How To Succeed At Being Yourself
We need to ask ourselves the age-old question: What am I? Who is this person that I call myself? We have so many ideas and images about what the self is – from our childhood, parents, friends, experiences physical appearance, etc. But all of these images and frameworks of ourselves change over time. All things are temporary so if you think about it, over the years, your image changes over time.
Try writing down a list of words that describe yourself. For example, mother, father, daughter, son, aunt, uncle, student, musician, dancer, artist, manager, engineer, etc.
Actually, to answer this question we must begin with a spiritual perspective because otherwise nothing will fit very well into the picture. If we are to discover the real “self” we have to get beyond the things that are in our way.
If we try to identify ourselves with the fashion and current times, we may soon find ourselves out-of-date. If we identify with our job, if we lose it or when we retire, we will either live in the past or feel we have lost ourselves. If we identify with roles we play, for example, mother, father, lover, teacher, when that role changes we may feel scared, bewildered, empty or abandoned.
The true self, the true your, is spirit and energy. You can take 1,000’s of forms, wear many different hats, play many different parts but the essence of you is behind all of those forms, thoughts and faces.
To succeed in being yourself you must get in touch with the true self from whence springs all your real power (rather than I’m the boss so I’m important or I’m the boss and have total power over you). What happens when that role changes? If your sense of self-worth depends upon the job you have, people you know, things you are able to do – all of the things outside yourself – where will your self-worth be when these things are no longer with you? If you think that a person, or a position gives you love, security, and happiness then eventually you will feel an empty feeling, wondering what is wrong because you gave your true source of power away to something or someone else.
The true you is not a victim of circumstances. You create the circumstances. The true you is the being who makes choices to provide experiences from which you grow. Everything in your life is the result of your own choices. There are no mistakes or coincidence in life.
When we forget the true center of our being, the choice maker, we get trapped in what we see around and start feeling limited and insecure. But anything we don’t like can be changed by our continued choices.
Life becomes much simpler when we realize who we really are, and that we are responsible for ourselves. But there is a great fear in getting to know who we are – that elusive, infinite being. We think we have to be identified as someone’s employee, lover, spouse, friend, parent, etc., or maybe we aren’t real – maybe we don’t exist. It is comfortable to put labels on ourselves. But by the same token we limit our awareness and manifestation of our infinite potential!
Realizing that you are infinite energy, however, is not your signal to drop out of society. You have chosen to incarnate for a special reason.
To succeed at being the best you can be, to realize your potential – to really succeed at being and knowing your true self – you have to first let go of all the old ideas and blocks that pigeon-hole that you may have put yourself in that limits you. And one of the best and fastest ways to do this is through meditation. Meditation gives us perspective and helps us to develop a detached attitude toward the things that have bound our awareness.
