Restoring Resourcefulness Module 7: Persona
Humans require attention as much as food and water. Most babies receive attention for their essence, for simply being who they are. However, sooner or later their being becomes inconvenient for their caretakers. Humans then tend to develop roles (personas) to continue receiving the wanted attention and avoiding the unwanted attention. People develop troublesome personas when they’re not getting the desired positive attention, on the principle that ANY attention is preferable to no attention. The good news is that all personas carry aspects of essence, and the more you get to know and befriend your personas, the more you can liberate your essence qualities and express them directly. The Persona Interview will assist you in distinguishing persona from essence.
Steps:
Intro to Persona Interview:
1. Bring to mind a recent situation where your reaction may have surprised you
or seemed bigger than what was called for.
2. Take 30 seconds to express and blurt about this experience.
3. What are the body sensations and feelings you notice as you bring this
situation to mind?
4. Let’s explore this aspect of you that we call a persona. What would this
persona like to be called?
5. The key to really benefitting from this activity is exaggeration (voice, gestures,
stance). As you get ready to be interviewed, play with and exaggerate the
persona’s posture, gestures, stance, facial expressions etc. When you are
ready to let your persona fully respond, physically take a step forward into this
persona.
6. Interviewer: Address the persona by name with each question and use just
these questions for the most effective result.
Persona Interview:
__________, what’s the most important thing to you?
__________, what are you most proud of?
__________, when did you make your first appearance?
__________, who did you learn your style from?
__________, what are you most afraid of?
After the Persona Interview:
Invite the person to step out of the persona, to do some kind of pleasurable
movement like Fear Melters® and to appreciate themselves for their willingness to
explore. Analysis is more effective after a period of integrating the experience.
Additional Information:
- After the interview you can invite the person to find a way to celebrate themselves.
- You can invite them to learn about Presencing, which will also assist them in discerning essence from persona.
- You can encourage them to express their persona’s gift more directly in some aspect of their life, at home or work or on a walk.
If the person is unsure about body sensations and feelings, you can share this information:
Common Body Sensations
- Butterflies in the stomach
- Tight jaw or shoulders
- Heavy chest
- Restriction in throat
Feelings:
- Anger
- Sadness
- Fear
- Joy
- Sexual Feelings/Excitement
Resources
At the Speed of Life, Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks : Chapter 5, “The Presencing Principle: The Starting Point of Mindbody healing”
Foundation for Conscious Living: Drama Triangle Series
