PANTOMIME PEOPLE
Find the parallels with your life in your favourite panto!
Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned pantomime? All those cheesy double entendres, rosy-cheeked dames and frilly bloomers are a real tonic on a cold night – even if, this year, you may have to settle for watching a DVD instead of dressing up to go to the theatre.
But put your popcorn on pause for a moment. We want you to look at your panto through a different lens – one that will open your eyes to a few truths in your own life.
Take a stor y we all know and love – Cinderella…
Have you ever found yourself thinking Why me? or There must be more to life than this…? Oh yes, you have! Cinderella taps into that par t of us that’s tirelessly tr ying to do the right thing – by always putting ourselves last. Boo!
When Cinderella’s character chimes with you, a little voice in your head – like the Fair y Godmother – may be telling you to wise up and put yourself first for a change. But it can be easily drowned out by a much louder voice – let’s call it the Wicked Stepmother – reminding you that you’re just not good enough. And that message is especially loud if a parent, teacher or boss has ever made you feel insignificant, and you have allowed their hur tful words to fester and infect your thoughts.
And what about the ugly stepsisters? Don’t they remind you of the jealous friend you’re too kind to give up, or the colleague who tries to steal your thunder at work? Do you let them get away with it, or do you stand up for yourself?
How we respond to the baddies in our lives is determined by our own inner resilience. The stronger you are, the less impact your tormentors will have – because then you really won’t care what they think!
But have you ever noticed that the voice that belittles you most is actually your own inner critic?
We all have one. And though we may want to shut it up, it pays to listen to it, explains personal development specialist Tricia Woolfrey. www.yourempoweredself.co.uk
“Despite what you may think, its role is not to create miser y, but to help you. It’s your inner critic that stops you doing something that could be risky. It protects you from failure and cushions you from criticism. But it can also hold you back, and stop you from growing.
“If your inner critic says you’ve just made a really bad fist of something, you have a choice. You can tell yourself, ‘Looks like I’m never going to be any good at that’. Or, you can pose the question, ‘How could I do that dif ferently – and better – next time?’
“Ever y experience you have – good or bad – is a chance for selfimprovement. Think about babies learning to walk for the first time. They don’t fall on their bottoms and give up ever tr ying again. They pick themselves up and keep on improving. They’re too young to have an inner critic saying walking’s not for them!
“Remember this next time you fail at something. Instead of telling yourself, ‘I can’t do that,’ you need to star t saying, ‘I can’t do that yet…’
Give yourself the oppor tunity to grow and to improve.
“In the end Cinderella realises that she will never achieve the happy ending that she yearns for – her Prince Charming – if she carries on sweeping the floor, and letting her stepmother and stepsisters tell her she isn’t wor th anything better. Instead, she listens to her Fair y Godmother, lets her inner wisdom work its magic, and puts the demons from her past behind her. You can do that too!”