We participated in a Halloween Trunk or Treat this weekend, which was a bit of a dress rehearsal for Halloween next Monday.

Full disclosure: I am not a huge fan of Halloween.
Halloween is not my favorite. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

However, there is a good lesson in costumes and dress-up.

Sometimes, it is really helpful to "try on" a different identity.  There is a freedom and permissiveness during Halloween events to express yourself as more powerful than you might usually feel.  Or to forgo the smiles and happy faces and embrace the darker, grim and scary parts of life.   This "trying on" of a new identity allows you to participate in what Priya Parker (The Art of Gathering) calls
"a temporary alternative world"

Parker says,
"There is a certain kind of fun in trying something for a bounded moment. The kind of restriction that might feel oppressive if permanent can seem compelling and intriguing when it applies sometimes, as part of a conscious effort to create that temporary alternative world."

How can we apply this as adults?

TRY ON your ideas for New Year's Resolutions or Words of Intention for 2023 over the next two months.
There isn't the same pressure to change everything or to "go big" during the last two months of the year.  So, go small...try one new type of exercise class and see what it's like to be the type of person who does bungee fitness or kickboxing.  Temporarily.

They say "dress for the job you want" right?  But post-COVID, you might still be dressing for the top-only camera view; or  you might find that your pre-pandemic clothes don't fit (literally or metaphorically) where you are now. 
Take a day and TRY ON a variety of clothes that are outside of your usual style.
Think power suit or formal gown or even just a color that is outside of your norm.  (You don't have to buy it...just notice how you might behave if this was how you dressed).
Think Tiger Woods and his "power red polo."

TRY a new restaurant, a new recipe, a new genre of book, a new type of training....try that old experiment to brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand. 

Break the routine.  Give yourself permission to consciously create a
Temporary alternative world
and see what happens.

As Parker says,
There is a certain kind of fun in trying something for a bounded moment.