It’s always good to be genuine with other people and show them your true values, likes, and dislikes so that they can understand you and treat you in the way you want to be treated. It’s also very important to be yourself and acknowledge who you are and what you want out of life. But sometimes it’s also good to play pretend and be someone else for a little while.
When we were kids, we easily played pretend. We pretended we were astronauts or doctors or rock stars, and this felt good. As adults, we don’t tend to play pretend, but it still has its benefits and you may want to try incorporating it into your life.
5 Things Playing Pretend As An Adult Can Do For You
1. Boosts Creativity
Need an answer to a solution?
Want to be more creative in your work?
Want to come up with a good story to share with the world?
Pretend to be someone else for a while. Someone who can find that solution or be more creative at work or who lives a life that you want to understand better.
As you pretend to be someone else, you will branch out into a different mindset, and then you can come up with different ideas and solutions.
Also, as this article says, when you play, you boost the hormones that make your body feel good. And when you feel good, you have access to more awareness as your focus becomes larger and more capable of spotting ideas and opportunities, thus helping you be more creative.
2. Use The ‘Act As If’ Hack To Its Full Advantage
We’ve talked about the act as if hack before on this site. It’s an important skill that can help you move past fears, feel better about things, and improve relationships.
Let’s say you don’t feel organized, in control, strong, or productive. When you pretend to be someone else who has their stuff together or is strong in tough situations (maybe even has superpowers) or who easily gets things done, you are acting as if you too have those abilities, and you are strengthening your confidence and motivation so that you can change and grow and do what needs to be done.
Moreover, it’s important to remember that the placebo effect is a powerful tool that we all have at our disposal. Our minds are powerful, and if we pretend to be someone we want to be, there’s a high chance that our life could follow suit.
Learn more about the power of the placebo here.
3. Gain Perspective and Clarity Around What’s Going On In Your Life
It’s hard to get perspective when you are caught up in your life. You are extremely invested in your life, so you put a ton of thought and emotion into it, which can skew your perspective.
For instance, if someone gets sick in your life that you love, it can be hard to see a positive outcome. All you see is the sickness and the struggle that may lay ahead, which can cause you to fall into a very gloomy frame of mind.
But when you can step back and pretend to be someone else, you can gain more clarity around the situation. It’s as if you are looking at someone else who is dealing with this struggle, but you are not as invested in what’s happening and the outcome.
For instance, if you get sick, you may have other people telling you things that you just can’t believe. They may tell you that things are not as bad as they seem or there is a lot of hope going forward, but being in the situation, and having more personal investment in it than other people, can keep you from seeing these simple truths they are telling you.
If you step out of your shoes and pretend to be one of these people for a while looking at you and what’s going on, you can let go of your strong fears and worries that are taking you down a dark rabbit hole and gain some perspective.
4. Give Yourself A Break From Being You
Sometimes you just want to be someone else, right? That’s where pretending to be someone else comes in. It gives you that break from your problems, your thoughts, your stresses, your feelings, your relationships, your job, and everything else. And it allows you to step into someone else’s shoes for a while.
Did you know: Being someone else for a while can help you adopt their beliefs, habits, and attitudes to become more of who you want to be. This is the premise behind the Raikov Effect. If you want to develop a new habit or be more like someone you admire or develop a character trait that someone else has, pretend to be someone else for a while who has or exhibits what you want and see the world through their eyes, talk to yourself as they would talk, and behave how they would behave.
5. Get Unstuck From Negative Feelings And Thoughts
Getting caught up in negative thoughts and feelings is easy. Staying in them is just as easy. If you want to move on to a better state, it’s very important to create a space where you can get a break and switch gears.
This can be called a gap.
A gap may be meditation, a vacation, a relaxing activity, or even playing pretend.
For instance, pretending to be someone else who is happy and feeling good can help you break free from a cycle of negative thoughts and feelings long enough to let go of those thoughts and feelings and move on to something better.
6. Relieve Stress
Stuck in a stressful state? There are many ways to reduce stress, and pretending to be someone else is one of them.
Pretend to be someone else who is magical, lucky, or happy.
Pretend to be someone else who lives on another planet with different rules and ways of life.
Leave that stress behind as you venture out into other worlds and other lives.
Pretending to be someone else can be fun. And fun helps to reduce stress, promote feel-good hormones, and boost our mental well-being.
