Don’t Turn Yourself into a Concept: Finding Your True Identity
It seems nowadays, humans are becoming increasingly identified with their mind. Thoughts, concepts, words, ideas, etc. In some cases, you can almost sense the mental activity radiating out of people’s pores when they step into your vicinity. In this article I want to tackle how to move beyond these mental barriers so that you can inhabit your full and truest Being.
Form Identities
In regular, everyday life form identities do play a part of how we relate to one another and express ourselves into the world. Whether that be “doctor”, “lawyer”, “dad”, “brother”, “friend”. These roles do serve a part of human existence, but they do not ultimately explain who you are. Form identities are always changing. The doctor of today retires and becomes a stay at home dad tomorrow. The stay at home dad eventually moves on to become a grandfather. And so on.
Back at my old house I had a neighbor who was a successful college professor for many years, but eventually decided to retire and start his own business selling vintage and collectable coins. When he said that, I was very happy for him. I love seeing personal growth. And sometimes the only way to grow is to let go of those old mental labels, roles, and ideas so that you can make space for something new.
Self-Awareness
The one thing that stays constant throughout these shifts and transformations is your own ability to be self-aware and present. When you can let your awareness guide you, you start inhabiting and embodying a “you” that is much different than the you that you originally thought you were. Whereas you might have always seen yourself as being “this” or “that” you now give yourself the space and freedom to be real, and to let your true light shine.
Job titles, relationship statuses, financial situations. These things are all a part of being a person. You just don’t want to substitute them for your innermost sense of self. You don’t want to dictate your self-worth through things that are material, surface-level, and superficial. There will always be superiorities and inferiorities on the surface of life. LeBron James may be a lot taller than you, and a lot better than you at basketball, but it doesn’t make him better than you as a person. Bill Gates may have a lot more money than you, and may even be more intelligent than you, but it doesn’t make him better than you as a human being. We all put our pants on one leg at a time. When you start stepping out of these mental roles and concepts you also step out of the consistent need to compare yourself against other people. You stop feeling quite so threatened by other people, and you become okay in moments where you aren’t the shining star.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, these aren’t my teachings, and I don’t do nearly as good of a job at explaining them as the professionals and teachers who really do this sort of thing for a living. Pick up any spiritual book, or watch any spiritual online teaching or meditation and you will hear a message that is very similar (and again, probably better explained).
For young people (or old people for that matter), you may find that you don’t feel like you have a strong identity to attach yourself to. Maybe you aren’t fully established in the workforce yet, or just haven’t quite fully figured out what you want to do. In those cases, that’s where it becomes increasingly important to look within, become more self-aware, and be more self-accepting. Don’t get mad at the world or mad at yourself because you haven’t gotten what you wanted yet or what you feel like you “deserve”. And don’t identify yourself as being less than or inferior just because you may see others in a different place.
