherapy in her work with clients. She used this technique as a therapeutic intervention with clients suffering from depression as well as general anxiety. She would ask her clients to select a biography, someone they admired and respected and read about this person, specifically, how they overcame their shortcomings: Buddha and Gandhi were popular standouts, according to her.

The point being; whenever her client had difficulty their life, she would ask her client to act as if they were this person they admired. How would this figure view the problem and overcome it? Would they just give up? This is similar to the bumper stickers that have "WWJD" on them or "What Would Jesus Do." Sometimes by changing our perspective, seeing the problem or issue through another person's eyes, if you will allow us to move forward and conquer the problem.

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Perhaps we all need an alter-ego then, just be sure to come up with a cool name, unfortunately, Wolverine is already taken.