The Power of a Persona

Years ago I did my training in Voice Movement Therapy. We had to come up with 16 sub-personalities or personas and present them to the group.  One day, I hadn’t prepared my persona, so I simply walked out onto the stage and began improvising.

That was when I discovered a fun loving part of myself that I call Daphne. Daphne came to me in a high pressure moment when I couldn’t be a perfectionist. What emerged was a persona who was light, humorous, sweet and didn’t suffer from performance anxiety at all! This was a revelation to me, since performing had never come naturally.

More recently, I found myself creating a persona that I named Pebbles after the Flintstone’s toddler character.  I could tell as the pre-verbal gibberish emerged that it was a baby voice. It was sweet and happy and could go on for hours simply delighting in her own sounds. My head told me that I sounded ridiculous and should stop the nonsense right away, but my intuition urged me to let this part of myself have a voice.

These personas are teachers for me. They give me a window into a way of expressing myself that is not my dominant way. Pebbles, like Daphne, is confident, light hearted and immune to the pressure of needing to please others. No one needs to give her permission to shine her light. She just does!

One of the qualities that babies and young children almost always have is an ability to share their gifts without fear or ego. Their full and vibrant expression is still integrated into who they are and flows out effortlessly! As we take the blows that life deals us, this confident, egoless sharing can get squashed and split off from our primary way of being in the world and expressing ourselves.

When you have a moment that feels out of the box, goofy or different from your usual way of doing things, SEIZE HOLD of it and RUN WITH IT! Get to know these hidden parts of yourself that can be teachers for you. PAY ATTENTION! Many of them are the keepers of our light, our essence, our wisdom…They can help us to take risks and realize our dreams. If Daphne can do it, then maybe so can I! And so can you.