Self

How do you perceive yourself?

 

Sounds like a simple question, eh? Only it’s not really, is it?

 

Are you merely the product of your parents’ genetic material? At a biological level, this is all you are. However, we humans think there is more to it than that, don’t we? We have this concept of “self”. When you go to the grocery store, you tell people “I am going to the grocery store”. Where does this “I” come from?

 

Some look to religion for this, hence the concept of having a soul. This soul is who you really are, and the flesh is merely a container in this instance. The origin of the soul is somewhat murky in most cultures, so it simply exists and is there.

 

Some look to the study of psychology, hence the concept of self-awareness. Our brains create our reality, and ultimate create our concept of self. There isn’t much explanation of how this self-awareness originated, only that it exists. You can see this as “I think therefore I am”.

 

I think perhaps the answer is a little of both, yet not quite. I can only use my own experiences here.

 

I see myself in two ways.

 

I am the product of my experiences up to this point. Everything anyone else has done to me shapes how I react to people now. Everything that I have done on my own also shapes how I react to situations now. This conglomeration of experiences is ultimately my “self”. And even though other people have had similar experiences, they do not react in the same ways. My brain filters these experiences and then controls my future reactions.

 

And yet, the above statement doesn’t quite get everything. I am capable of choosing to do things differently than my experiences would dictate. I am capable of, and this is important, creating my own reality. Although I’ve been through an awful lot of negative stuff in my short life, I choose to react positively in similar situations, even when I know the outcome probably won’t be positive. I choose to be nice to people that treat me poorly. I choose to try to make a difference even when past experience tells me it’s pointless to do so.

 

 

I find as time goes on this choosing can actually take precedence over my experiences. When this happens the outcome is often different than I think it will be, frequently on the positive side of things.

 

 

To tie this to yesterday’s post, all of this begs these questions:          

 

If the net of this is that the self can influence its own reality, why is it that so many people choose to live so poorly? Why do people choose realities full of work, with no time for friends and family? Why do people choose realities full of sorrow, with loneliness and heartache? Why do people choose realities structured so rigidly that they eventually crack, leading to nervous breakdowns and strife?

 

I challenge myself, and a select few that I think listen to me, to choose differently everyday. And my life, and I like to think to some extent the lives of those around me, has been better everyday since I started doing this.

 

Stop being afraid!