Do you ever wonder who you really are? We’re talking about who you are beyond your job and the myriad rôles you play as partner, parent, child or sibling? Do you ever take a moment to reflect on who might be hiding behind the weight of all those masks? Do you feel that this could be a good time for the real you to stand up and be noticed?
Best be yourself, imperial, plain and true!
Robert Browning
The question of personal identity is a key element in the quest for self-empowerment. It’s a powerful invitation to free yourself from your lifetime of fears and doubts and insecurities. How can you choose meaningful goals for yourself and a clear vision of the future if you’re not even sure who you are? Why do we invest so much of our emotional and mental capital into playing rôles that rarely reward us with the peace, power, contentment, or fulfillment that would every day an occasion to celebrate?
The problem arises in early childhood where family and social conditioning teach us how to behave and how to conform to the expectations of our surroundings. Through the twin pressures of pain and reward, we quickly learn how to adapt to our environment. Approval is a powerfully addictive element in our lives. Most people remain hooked on the need for approval throughout their entire lives.
Through conditioning, we learn to express other people’s ideas, other people’s emotions and other people’s attitudes. But it’s time to ask whether any of these behaviours offer a true reflection of who we really are?
And, if not, what’s the alternative?
We could suggest that whatever remains after stripping away all the rôles and masks and habits would certainly be closer to an authentic expression of who we really are.
Granted, this can seem like a daunting task. It can be disturbing experience to set aside these layers of trusted and familiar attitudes. They’re so deeply assimilated into our behaviour that we can’t imagine what it would be like to wake up without them. But the process of self-discovery is claimed to be one of the greatest achievements that a human being can aspire to.
Being yourself is all it takes. If you want to impress someone, don’t be someone else.
Just be yourself.
Selena Gomez
Expressing your deeper self, free from the old, limiting, conditioned behaviours and automatic responses, is a profoundly powerful experience. It’s one of the keys to living beyond the old shadows of fear, doubt, limitation and anxiety.
If we take the gift of this life as a unique and precious opportunity to grow and develop, why would we waste a single moment pretending to be someone else?
The process of transformation begins with simple questions:
Why am I doing this?
Why do I feel this way?
Where do these feelings come from?
Or, on a deeper level:
Who exactly is feeling this?
When you begin to recognise that most of your thoughts and feelings have been donated by others, that they don’t belong to you except by virtue of the fact that you repeat them every day, that there are alternatives that resonate more deeply within you – you begin to free yourself from a lifetime of addiction to the rôles you’ve been playing.
The freedom of letting go of all these rôles is truly breathtaking. It’s like waking up from a dream. You really don’t worry about what people might say or think about you. You don’t have to wear a mask to please people or gain their approval. You feel free. You feel deeply empowered. Your life can move in a new direction. You can choose a pathway and destination that feels exactly right for you. You feel motivated. You feel inspired. Life feels more intense, more meaningful and you feel that you’re in command of your destiny. You walk with a lighter step and you do not carry the world on your shoulders.
It’s called personal empowerment and it’s a vital step on the pathway to self-fulfillment.
Make a simple commitment right now to free yourself. Become who you really are.
Giving up those tired old rôles can be both challenging and incredibly rewarding but it’s a truly worthwhile quest to adopt. We’ve been teaching these techniques and principles to thousands of individuals for more than twenty years. Our aim is to help as many people as possible to enjoy life to the full in a powerful and meaningful way.
If you found the suggestion helpful, please feel free to share the post and encourage your family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances to discover the incredible power of breaking free from their limitations. Help them to enjoy greater levels of freedom, happiness and success in all areas of their lives.
Together, we really can make the world a better place.
Greg Parry developed The Wellness Foundation and the Cognitive Empowerment Programs specifically to help people master their stress and explore the power of their true potential.
You can explore our websites at:
We’re here to help you make a powerful difference to your life!
