Embrace Your Inner Professional Wrestler

You have to start living the spandex way of life, so you can stop wearing the masks of in-authenticity.

I have a dark secret. Known only to people who are near and dear to my heart. That secret is that I am a huge fan of professional wrestling. While I can one hundred percent recognize that wrestling is essentially just soap operas made for a male audience, I can also see it for an amazing art of story telling/character development/live comic book/live theater/stunt mish mosh.

Now, if that beautiful description of wrestling does not convince you of its value for everyone, take a short break and go watch this video. I’ll wait.

OK, welcome back. Now one thing that you maybe missed from that video was one of the greatest scientific techniques that you can choose to implement into your life. It does not come from the hallowed halls of academia, but from the dirty bingo halls and sports arenas where professional wrestling holds their bouts with predetermined outcomes. That scientific technique is known throughout the lands as kayfabe.

I know what you are thinking. What even is kayfabe? Kayfabe is the agreed upon notion that the bouts and drama presented in professional wrestling is presented as authentic, despite most parties involved knowing full well that they are not. The parties involved with the illusion include the wrestlers, the company, the referee, the announcers, and in all honesty most of the audience.

So how does this help you? Well other than showing you an amazing form of entertainment for you to enjoy and love, it also gives you a new framework to help approach your day-to-day experiences. Kayfabe in the real world allows for you to suspend your own disbelief about what you are capable of accomplishing.

When your brain tells you:

• “You aren’t capable of doing that” — imagine yourself as someone who is capable. Then go do the thing.
• “You are unloveable” — imagine yourself as someone who is loved.
• “You are a shy person” — go do the things that a non-shy version of you would do.

The list goes on and on.

Now you may not be sure about this idea, or think I’m off my rocker and full of crap. It is definitely possible, I will not deny it. What I can say is that it has vastly helped me. When I started to challenge the notion of who I was, who I had to be, or what I should be, it allowed me to have considerably more space to be able to be my authentic self. For me that meant a Jared that is more real with people, has more meaningful connections in his life, and has more sources of vitality and richness in his life.

Now, I would love to say this means I no longer experience worry, anxiety, depression, and fear. That couldn’t be farther from the case. If you do not believe me, just ask my tag team partner, my beautiful wife. She gets to be there for all of my struggles.

That’s where I’ll end this one, with the promise of more to come on embracing the squared circle kayfabe mindset in regards to your own life.

Connect with Jared Broussard, MA, LPC via his website, and click here to learn more about becoming a coach yourself.