What are your subpersonalities?

I was sent the e-book by Cheryl Bridges Me, myself and I-28 days of Creative Self Love. It’s a book that helps the reader love him/herself. It has lots of creative/ reflective activities you can do at the end of each chapter. I liked the chapter Body Hate/ Body Love. What does this chapter talk about?It’s about what Socrates called daimons, Freud instincts and drives, and Cheryl calls subpersonalities. So, what exactly are subepersonalities?

According to Cheryl Bridges,

behaviors we develop to help us navigate life, particularly when we are little. The behaviors help us cope with specific situations.

After reading the chapter, I decided to do what the writer suggests.Look a bit more closely at my own ‘subpersonalities’, reflect and be a bit more creative by giving the subpersonalities names. So, let’s dive into my mind and my subpersonalituies: my little people (behaviours?).

💖 Polyanna & Pessimist Jo

So, there is definitely a Polyanna in me: you know the one that is always positive and thinks that tomorrow will be a better day and finds positive in everything, for others that is. Polyanna the optimistic advisor of others. Sometimes, I follow her lead and think that everything is great on my little pink cloud. Key word here: sometimes, cause other times, I think of the worst case scenarion and that’s when Polyanna’s butt gets kicked by negative/ pessimistic Jo. There is always a real battle between those two. Sometimes I am all about positive thinking and seeing/hoping for the best, and other times, I think that I am doomed.

💖 Pushover Jo vs. Pushy Jo

There is also pushover Jo, the one who doesn’t want to let people down and sometimes doesn’t really focus on what she wants but does what the others want. She is probably Polyanna’s cousin! Funnily enough, I also have a somewhat bossy version of myself and that one surfaces when everyone else is indecisive. I mean come on, ” Let’s go to XYZ already”. I think one of the things I hate the most is indecisiveness. So, in those cases the subpersonality of pushy Jo rocks. I am all about planning and thinking about something, but surely on things that are not life threatening you definitely do not need fifty hours to decide!!

💖 Insecure Jo vs. Risk-taker

There is an insecure Jo who tells me” You cannot do it. You are not good enough” and a risk-taker Jo. A voice that says, ” Go ahead! You can do it! What’s the worse case scenario? You will fail. Eh! Big woop. Everybody fails at something, at some point!

Interesting thing those subpersonalities, the ones that make us who we are. The little voices/instincts in our heads that define our behaviour. You gotta love them though, cause they make you, you, and me, me. They grow, they mature, sometimes they vanish and sometimes they hold you back.

💖 Some final thoughts

This reflective task was fun. It made me think of the things I want to work on. There are many chapters in the book that are really interesting. There are chapters on self-love, emotions,nurturing your body and soul and lots more. The writer invites you to use your markers and your crayons, to draw and be creative on a journey to learn more about yourself. * You can get the book here. If you are interested in reading more posts, use the hashtag #creativeselflove

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