Who Are You?

Have you ever asked yourself who you truly are?

Perhaps you have heard of the quote “Know thyself” by Socrates. Maybe not, but ask yourself that question now. Who truly am i.

I am sure you have a few thought bubbles pop up in your mind right now “I look like this” as you picture yourself or “I love my family, my dog, this football team” and have these images flash within your mind. Now, this is all very normal, most of us do think of ourselves as our physical self and the emotions that come along with it. The ego of course loves to answer this one, we think of our self as our identity.

However, the self is illusory, a story we tell ourselves over and over again, one that is ever changing. The fact that you could hypothetically wake up tomorrow, join a radical terrorist group, disown your family and off you go, means that your sense of self is not fixed, you can change your “self” at any moment.

I suppose that leads onto another question related to Socrates famous quote. Does it really matter if we get to “know thyself”? Would getting to know that current version of ones self only reiterate our current paradigm and identity that will eventually change anyway or would we truly find some sense of calm and enlightenment if we delved deep enough? I suppose that can only be answered by the individual.

If you’re a follower of Carl Jung’s work you may be familiar with the “Shadow” and his belief that we should all learn to deal with and understand the darker side of ourselves. The side we prefer to pretend does not exist, yet know is apart of us. What is the old native american proverb?

I personally say who cares, its an interesting thought experiment, and one i enjoy. But the ego desires to play those identity games about the “self”. The identity can survive only in the past, and future. Our self is only truly alive in the present moment.

We are life. We are love. We are an energy force embodied in a human avatar. We are the wind that moves the tall grass, waves that ebb and flow. We are a player in a game called life and our current map is Earth. So let’s let go and play! Once we surrender to that fact, we can all take a deep breath and enjoy this wild ride.

Feel free to comment your thoughts and beliefs below, share and like this post!

Mitch ❤

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