Saturday, May 24, 2008

Botgirl's Human Improvement Program

Would you like to integrate some of your avatar's personality traits into your human identity? Or is your avatarian existence beginning to have a negative impact on your life in the physical world? Although the migration of positive characteristics from the virtual to the actual can happen spontaneously, a more intentional approach will likely hasten and enhance the process.

"Botgirl's Human Improvement Program" is being launched here today to promote the healthy co-existence of human and virtual identities. I'm certainly no Eckhart and Oprah hasn't been calling, but I will do my best to periodically offer a few ideas and exercises to support avatar-human harmony and mutual improvement.

For today, let's start with a simple exercise:
  1. Pick one positive trait your avatar possess that you would like to better integrate into your human identity: Creativity, confidence, spontaneity, etc.
  2. Imagine a specific scenario where you can apply the trait in your human life. For instance, confidence might be applied to help you introduce yourself to someone in a social situation instead of standing in a corner nursing a drink.
  3. Before bed each night, imagine yourself as the avatar expressing the positive trait you've selected. Once you experience it deeply, lightly tap your left wrist with your right index finger.
  4. Next, imagine yourself in human form in the situations you've chosen to apply the new trait. Tap your left wrist again and allow yourself to imagine the new feelings and behaviors you seek. You can optionally imagine your avatar looking on from above and smiling at you.
  5. After you've done this for a few nights, go out and practice the new ability in the situation you've been visualizing. Perhaps you will go out to a club in order to practice confidence. In that case, before you go introduce yourself, close your eyes for a moment, tap your wrist as in the bedtime exercise and imagine your avatar smiling down from above. Then open your eyes and go for it!
If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to post in the comments section or send an IM inworld.

6 comments:

  1. Tap my wrist? Are you kidding?

    I think I'd have to punch myself for it to really sink in!

    Seriously, though, nice article. Gives me something to think about. My avatar has many traits that I wish my RL self was able to embrace.

    Thanks,
    Princess Ivory

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  2. LOL :D If only human had known this a bit earlier *sighs* That would have saved us a lot of time and a lot of suffering ;-)

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  3. princess: Yah. Sounds silly. But it's a technique called "anchoring" that's used in hypnosis and I think NLP. Of course the punch might work as well!

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  4. zippora: I wish there was some magic button! Unfortunately, merely thinking about change doesn't usually work too well. But simply working to integrate desirable qualities with a bit of consistent action coupled with imaginative support is likely to create some positive results.

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  5. Botgirl: I thought that technique sounded familiar. Paul McKenna uses that technique to help people lose weight.

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  6. gahum: I'm not familiar with McKenna specifically, but the little exercise I suggested is cobbled together from basic building blocks commonly used in transformative processes. I could have gone a few different ways with it. For instance, instead of imagining the avatar identity smiling down at you, you could image it dissolving into you. Anyway, it seems a bit silly when reading about it, but can be a pretty powerful experience when practiced.

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A beautiful thought experiment personified through the imagined perspective of a self-aware avatar. My creator's site can is at http://fourworlds.tumblr.com