Who Are You Really?

As you traverse your life’s journey, who do you think you are? You start asking questions about your identity, “Who am I?” Who are you? “Am I just an animated biological form helplessly trying to make my way through the rat’s maze of life?” If you are, “What’s the point of my being here at all?” So, you look for meaning in life, and I ask you,

“Who do you think you are?”

I present to you an exercise that might help you find clarity about who you are. You might be surprised that you are far more than you’ve ever given yourself credit for because most people think you are who you are, when nothing could be further from the truth.

When you come to this life, you are given a body and a name. This is who you think you are because that is how the whole world outside of you refers to you, so it’s no surprise that this is who you think you are.

You look in the mirror and you see the reflection of the person you think you are. You can see your body which is recognizable by the name you’ve been given. But this is not who you are.

This is your body which has been given a name that is associated with your body.

You can look at your hand and think that this is your hand, but it is not your hand, it’s your body’s hand. If you cut your hand and see blood dripping from it, you might express something, like “I am bleeding.” Only you are not bleeding. Your body’s hand is bleeding.

If you could take your hand off and put it on the opposite side of the room, and look at it, you can see that you are not your hand. You are still here. You can see your hand over there, yet you are still complete, so you are not the hand.

Continuing this exercise with all the parts of the body will help you to realize that you are not this body which has been labeled with the name which has been assigned to you.

You are something more.

Then you think, “Oh, I am thinking, therefore I am my mind.”

Yet, if you would dare to do it, you could consider continuing the exercise by removing everything that you think you are, all your experiences, thoughts, and beliefs, every thought, and you are still there.

You are something more.

When you’ve completed this phase of the exercise, you realize that you are not the mind. What you are is the conscious source of all life. You can put any label on this which suits your personal paradigm. For me, I refer to this as God because that resonates with me.

If this conscious source of all life were removed from the body with your name associated with it, your lifeless body would collapse to the floor.

Once you understand this, you can see that you are this divine consciousness which is present in all life on this planet, our galaxy, all the galaxies in the universe, and whatever is beyond.

In this manner, you realize that you are one with everything, but you are experiencing this life as a journey witnessed from the vantage point of your identity in your body, so enjoy this life’s journey for what it is.

You might not be able to identify with this exercise and that is perfectly fine. There is no judgment here, and you are perfectly correct in whatever you think about who you are.

What do you want to be known for?

Isn’t it time that you started thinking about how you would like to be known or remembered for? What would you like people to say about you after you’re gone?

Now is the time to start establishing yourself as the person you’d like to be known as.

You’re a wise world walker and as such, you have the ability to see and perceive things unencumbered by the social restrictions that confine other earthlings with limiting beliefs.

The first step in establishing the person that you would like to become is to take stock of where you are currently. Evaluate how you see yourself, how others think about you, and if possible, try to get honest third-party perceptions about the kind of person you are.

Having an objective opinion about one’s self is the first step of wisdom.

I’m a list person, so I would suggest getting a piece of paper and start jotting down what other people’s opinions of you are as well as how you think others might perceive you objectively.

We tend to see ourselves from within and consider the person who we are to be the most intimate and trusted person we know. We know our thoughts, motivations and inner feelings. So, we know how deeply we feel about certain people, circumstances and topics but no one outside ourselves knows how we feel.

Decide which inner feelings you’d like to have recognized for by your family, peers, coworkers, community and possibly the world at large.

So, here’s the next list: Who I Want to be known as?

Go ahead; go crazy. This is your life. The impression you leave on others is all that remains of your life’s journey.

It might help to relax and imagine what you might like to hear people saying about you at your funeral (avoiding the morbidity of the idea). You need not go as far as writing your own eulogy, though some people like doing this as part of the process.

This is not a one-time affair. The wise world walker is constantly evaluating his or her life, being aware of where they are in their journey and intentionally putting their sights on other destinations to engage with.

As a matter of fact, as I write these words, I too, am reflecting deeply… and have just uncovered something that brought me to tears. Though too intimate to share publicly, the basis of it is simply:

I have sincere, deep feelings about something.

The public (exterior) sense of others might have no idea about how passionately I feel about this thing.

If I ask myself, “Would I like to be remembered for how I feel?” or, “Would I like the world to know how I feel?” and the answer is, “Yes.” Then I have a great deal of work to do.

It is not always comfortable work – and in most cases it is not – but thank God you have the wherewithal to realize the separation that exists between

where the perception of you lies

and

what you would like to have known about you.

Your challenge – if you decide to accept it – is to think of ways that your true, authentic self can be seen by others and start taking action.

Who are you?

Let people know who you are.

I want to know you for everything that you would like to be remembered for.

Don’t just tell me; show me.

Sometimes you feel like your life means nothing, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. The exact opposite is true: Your life means everything. You came to this planet with a divine mission, to share your sacred gift.

You’ve felt the tug on your heartstrings. Inside you know you were meant for something more in this life, but you feel unworthy. Any time you even think about having a grander mission, message, or purpose for living, you hear all those negative inner voices telling you all the reasons you are not qualified.

The fact of the matter is that there is no one who is more qualified for you to share your message than you. The most effective method for God to disseminate your message is via someone exactly like you, who have had the experience, witnessed and experienced all the life you have endured.

Perhaps, to you, you think this life has been unfair or cruel and nothing good comes from this life, or any life which has smelled, seen, tasted, heard, or felt the things you know first-hand.

I can tell you this for certain, there are particular people who are in desperate need of receiving your sacred gift, and they would not receive it from anyone else but you. Someone else could use the same words that you might use, but those words would fall on deaf ears because they did not come from your lips, your pen, your keystrokes.

You have felt the same way, haven’t you? Someone tried to tell you something with a kind heart, sensitive and caring, but their words did not resonate with you because you knew they could not possibly know what you were going through. They just had no real frame of reference.

You might find effective methods of distracting yourself from answering the call by spending time online, out with friends, playing video games, shopping, or other ways to make yourself comfortably numb, in an effort to avoid your inner nudge to step out in faith to make an important contribution to your people, the local community, and the world who desperately need your sacred gift.

You must let go of the things that are holding you back, your negative self-talk, insecurities, and anything else that is preventing you from reaching out in faith. You do not need to be 100% confident in your abilities to fully express your sacred gifts, only courageous enough to step into the void, confident enough to know that God and all his angels will be there to support you and catch you if you fall.

It is more important to do a thing in faith than to have everything set up to be perfect. You and your gift are perfections. It may be awkward at first, but you will find it becoming easier and easier as you answer your divine calling, exercising your gifts and honing your skills along the way.

I was never an exceptional singer or songwriter but that didn’t keep me from using this as a method to communicate at a time when I knew of no other way to reach out to my prospective audience waiting to hear my words. For me, this was a stepping stone that would lead me down a different path, finding new ways to connect with others through writing, counseling, public speaking, teaching, and training.

If I’d let my lack of self-confidence keep me down, I would have never been able to help those I’ve assisted in achieving their highest and best, in only ways that I could have. This is my divine calling.

We do not have to be perfect, only brave enough to trust that something bigger and wiser than we could ever be is at work behind the scenes, and has selected you, and only uniquely you, to accomplish this task.

What if you never answer the call? No problem. You have free will to do, or not to do, things and to live your life in any way you decide. God will use someone else to do the best they can to pick up the slack, but you were God’s first choice.

One of my dearest friends, whom I loved dearly, committed suicide, leaving a note with only these words,

“My life means nothing.”

This was after spending years of fulfilling purpose in the assistance of others with the empowered sharing of sacred gifts, then something happened. I don’t really know the details of what darkness befell my dearest friend, but clearly, it had been too much to bear for another moment, when the following day would have been an altogether new day.

Many people do not cut their life short in such a dramatic way but do spend a great deal of time and effort, sometimes spanning the whole of their lives avoiding their sacred calling.

Will you answer the call today?

Reach out to me, and I and my people will help you get from where you are to where you will be able to honor your sacred fit, and in a sense, sing your song, as only you can sing it.

Your calling is calling you.

Call me.

 

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