Being Yourself is Over-rated.

Warning! Warning!

The following concerns five-year-old Dena, a contestant on, yes, Toddlers and Tierras (I have no pride. And a touch of insomnia.) If you can’t get past the ueck! There’s always later. No wait. That’s the whole idea of staying more in charge of our emotions. To be able to listen even when our kneejerk response is negative. It’s easy to smile and listen when you get to choose the subject.

Back to young Dena. Dena is shy and afraid to try new things. So how did she win the Ultimate Grand Supreme at the pageant?

On stage Dean turns herself into Darlie. Darlie is one heck of a spunky kid. Great Smile, killer expression, can’t help but like this kid right away and that’s what matters to the judges.”  Like the pageant world or not, her goal was to win and have a good time. For her, winning was more fun than losing.  And win she did.

Now what could you learn from Dena and Darlie?

What if before you got out of bed tomorrow, you picked someone who you admire and be that person for a day?  Or maybe handle a situation that usually gets you anxious and nuts the way that person would handle it?  Stay within reason. You probably can’t be “Gandhi for a Day” or “Mother Teresa for a Day.”

There’s a clerk at “Willie’s Place” (a Texas café Willie Nelson won in a card game) who lightens every customer’s day. He’s happy where he is. Now. He handles frustration much better than I do. There is no judgment in his expression. One day I decided I’d treat the first four people I met that day as if I was that clerk. Since we draw the responses we get in the world, I had a perky day for an anxious chick with a couple of diseases and surgery the next day.

All that “how did that make you feel?” stuff aside. Fake it till you make it. Being yourself is over-rated.

Tags: Anxiety, Anxiety Management