So, Sam, we heard you talking about. A subject that we thought would be brilliant to get you on and we thought our listeners would find really helpful. And that was talking about your alter ego. So, can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Yeah, I think one of the first places I heard about it was I was reading something about Beyonce and that she has this alter ego called Sasha Fierce and when she's Sasha Fierce, she's all dressed up, she's got the heels and the outfit and she goes on and she can really perform. She's got that sassy, I guess it's just having that X factor that maybe on some days for whatever reason, perhaps she just finds it hard to access that. So that's what she does. She has this alter ego. And I just thought, wow, that's fascinating. And it kind of dawns on me that I suppose when you think about it, we're all multifaceted. Like we often we think of ourselves as our true selves as being quite set as one thing. But when you think about it, like if you go to a funeral, you're one version of yourself. If you go to like a party, you're another version of yourself. So we kind of have all these hats. I won't call, I won't say masks, because it sounds like it's a fakeness. And I don't think it's a fakeness. I think it's about tapping into whatever part of ourselves we kind of need for any given situation. I knew that can vary because lives are complicated and varied. And I think we've, we've got more access to different elements of ourselves, some more helpful than others, than we maybe realise. Yeah. Yeah.

I think that's, it really resonates with me. I, I did drama at school. Not because I wanted to be a budding entertainer or anything. And I used that extensively. So I remember going for my very first job interview and standing outside and thinking, okay, Who do I want to be in this job interview and sort of really thinking about it and certainly in other jobs that I've done, I've had certain clothes that I've worn for certain tasks, perhaps if I'm interviewing somebody or got a meeting with somebody. So that idea of, I've never thought of it as an alter ego, but certainly putting on certain. Clothes, or, and we swap hats all the time. That's a phrase we use all the time, isn't it Kev? We're constantly swapping our hat from podcaster, driving instructor, grandparent, parent, all the time.

Yeah. It's funny because this is a funny thing. I actually used it to myself many years ago without even considering the word alter ego or what it, what it meant. and the reason I did, I actually, believe it or not, I used to have a motorway phobia and here I am now, I'm driving, you know, 20 years later, driving instructor, but I had this motorway phobia and I remember sort of thinking, I've got a friend who's a really confident driver. And, uh, I remember thinking, you know, she's really confident, like the way she is in the car, kind of, she'll sort of sit and she's got her hand up here and like her, her posture and her demeanor and kind of like almost wishing that I could be more like that. What, you know, I have this bit of a, this strange problem. with the motorway. I kind of have these moments where I feel a little bit giddy, a bit light headed, panic attacks, I guess. I don't know what provoked it. And I remember thinking, I wish I could be a bit more like my friend. and I kind of would just imagine, you know, what it might be like to sort of adopt her posture and, you know, sort of hand be up on the wheel and just imagine I was her. And I suppose for me, because I implemented that into my own life, and it really helped and obviously having subsequently learned about mindfulness, you know, and, and new techniques that we can bring, from that as well, those things combined, I found really, really helpful. And the funny thing is I, it kind of actually came back to revisit me. Not that long ago, I was coming back from Mindfulness UK, funnily enough, randomly years later on the motorway. And I could feel. This anxiety building up again. I thought, my goodness, I thought I was totally over this. What's this all about? But this time, I had the tools. To deal with it. And I was perfectly fine. I was just with the breath, breathing into the abdomen, and then I was kind of able to kind of, you know, adopt this kind of, I'm a driving instructor, you know, I'm all right, I teach people to do this, and I was fine. And I'm fine. You know, I go on the motorway all the time. And it's not a thing. But yeah, it's really interesting, isn't it? These things happen.

popped into my head. and then suppose it's very similar to what you've just mentioned there, but could you use it in a similar sort of way if you was able to drive before? So, you know, that younger person of you, I'm saying you, but I mean, anyone that's listening. And used to be able to do something, and now for some reason that you can't, you can then just get into your younger self when you could do something. Is that what we're saying? Is it a similar sort of

I think it's really anything you want it to be. So I think some people it's tapping into a version of themselves. Absolutely. An element of themselves that may be, it's an interesting one actually, is I talk to people about what they do for a job and some people are really confident in certain elements of their job. And they talk about what they're like, how they communicate, how that shows up in that context. And it's like, wow, wouldn't it be interesting if you could bring that to this? So it's like it's there, they've already got it, it's part of them, but how can we bring it to this? Or, it might be completely separate, like Sasha Fierce. It might be, well, who do you know? Who do you know that is pretty confident in this area? You know, what would it, what are they like? Um, how, how do you think they're feeling when they do this? And what does it look like? How do they, so you could maybe kind of put on, a different hat. Even like a, a superhero. You could make up something, couldn't you? Obviously Batman or, you make one up for yourself, really. I'm just talking about having a little bit of fun and just thinking, well, how can I get out of my own way? Basically, it's that, isn't it? It's how can I get out of my own way? Like I'm in my way. That's what it is, isn't it?