When I was a kid, and whenever there was mouse in the house, my parents would call it a ‘Little Mickey’.
The refusal to call it a mouse, and the act of giving it a name that evoked positive associations for my sister and I, made us less scared of the critter.
Although I strive to embrace reality and “call it like it is,” there is something about playful euphemisms like ‘Little Mickey’ that can re-frame how we experience scary, new, or challenging situations.
And maybe we’ll find that situation isn’t so bad after all; perhaps there’s magic to be found in giving it a new name.