Why Should I Consider My Negative Personas?

I'm sure that as people view my persona videos they are going to be asking themselves the following:

"Why would I want to develop and release negative personas?"

That's a great question and one I wondered about myself for a while. So let's think about it a different way.

What if we asked ourselves why we should LISTEN to our negative personas?

Or better yet:

What if we asked ourselves whether or not our negative personas are on our side already and are trying to help us just like our positive personas do only they do it in a different way?

We all know deep down that the way to anyone's heart----whether they are predominantly negative or positive---is through the metaphorically sweet honey and not a punch in the face. People and personas enjoy being appreciated. And appreciation is the first and best way to "deal" with negative personas.

For example, the other day my Hysterical Persona was....well.....she was getting hysterical and so I was getting scared and trying to run from the feeling that my Hysterical Persona naturally emits no matter what she does. It's her job after all to be hysterical! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

So anyway, I was very uncomfortable with her hysteria and I felt like she was wasting my time so with my normal avoidance methods (exercise, overthinking, constant action, etc.) I began to run away from Hysterical Persona. However, later on, I was walking in the park and I thought to myself.....just listen to her.

So I started this conversation with my Hysterical Persona. I told her she was a part of me and always would be and that I appreciated her and that I hadn't been fair to her in the past and that I was sorry. I told her things were going to be different from now on and when I talked to her I spoke sincerely and I could tell that she KNEW that what I was saying wasn't an empty promise. I also told her that I knew why she was feeling like she had to speak up (actually she was screaming) above all my other personas.

Why? Because she was trying to protect me.

You see. Even our negative personas are trying to tell us something. They want to take care of us. And in this case my Hysterical Persona was hysterical about a financial situation and I realized she had a right to be.

Sometimes when we feel negative emotions such as hysteria we listen to others that say pretty things like: "Just breathe and the negative emotion will pass," or that the negative emotion represents some kind of pent up crap that we can get out of us by Kickboxing or that it stems from a mental disorder or a troubled childhood. I say fine, whatever, all of that is well and good for some but to me that doesn't help because underneath everything they are saying what they really seem to be saying respectively is "Just survive as well as you can," "Just get through it by expressing your anger" or "You are broken so just do the best you can."

But I think we're really not broken. I think we are whole and I think there are aspects of us (personas) that have been telling us all along: "You are whole and I support you no matter what."

Like one of my great mentors says: "You got your own back!"

Anyway, to make a sort-of-long-story short I ended this discussion by telling my Hysterical Persona that I appreciated her warning and that I wouldn't do anything that she didn't feel comfortable with because from that point forward my personas were going to work together and act as ONE POWERFUL ME and that even though I had chosen my Love Persona and my Courage Personas to be the leaders of some of my current projects that I still wanted advice from everyone.

So listen to your voice of hysteria, anger or judgment and let it have its say. You have time and every persona---even the negative ones---are unique and teach us valuable lessons.