Are You What You Think You Are?

My bet is, you are SO much more! 

 We are what we think 

All that we are arises 

With our thoughts. 

With our thoughts, 

We make our world. 

-The Buddah 

Everything starts with a thought. 

When we are very young, we learn about ourselves by the input we receive, both verbally and non-verbally from our parents, our teachers at school and the society we inhabit at that time. 

This information goes into our subconscious mind, un-edited. 

So, if from the moment we are born, we learn, either through being told, or through intimation, that you are smart, or not.  You are a caregiver and kind, or not. You are a risk taker or not.  You are creative, or not. You have a right to speak and live your truth, or not. Your family and everyone around you responded to you in the way they labelled you, 

Your school or sports teams behaved that way towards you. And occasionally you overheard disparaging remarks about you. And all this became unquestionably your truth.   

That truth would become your thoughts, influencing your behaviors and the actions which control your life. Our truths are often invisible… like a fish in water, we often don’t know we inhabit that space until we’re taken out of it! 

Over the past 25 years in working with clients in the clinic, and students in class, I came to the realization that how we see ourselves is, at best, unfinished.  And at worst, limiting. 

The solution is to take a fresh look, from different perspectives, to uncover and discover untapped strengths, talents and resources that are within.  A personal archeological dig!  To that end I contacted colleagues worldwide who practiced different personality discovery protocols, and asked them about my idea to write about a personal dig down using various modalities to find out about the hidden parts of ourself.  They all agreed.   

A key starting point is to know your values. This is the first layer of the uncovering of who you really are. What do you stand for?  Not what the family, boss or friends think you stand for.  What do YOU stand for.  What’s important for you? And here it’s important to be really true to yourself.  Not allowing the ‘shoulds’ to come into the real you.  Knowing, understanding and living your values allows you to have a firm relationship with yourself.  And when you do, nothing and no-one can blindside you.  This is the foundation on which you stand to explore the rest of you to discover your hidden assets.  

If you’re not sure of what your values are here are some steps that will help you find them. 

• Reflect on your life experiences: Think about moments in your life when you felt particularly fulfilled or proud. Consider what values were present in those experiences, and why they were meaningful to you. 
• Make a list of what’s important to you: Write down a list of things that you believe are important in life. This could include qualities like honesty, kindness, or perseverance, or ideas like justice, freedom, or creativity. 
• Prioritize your list: Once you have a list of values, prioritize them by ranking them in order of importance. Consider which values are most essential to you, and which ones are less important. 
• Consider how your values guide your decisions: Think about how your values impact the decisions you make in your life. In everything you do in the future, consider how you prioritize your time, energy, and resources, and whether these choices align with your values.
• Evaluate your life choices: Reflect on the choices you’ve made in the past,  and consider whether they were made with your values, or those outside of yourself. . If there are areas where your actions don’t align with your own current values, think about what changes you can make to bring your life today more in line with your own, not society’s values. 

It’s worthwhile to remember your personal values are unique to you, and may change over time as you grow, find new attributes of yourself and have new experiences. Taking this time to identify your values will give you a firm footing on which to explore the who you really are.   

Whether you choose to explore through your dreams, a numerology or astrology reading, a journey into past lives or any one of the many esoteric, traditional, and contemporary personality evaluation techniques. Now you will discover, for yourself, your strengths, your challenges, and most importantly, your light. 

Oh yes, we are so much more than we seem, or thought we were. The adventure of self discovery is truly the most interesting and life changing journey we can take.  I believe we are here to achieve our soul purpose.  How can we do that unless we know truly who and how we are?  In our broadest width and depth. Like a many faceted jewel, we need to turn all our parts – or facets towards the light, and let them shine for the betterment of humankind.  What society tells us about ourself, is only a very small part of us.  The world needs the all of us to grow, celebrate and benefit this planet. 

Are you with me on this?  Namaste.