Rediscover who you are

You may not realize it, but your views on consciousness are shaped by everything that contributes to your beliefs. This includes the community in which you live, the people you know and have known, as well as your perception of whatever happens around you. How aware are you of your true self?

As you reflect, you may interpret your dreams based on how people react and judge. For example, Western cultures promote and value physical objects. This means, in some settings, productivity is measured by output other people can see and use. Some people believe if you have nothing to show for what you do, or if you aren’t like them, then, you must be lazy, or not contributing or working in meaningful ways. If you sense people are judging your choices, you also judge yourself.

In other cultures, the value you offer as a human being is not necessarily quantifiable. In this view, your identity and self-worth aren’t measured based on what you do, incomes you generate or how similar your choices resemble those of other people. In this view, you can daydream, meditate, explore creative abilities and work on your inner self in ways that promote self-growth. Such initiatives are respected for the effort. Activities aren’t judged as good or bad based on what is visible or accessible to other people. Passive, intuitive gestures can be valued for what they are.

What if you became aware that your choices emerge out of fear-based beliefs? What if you began to realize that what you do may relate to your fear of rejection, guilt that someone may not approve or, fear you may not “fit in?” What if you tolerate the life you lead for reasons other than your own?

As you look back, you may have been conditioned to behave as you do because people around you did. For instance, to be aggressive, competitive, obscene or confrontational may have ‘worked’ for other people. They may measure self-worth in terms of power, certain results and qualities that reinforce their beliefs about what is valuable. So, why would similar behaviour not work for you?

No matter who you are, you can always learn meaningful things about yourself from other people. If you behave as you do simply because people do, then you have not yet exerted efforts to get-to-know yourself. Is that because of a lack of courage? Only by following your own journey can you discover “what fits” for you. This can be described as those things that enable you to feel good.

Now, you may arrive at a point where you’re unsure what it means to feel ‘good’ separate from what other people tell you should feel good. Each revelation you experience is a milestone worth celebrating. To become aware that even some of your choices aren’t your own is another step toward discovering who you are.

Comments

[Shilpan|successsoul.com]

Liara -

This is an incredibly powerful post. We are creature of our self perception. Our self worth is nothing more than what we assign in our own mind. Good news is that we have absolute power to change our worth at any time we desire to do so.

[Bruno]

We need to challenge what we believe about ourselves. Is what we believe really true? Often times people don't even know anything is really going on, It only hits them later in life when they wake up one day asking, how did I get here? So it begs the question, how does a person even know to challenge what they believe about themselves?

[Liara Covert]

Shilpan, "thinking" and "doing" here are different actions. Awareness must come before either occur. As you draw on your knowledge and strengthening qualities, you begin to imagine different events could be realized. This is the first step to creating your choice.

[Liara Covert]

Bruno, you pose a poignant question. It isn't the job of anyone outside yourself to tell you how to answer. This is part of your own process. Draw on your own wisdom in the form of intuition. As you get-to-know yourself, you learn to detect and distinguish among signs. Ask yourself if you are structuring your life based on apparent dissatisfactions you have or had. If so, you reinforce your sense of problems. To focus only on your perceived history will give you a distorted view of your sense of self and prsent circumstances. A good rule of thumb is do not do what you've always done. Think outside of your own box.

[motherwintermoon]

Great post, Liara! Keep on shining the light of awareness. Peace, wholeness, and illumination, MW

[Liara Covert]

motherwintermoon, the light of awareness shines inside each one of us. Many people succomb to the temptation to pinpoint what they've done wrong in the perceived past. The key is to understand how you think now for your beliefs color how you view your life.

[Donna L. Faber]

Ammachi, a modern day hindu saint, tells a story about a cow, who from birth is tied by a rope to its fence. Eventually and with time the rope is no longer required to keep it from straying because it assumes and believes the rope is there. It won't stray, won't change what its been taught. Our goal as human beings are not to settle for being cattle and to transcend our perceived limitations.

D~

[Liara Covert]

Donna, your story reminds me of a story about a baby elephant. When in captivity, the creature is chained from the ankle to a peg in the ground to teach it not to try to escape. As an adult, the same elephant stays put, even when the ankle chain is no match for its size and physical strength. Ironically, the mind is not an impenetrable prison.

If we, as human beings, feel victimized and constricted by conditions, we create these feelings. We also permit negative energy to blind up from seeing what we can really do. We always have power to transform our ideas into reality. Its a matter of faith in self.