Did You Know That Your Identity Is Largely Artificial?
Your identity is labeled via artifice mostly tied to your egoic self.
Identity is complex. How you identify yourself varies depending on circumstances and situations.
Student. Parent. Child. Friend. Lover. Coworker. Boss. Man. Woman. No matter which of these apply, they seldom apply all at once. And what’s more – all of them are artificial.
Additionally, your identity will change constantly. Some of that change is wholly under your control. But much of it will be viewed and commented on by outside forces.
For example – my wife didn’t take my surname when we married. Worse, despite her politely asking them not to, some of her relatives have addressed things to us with her identified not just by my surname, but without her own first name. Yes, as you might imagine, this has gone over poorly.
Identity tends to get tied up in ego. Which adds to its utter artifice.
Please allow me to elaborate.
The ego and artifice
You are made up of a conscious mind and a subconscious mind. The subconscious mind runs on rote and routine and often isn’t fully engaged. But in your subconscious mind your beliefs, values, and habits live.
Your conscious mind is your present, aware, awake mind. When you’re consciously aware, you’re mindful. That mindfulness informs you, here and now, about who, what, where, how, and why you are.
This is why the notion of “woke” being considered in any way bad utterly baffles me.
For all sorts of reasons that I’m not going to detail thoroughly here, people tend to live largely by rote and routine. But in a nutshell, distractions, obligations, and societal norms tend to push people to live mostly subconsciously as such.
However, everyone experiences periods of being mindful and consciously aware. During those periods, they form an impression of themselves based on bridging the conscious and subconscious minds.
The construct that comes of that is the ego. The ego, thus, is how you project yourself to the world without, and simultaneously reflect yourself back within yourself.
Your ego and your identity often align.
There’s a problem, however, that comes about if you mostly live subconsciously. Your ego holds onto a truth about you formed in the past. That’s how you identify. But if you haven’t been consciously aware, mindful, and living in the now more than by rote and routine, you will find yourself conflicted.
Why? Because change is the one and only constant in the Universe. Because you change – sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but always – who you were isn’t who you are.
The notion of “who” is identity. That’s why it’s tied to ego – and why it tends to be wholly artificial.
Hence why living mindfully, in the now, is empowering. Because it bypasses the ego.
Mindfulness, the now, and identity
Unlike your subconscious mind – and its constantly running programs – your conscious mind can only be engaged in the now.
Your subconscious mind is like your smartphone. It’s always on, is full of memory and apps, and just is most of the time. Your conscious mind is like a game app on your smartphone. Unless you’re using it, here and now, it’s mostly inactive.
Your conscious awareness – conscious mind – functions entirely in the present. It’s a product of the here and now. The more you engage it, the more you gain control of the only thing you truly can control.
You.
Specifically – your mindset/headspace/psyche self. That control comes from recognizing your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions. And then, after recognition, changing them if they’re not suiting you.
Remember, the only person in your head, heart, and soul is YOU. Nobody else is in there – so nobody but you can control, live with, alter, or change what that entails.
Mindfulness is how you assume the control that’s rightfully yours.
How? Becoming consciously aware, here and now, is as easy as asking questions like,
- What am I thinking?
- What am I feeling?
- How am I feeling?
- What am I doing?
- Why am I doing what I’m doing?
- What are my intentions?
These and similar questions can be asked and answered only here and now. They are wholly of the present – which engages your conscious awareness.
Because of the immediacy of these questions, the artifice of identity takes a backseat. Further, being in the now exposes false identifiers you might be using.
Of course, it’s not that easy. The ego will resist.
The ego, comfort zones, and resistance to change
The ego, when created at some point in the past, settled into a comfort zone. It presented you with a place that made you feel stable – thus creating a comfort zone.
However – as I wrote previously – comfort zones aren’t truly comfortable. They’re not about comfort. They’re actually about stability and familiarity.
That’s why comfort zones are often places that are not comfortable.
What’s more – the identity that your ego holds onto might have been true for only a brief moment. But it became a comfort zone, and how you identified yourself.
And it might have been deeply negative.
For example, following a break-up and conscious awareness of it, you might have formed an identity as a bad lover, unlovable, unworthy, and all kinds of negatives. That identity became part of your ego – and has stuck ever since.
Not comfortable – but still a comfort zone. And the ego is all about comfort zones.
Ever hear or say: That’s who I am. That’s who I’ve always been. I’m too set in my ways to change. I’ve always been bad at ‘x’. No matter what I do I can’t win. And so on? That’s your ego telling you lies.
If you have ever experienced brain weasels (or squirrels in the brain) – those tiny, nagging voices tell you more or less that you suck – can you see how they look just like your ego? Guess where they come from?
Egos hate and fear change. Why? Because change kills them.
Your ego is artificial. When you recognize this – you become empowered to live with conscious awareness and change it actively. This will, inevitably, kill your ego.
Can you see why those who disempower – or try selling you things – tend to do so by taking aim at identity and thus ego?
Your true identity is fluid
Who you are, deep in your heart of hearts, is rooted in your subconscious mind – not your ego. And unless you maliciously act to hurt people, take and give nothing back, or via malice of forethought cause harm to others – you’re a good person. You desire to have kindness, compassion, and empathy in your life.
This is why gender is fluid. Because apart from your sex organs, your identity as any given gender is an artifice based on the standards of society. And thus, not something real.
Then who are you? That’s a fluid question. Because you’re constantly changing over time, with new experiences, among different people, and so on. The egoic identity most of us point to – within and without – is largely artificial.
Who you truly are is a being of pure energy. You’re like flowing water, shifting and changing and in constant motion. Your true identity, beneath it all, is a miracle of science and metaphysics combined.
The identity you call yourself by also shifts depending on who you’re interacting with. That lends itself to the added artifice of your ego – because it’s made up based on factors you can’t and don’t control.
When you know that your identity is largely artificial – and tied to your equally artificial ego – you can use conscious awareness to actively change. Despite egoic resistance, mindfulness puts you in the driver’s seat.
Finally – know that you are worthy and deserving of an identity that makes you empowered and content. It’s not easy – but utterly worth it to be more mindful and empowered – and in control of your one and only life in your physical body, here and now.
Can you see how your identity is largely artificial and comes from your equally artificial ego?
This is the five hundred and eighty-second exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – using mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.
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