Flip the script on your boggart

By honeyandthehomewrecker on April 1, 2018 • ( 4 Comments )

Are there any among you familiar with a boggart?

A boggart is a shapeshifter that takes the shape of that which is most feared by the person who encounters it. When not in the sight of the person, it lurks in shadow as an amorphous blob. When it appears, however, it is nothing short of your worst nightmare made manifest.

A boggart can be defeated, but there is a catch. Isn’t there always?

To defeat a boggart, one must simply have the courage to stand and squarely face the object of their torment by using the most counter-intuitive approach imaginable.

You’ve got to laugh at it.

You need to flip the script on that malevolent bastard and steal its power. It can’t have power over you if it’s a monkey wearing banana high heels, now can it?

This isn’t about trying to feel superior, nor is this about sparing the boggart’s feelings. And this definitely is not about sitting down, shutting up, and being nice. No. This is about conquering your own personal terrorist. It’s simple, really. You get the monster before it can climb up the edge of your bed and get you. This is about emotional survival.

It doesn’t matter what your boggart takes the shape of. An ex-husband with a kind smile on the surface but lead-pipe cruelty underneath. An ex-wife with a propensity to stray and then blame you for it while trying to take you for the house and the kids and your 401K. Mind-game players. Sociopaths. Fake people. Narcissists. Any bully, any foe, any false friend that lurks in the shadows of your mind and won’t give you a moment’s mental rest can be a boggart.

So, flip the script. Picture them peeing their pants onstage, or farting loudly in a crowded elevator. Laugh at the ridiculousness, if only for a moment. Take your power back. It doesn’t have to be to their face, and probably shouldn’t be. For example, you could write an anonymous mockumentary-style blog that somehow finds the comedy in other’s horrendous behavior and atrocious FaceBook posts. Ahem.

So try it today. Identify your boggart. Then find the most irreverent part of yourself, metaphorically look that boggart squarely in the eye, and proclaim through your cackling laughter ‘Riddikulus! You’re nothing but Snape in a hideous dress. Be gone with you.’