Who am I?
Date: 17 Mar 2005
Time: 00:11:25
Comments
This question may be considered "the" question of our expierence. It may be answered on many levels, as any answer would contain some combination of philosophical, ethical, spiritual, or behavioral perspectives. We are, in part, our training and experience, in part our hopes and accomplishments and failures and, in part, connected to some higher power of force. We know we have body, mind, and soul and we often ask this question in references to one of these aspects of ourselves. We tend to define ourselves in terms of how we look, what we think and know, how we feel, and what we do. Usually, we have difficulty in combining all our parts into a cohesive whole.
When this question is asked in therapy, there is always some pain. The therapeuthic answer must go beyond the externals--the roles that each of us assume, our physical appearance, our education, our status and financial worth, our ability to relate with others, and so on--to the underlying reason for asking this question. Almost always, the motivation for questioning who you are is related to the amount of insecurity that you feel. Insecurity is at the heart of ALL emotioinal dysfunctions and is highly correlated to physical ailments and spiritual anxieties. Insecurity means doubting yourself which, in turn, produes the inability to trust who and what you are which then results in not knowing yourself. If you do not know and you do not trust, how can you love? Yourself or others? Insecurity then can be defined as low or no "Self-Esteem", as Self-Esteem implies loving of self.
Most of us search for the answer to "who am I?" by looking for the differences between ourselves and others. We compare, we criticize, we judge, and we wonder why we feel so lost. The answers to finding ourselves, paradoxically, occur when we find the similarities we share with others. This is "Social Interest". The more you can relate to the sameness you share with someone else, the more belongingness you can feel. The more encouragement you give and take, the more security you achieve.
Therefore, the antidotes to the reasons for asking the first question are found in the development of Self-Esteem and Socail Interest. The ways and means to develop these two attributes will be found in the answers to the followling questions.....which I will discuss in the next coming articles...WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE? This is the next question with others to follow in each continuing article.
Keep posted, and together we can figure out the authenticity of who you are. "Keep coming back to learn because it works, and your are worth it!"
In Love, Light, & Life,
Dyanne Yellowlight
Last changed: November 29, 2006
