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Why we all want to be super-heroes

Why we all want to be super heroes

 

Last weekend my family and I attended a WWE event here in Pensacola (SummerSlam Heatwave Tour 2019), and as I watched these larger than life characters make their grand entrances accompanied by epic theme music, lights and much fanfare, it struck me… we ALL have an inner super hero or two that we’ve relegated to fantasy and live out only vicariously through archetypes.

Celebrities, literary and film characters, and even video games allow us to see and feel universal themes. And oh my god(dess), how we love that! We can’t get enough of it actually.

Our brains light up like a freaking Christmas tree when we encounter something that resonates deeply with how we see ourselves (even if no one else does) OR how we wish we could see ourselves.

More confident, more attractive, more calm under pressure, more assertive, more sexually seductive… just more…

 

But what if we could be a super hero in real life?

What if we decided that those Parts of our psyche (capitalized on purpose to depict the different inner characters and personality traits ala Internal Family Systems style) aren’t just the things of childlike imagination and Hollywood magic?

What if we came to look at those qualities we crave as untapped potential?

Just waiting there in the recesses of your mind for you (i.e., your consciousness/ Higher Self) to take control and decide to practice using them.

 

why we all want to be super heroes

 

Think about it:

 – You are the SAME person when you are kicked back and relaxed on vacation, letting things roll off your shoulder with more ease than usual as you are going through the daily grind and letting shit get to you.

 – You are the SAME person when you are out with your friends and letting your more witty and charming side shine as you are when you go home and feel uncomfortable with your partner at times.

– You are the SAME person who used to be more adventurous or confident in the bedroom with previous partners or even just in the beginning of your current relationship.

– You are the SAME person who wakes up feeling like Mary Poppins and goes to sleep worrying she is more like Cruella de Vil.

 

What makes the difference is your conscious mind overriding your programmed tendencies.

Simple but not always easy, I know. It takes practice, focused awareness or concentration and emotional elbow grease, but it’s totally doable and the rewards are great!

One of my literary favorites and metaphysical teachers from the early 1900’s, Florence Scovel Shinn, quoting Emerson defines concentration as loving absorption.

“We see children lovingly absorbed in their play… The first start toward success is to be glad you are yourself. So many people are bored by themselves. They have no self-reliance and are always wishing they were someone else. When I was in London I saw a man on the street selling a new song, it was called, ‘I’m tickled to death I’m me. I thought that was a wonderful idea – start out by being glad you are yourself. Then you can expand rapidly into the Divine plan of your life where you fulfill your destiny.”

 

A simple life hack to make this easier is to tap into the mindset of your inner super hero. Ask yourself:

 – What is he/she/they like?

– How would they move throughout their day?

 – If I allowed that Part of me to be the one looking out through my eyes right now, to be the one hearing this information, to be the one reaching out for a loved one, how would I feel and behave?

 – What would my theme music be?

 – What makes it easier for me to tap into that space? (e.g., routines, settings, people)

Excellent! Now go BE & DO THAT.

 

 


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tamara Powell, LMHC is a licensed therapist, university psychology instructor, and empowerment coach who believes life should be lived as a journey that is “anything but ordinary.

She loves quirky existential convos and anyone who can make her question the nature of reality.

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