Are you ready to meditate with Kori?
Make sure that you are laying down and you are comfortable and quiet in your bed.
It's time to relax your body and let go of your busy day.
Kori and Len were twins.
They were both nine.
They lived in a city just like most people.
They went to a public school.
They had friends.
They had after school activities.
They were in clubs.
They had each other and their mom and their dad.
They had quite a regular life.
And when you have a regular life,
Some days are really good and some days aren't so great.
Liv had not had a great day.
Some boys in her class had been just saying silly things and being really annoying.
And Liv being nine was not in any mood to deal with silly nine-year-old boys,
She thought.
It was bad enough having a twin brother that was a boy.
Even though she did like boys,
But these boys at school were just really annoying.
Len said,
You know,
I was thinking about this the other day when I had a really hard soccer practice.
Everything,
Absolutely everything just went wrong.
And I was thinking,
Why today am I so angry about all this?
I've had times,
Many times in the past where things have gone wrong in soccer and I haven't got this angry.
I wonder why I'm so angry.
Liv was like,
I was just really awkward today.
I didn't understand why I got so awkward.
I didn't know what to do with myself.
They were annoying,
But the things that they were saying were making me embarrassed.
And then they got really awkward.
And then I just like went to the bathroom and I didn't know what to do with myself.
And then when I came back,
I felt uncomfortable and awkward.
Len said,
You know what we should do?
We should think about all the different aspects of our personality and maybe just try and like be different characters when different things happen.
Liv said,
What do you mean?
And he said,
Go grab one of your journals.
I'm going to get one of mine.
Meet me in the living room.
Grab some popcorn,
Grab some soda.
Let's do this.
Liv and Len both went their separate ways.
And then they met in the living room at the table.
They both sat down on the floor,
Opened up their journals and Liv looked at her brother and said,
Right now,
What do we do?
Her brother said,
Okay,
Think about all the different aspects of Liv.
How many parts of your personality do you have?
Liv said,
I have a funny part.
Len said,
Write it down.
So Liv started writing,
Funny,
Awkward,
Anxious,
Sassy.
I think that's it.
Don't you have any like parts of you that are really confident and outgoing or a bit confident?
And Len,
Liv said,
Yeah,
I do have a part of me that's definitely braver and more outgoing.
Yes.
Okay,
Now wait till I do mine.
Len thought about his different aspects of his personality and wrote them all down.
And then he said,
Now we're going to put a name on each part of our personality,
Like the different characters in a book or different characters in a play.
So the sassy part of you,
Who would that be?
Liv said,
A boy or a girl,
What do you mean?
Well,
It could be anybody.
It doesn't matter.
They don't have to be a boy or a girl.
They could just be a they or an animal,
Whatever you want.
But who would portray in the play,
The sassy aspect of your personality?
Oh,
I get it,
She said.
And then Liv took a moment to write down a name.
So they started to build characters for each one of their different aspects of their personality.
The funny part of her had a name,
The sassy part of her had a name,
And the names fit the characters.
The awkward part had a name,
The confident part had a name,
The really anxious part of her had a name.
So she ended up with like five different characters in her play.
And then Len said to her,
Right now,
What I'm going to ask you to do is pretend you're in the play and you're going to play different aspects of yourself.
But every time you step into an aspect of yourself,
I want you to really get into character,
Like really feel that funny part of you or that sassy part of you,
Right?
Liv said,
This is fun.
Right.
Okay.
So he said,
Okay,
I want you to be the awkward part of you.
And Liv said,
Oh,
That's Harold.
Yes,
Then I want you to be Harold.
And I'm going to give you a scenario where you respond to that as Harold.
Liv said,
Oh,
Kind of like today with those silly,
Gross boys.
Yes,
Said Len.
And then Liv acted out just like she did at school,
Really awkward,
Like Harold.
And then they started laughing because she was so good at it.
Now what I want you to do is take the confident,
The one that has higher self-esteem,
The one that's like more self-assured part of you.
Liv said,
Oh,
That's Linda.
Len said,
Yeah,
Okay.
Now take what happened today at school and instead of being Harold or awkward,
Answer the boys or do what you're going to do as Linda,
Who is much more confident.
Act like Linda.
So channel Linda,
Get into character,
Be Linda,
Feel Linda,
Like just everything about Linda right now in this moment.
And let's go through it as if you're playing the play.
And that's what Liv did.
She thought about how Linda would handle it and what Linda would say and what Linda would do.
And then at the end she was like,
Oh,
Wow,
That's so different,
Completely different to Harold.
Linda didn't feel awkward at all.
In fact,
Linda was like,
Oh,
I haven't got time for this and just carried on doing math.
Exactly,
Said Len.
This is my genius idea.
Whenever we're doing anything,
Like when I got really angry at soccer,
That was Ben,
By the way,
Ben gets really angry instead of being Ben and getting really angry and upset.
I should have channeled Lily because Lily takes things nice and easy.
She just lets problems roll off her back.
She doesn't get stressed.
She doesn't get upset.
Lily's so chilled.
Oh,
Said Liv,
I get it.
This is such a good idea.
I'm really going to do this tomorrow when I go to school.
Len said,
I know it's great.
It's genius,
Right?
I don't know why I haven't thought about it sooner.
Both Liv and Len wrote down everything in the journal,
All the different characters in more detail,
The different parts of their personality.
And then they wrote out different pretend scenarios of when things could be stressful or when things could be embarrassing or when things could be sad or difficult.
And they use the different characters and pretended that they were handling the situation in the way that their character would handle it.
What this did was teach them that they can pull forward different aspects of their personality when they need it.
So,
Take your life,
For example.
If you have to go on stage maybe to perform something or to say a speech in class or to do well on a test or maybe you're doing tryouts for some sport club,
Whatever it is,
Maybe you're having a hard time with your mum or you want to talk closer with your dad.
Which part of your personality could you use for which so that you could handle it better?
So you didn't feel so anxious.
So when you were in a situation that was really nerve-racking and which would normally be your anxious character,
You pull forward your confident character or your really chilled out character just to help you get through whatever you need to get through.
Try it.
Write down five different characters,
Five different parts of your personality.
Write them down,
Give them names and describe them like each one of them were playing a part in a play.
Notice how each one of them feels inside of your body.
Like maybe the nervous character makes you want to shrink and she gets tummy ache and she feels heavy.
Maybe the really sassy character is kind of confident and her shoulders are back and she stands nice and tall.
Notice the different ways you hold your body with each character and the different feelings you feel inside of your body.
And then the next time something comes up where you need to be braver or you need to be a little bit sassy or you need to be more chilled out,
Then you draw on that character.
You can even call them by name.
Give it a try.
And just like Liv and Len,
I bet it really really helps you.
Namaste my little friend.
