Have you ever heard of personifying aspects of ourselves? Or the idea of relating to different part of our Self?
We all have different parts or aspects of our Self. These make up our wholeness. Like for example I have a part of me that tends to go into perfectionism. And a part of me that can be lazy or self-sabotage. As well, I have a part of me that is creative and likes to play with art.
A lot of times we discard (or attempt to do so) the less desirable aspects of ourselves. What if we decided to have a relationship with these aspects of ourselves instead? I’m talking about owning, accepting, and embracing these parts of ourselves.
How do we relate to parts of ourselves? Especially, those parts we would rather just ignore. Well, it starts with awareness. We have to first become aware that we have that side to our personality or that part of our Self. Denying it or unconsciously projected it onto others does not do any good. So, first step is developing awareness around it even being there in the first place.
Then we have to change the perspective for how we view this aspect of ourselves. This means to stop hating on it and start to get curious. A good way to do this is through mindfulness, staying with what is occurring and noticing.
Another way to get curious is through journaling. You can journal and ask these questions:
What feelings go with this part of ourselves?
What is this part afraid of?
What are the needs of this part?
What is the part trying to achieve?
Then looking at where you can take it from there. See if there is a way that maybe you could meet more of the needs of this part. We don’t want to let the part run the show, but we also don’t want to completely deny its existence. Usual that is exactly when it does run the show!
