{"id":7514,"date":"2011-10-02T21:55:31","date_gmt":"2011-10-03T05:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=7514"},"modified":"2013-09-12T14:51:37","modified_gmt":"2013-09-12T22:51:37","slug":"who-am-i-5-steps-to-reveal-your-true-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/who-am-i-5-steps-to-reveal-your-true-self\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Am I? 5 Steps To Reveal Your True Self"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We endlessly discuss and gossip about questions of: What am I? Who am I? What is my self?<\/p>\n

Layers of Fear hide answers to these questions. They must be lifted off to live in the essence of an effective life.<\/em><\/p>\n

First Layer:<\/strong> As this first thin layer is lifted there is a growing awareness that ideas about your self are made-up. They only exist as ideas in the minds that hold them.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t follow that ideas are useless, or at all meant to be ineffective. It means that at their core, effective or ineffective, they are not real; they are figments of imagination. They can be easily be made into dark heavy blankets.<\/p>\n

So in unpeeling this first thin layer you face a question: \u201cMy self, what I am, who I am, is not real! It is just an idea or concept?\u201d<\/p>\n

You may shake your head or say: \u201cThanks. How does this help me live effectively?\u201d Hold this question as the second layer is lifted.<\/p>\n

The Second Layer<\/strong>: Hold back each peel as we proceed deeply inward.<\/p>\n

If you have even considered that you are an idea, then you will, with fear, begin to more clearly see you don\u2019t know who, or what you are; you don\u2019t know who or what your self is, where you are, or how to make sense of anything. You have not owned that you\u2019re entirely free to make this up. \u201cIf this is true, why isn\u2019t it simple to make an effective self?\u201d It \u2018is\u2019. And it \u2018is not\u2019.<\/p>\n

Understanding you can create whatever you want or wish, the first difficulty with \u2018is not\u2019 arises with the realization that if you want freedom from the dark you have no choice about taking full responsibility for your construction. This is why the \u2018is\u2019 seems so difficult. It asks: \u201cDo you want to own responsibility for the self you have created?\u201d<\/p>\n

The external world from conception on provides ready-made ways to avoid responsibility for one\u2019s constructed self: Physical: \u201cBorn this way\u201d, \u201cBody\/soul is damaged\u201d, Environmental: \u201cTough life\u201d, \u201cParents\u201d. This is a fruitless nature-nurture debate. For the degree you choose to avoid responsibility for creating your self, using nature or nurture, you are making-up-a-self sliding into a dark pit of pain.<\/p>\n

The Third Layer<\/strong>:\u00a0 The second layer is heavy, yet as you lift the third layer you see it doesn\u2019t mean there is no truth to the fact we begin life with others totally responsible for us. Here you see is where \u2018is not\u2019 makes its stand. Given the temptations waiting at maturity, self-deception is the \u2018seeming-easy\u2019 choice; or you can ask: \u201cHow do I regain responsibility for my self?\u201d<\/p>\n

Deciding you want an effective life, you must own the fact that all others including society, religion and culture have put ideas into your mind about who and what you are. \u201cYou\u2019re \u2018special\u2019. You\u2019re X age, sex, religion.\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re bad. You little devil.\u201d<\/p>\n

So all your dark, ineffective thoughts, feelings and behavior is exposed when the third layer is lifted. Through your whole life, as you decide to make up who and what you are, you have to deal with the effective and ineffective parts of you that were installed by others before you were responsible for yourself. Even though they were made-up by others, they still have their own ability, to think, perceive and even act AS IF they are really you.<\/p>\n

The Fourth Layer<\/strong>: The lifting gets heavier but keep holding the layers up. Are those glimpses of light? Underneath is a further growing awareness that you also began, when not fully responsible for yourself, to slowly but surely make up ideas of who and what others were, based on your experiences and imagination. These parts of your self, others inside you, so to speak, also act AS IF they are real and autonomous. Holding onto guilt, shame and responsibility for the made-up ineffectiveness of others inside you, as part of your own self, is a cause of immense darkness. The power of negative emotions given to these made-up others is held over you only when you don\u2019t alternatively find the light switch of owning responsibility for making them up. You can waste large amounts of creative energy trying to fix these ineffective \u2018others\u2019 parts. They can\u2019t be \u2018fixed\u2019! They aren\u2019t real!! You can only release in forgiveness and thereby free yourself from these guilty thoughts born of fear.<\/p>\n

The darkness now intensifies before the dawn for as you lift this layer you are shockingly aware that what you see outside is what you have made-up inside. Perceiving or projecting these creations onto others outside your self by criticizing, blaming or denigrating instead of releasing them to forgiveness reinforces the darkness of fear. You are letting internal constructions, meant to protect and safely hold you, lead you and leave you, in the dark.<\/p>\n

The Fifth Layer:<\/strong> Like ripping off a band-aid you lift this last layer of exquisite pain. Here you decide, \u201cI will take responsibility for what I\u2019ve made, surely the light switch must be there, right there!\u201d But, no, you still have to face and lift off the final two scabs of immense fear and pain.<\/p>\n