What if I told you there is an easy way to bring out certain personality traits that you feel you don’t have? In this blog (and podcast episode), you’ll learn a quick and effective technique that can help you remember characteristics that you may have kept hidden.
We’ve Been Programmed Our Entire Lives
Throughout our lives, we are constantly exposed to various experiences and influences that shape our personalities and behaviors. From an early age, we are taught certain values and beliefs by our parents, teachers, and pop culture, and we also learn from observing and interacting with the world around us. These experiences and influences essentially shape our personalities and determine the traits that we exhibit.
What if there are parts of us that we want to change?? The good news is that we’re not completely at the mercy of these programming and influences. While our personalities and behaviors may be influenced by our upbringing and experiences, we have the ability to choose how we react to these influences and to make conscious decisions about the traits we wish to exhibit.
For example, if we were raised to believe that it is important to always be polite and respectful, we may have developed a tendency to be diplomatic and avoid conflict. However, we can choose to challenge this programming and decide that it is important to stand up for ourselves and express our own thoughts and opinions, even if it means causing conflict. Another example is if we learned to be perfectionistic or critical of ourselves, we can choose to work on cultivating a more compassionate and understanding perspective towards ourselves and others.
Then the question becomes: how can we reprogram our personality to embody different traits?
How To Channel Your Inner Guides To Embody Desired Traits
So here’s the magic trick: whatever personality trait you’d like to embody – think of people who already embody or represent these traits. Say you want to be more intellectual, which public figures, characters, or people in your life represent intellect to you? For me, I immediately think of Hermione Granger (Potterhead here!). Just think of the first person that comes to mind.
Then what you’ll do, is channel this person by thinking of them and embodying their behaviors and personality. You can do this either in times of need, or channel them a little bit each day. So I would either channel Hermione each day and study like she would, or I would embody her if I’m about to complete a task or take a test. Channeling Hermione, to me, means being as confident as she would be in that scenario. Hermione definitely wouldn’t be nervous to take a test; she would be fully prepared and speak confidently.
Here’s the important note: just because you’re channeling ‘someone else,’ doesn’t mean you don’t actually possess these personality traits. This technique is just a way to bring these hidden traits to your surface.
Have you ever watched a movie, and afterward, you find yourself behaving or speaking like the main character? This is because you’ve subconsciously picked up on their personality traits and have quite literally channeled them. Quickly after the movie ends, this usually fades away – but it doesn’t have to if you don’t want it to! I remember the first time I experienced this – I was watching a comedy special on Netflix, and afterward, I felt like I was so funny: cracking jokes and being witty just like the comedian! I remember thinking that this wasn’t super normal for me, but that comedian had rubbed off on me. Well you can harness this technique and work to your benefit every day!
My Personal Inner Guides
Several times, especially facing challenges, I’ve channeled my inner guides and it was like some mystical force took over and helped me handle the situations with grace and ease.
Who are my inner guides? Wonderwoman & Princess Diana.
I’ve always wanted to grow my confidence as well as my gracefulness. I’ve always been scared to speak up for myself, and I’ve also been easily triggered and can get frustrated quickly.
Wonderwoman For Confidence
So in times when I need some confidence, I literally think of Wonderwoman and channel her. The example I give in my podcast episode is when I’m going through the immigration checkpoint whenever I travel. If you’ve traveled internationally, you know how daunting that experience can be – immigration officers are so intense! ‘Old Andrea’ would be so nervous and have the posture of a scared dog. But then I started channeling Wonderwoman and would walk up to the counter with confidence, like nothing could take me down. After all, I’m not doing anything illegal and I have every right to enter the country!
Princess Diana For Grace
As for grace, there would be times when little things would bother me and I’d quickly channel Princess Diana. For example, someone would cut in front me in line, and I’d imagine what she would do. Would she snap at them, cut them off, or give them the death glare like I would want to? Heck no. She would either let it go, or possibly calmly tap on their shoulder and give her signature look signifying, “You may have taken my spot…”. But she wouldn’t throw a fit or huff and puff like I normally would. She would handle all scenarios with pure grace.
‘Fake It Til You Make It’
Whether you’re trying to increase confidence, peace, strength, productivity, the list goes on – you already have these traits. They’re just waiting for you to remember them. Channeling your inner guides is a great way to bring these traits to your surface. Here’s the thing, the more you do this, the more these traits will become more natural to you. Before you know it, you’ll be the intellectual, confident, or graceful person that you’ve been reprogramming yourself to become!
What part of you will you channel??
