You Are What You Believe That You Are
It really is that simple.
Who are you? That can be an incredibly loaded question. Who you are might not be a simple, singular answer, either.
This might or might not be familiar to you: At work, you put on a specific mask, attitude, and persona. When you’re with family, the face you wear and the person you project is who they expect you to be. With friends, depending on the group, you’re the clown or the voice of reason.
Alone, all by yourself, who are you? And is that the real, most genuine, authentic you?
For too many people, the answer is clearly “I don’t know.” How can I state that? Because, here at the start of Pride Month, people are showing their fear of allowing people to be themselves. And that tends to come from not knowing yourself well at all.
The simplest ideas are often rejected because of their simplicity. It can’t possibly be that easy, right? What if it is? What if the easy notion, the simple solution, is the truth?
This is not about big things and grand ideas. What I’m on about here is getting to the bottom of the question, “Who are you?”
The simple answer is that you are what you believe that you are. This, however, becomes complicated because you might not know what you believe about yourself for real.
Who, what, where, how, and why are you?
These are the big 5 questions everyone wants to know about themselves. While they might have literal and easy answers, they also have less direct, more abstract elements to them.
Who am I? The easy answer is “Me.” But do you consciously, willfully know who you are?
What am I? The externals are easy – I’m a white, cis-gendered male writer. That’s the tip of the iceberg, however, of everything that goes into what I am.
Where am I? In front of the keyboard, tapping away at this. But is my mind entirely present? What about my spirit?
How am I? Feelings involve both a how and what, so while the answer might be a simple “Okay,” chances are the how of me is far more complex.
Why? This is possibly the most loaded and complicated – but equally simple – question. Sometimes the answer truly is, simply, “because.” However, that’s seldom the whole answer.
All of these tie to your subconscious. It’s in your subconscious mind that your values, memories, and habits live. And overtop all of them are your beliefs.
What you believe is a mix of internal and external factors. When you allow your subconscious to absorb without analysis, this can become especially tricky.
You are what you believe that you are
What you believe is a mix of things internal and external, material and immaterial, and all sorts of other multifaceted elements. All of them are reflected in who, what, where, how, and why you are.
This often gets bulldozed by the expectations of others, the ongoing agita of the collective consciousness, random happenstance, and many other factors wholly outside of your control. They can distract, overwhelm, and overtake you. That, in turn, can cause you to believe what you believe that you are, even when you don’t desire or want to hold that belief.
If you believe that you’re a sinner who is on a one-way track to hell, then you are what you believe. Likewise, if you believe that you’re righteous, never wrong, and better than everyone around you, you are what you believe that you are. This is also true if you believe that you’re a constantly evolving, growing, learning person open to new ideas, potential, and possibility. Once again, you are what you believe that you are.
Even if you dislike what you believe that you are, that’s not a bad thing. Why? Because what you believe about yourself is utterly changeable.
However, this is only applicable to you, yourself.
Universal truisms and scientific facts versus beliefs
The anti-intellectualism pervading the United States in particular is disheartening. How can so many people buy into so many provably, demonstrably untrue ideas and concepts, both tangible and intangible?
For example, how is it that, in 2025, people legitimately believe the Earth is flat? Or that vaccines contain microchips? Or that person “X” with nothing but opinion and belief knows more than Scientist “Y” with peer-reviewed, scientifically documentable fact?
When personal ideas like faith and belief are used to make laws, dictate policy, and hurt or harm others, we feed a machine of distraction. These ideas get weaponized to empower a small few and keep the masses lined up so they can try to control them. All the while, these people are increasingly drawn out of active conscious awareness and mindfulness. How the hell else can you explain the negative connotation made of “woke” and “wokeness?” Keeping the masses asleep and falsely empowered via disempowerment.
While YOU are what you believe that you are, that’s only applicable to you. Your beliefs can’t be directly applied to anyone or anything else.
Hence, why and how you are what you believe that you are.
How can you change what you believe?
This is where waking up comes in. Being awake, or “woke”, is your birthright. This is active conscious awareness – i.e., Mindfulness.
Most people equate mindfulness with social justice and knowing the world without. But true mindfulness is self-awareness. Your world within you. To gain it, all you need to do is be present, here and now, and consider,
- What am I thinking?
- What am I feeling?
- How am I feeling?
- What are my intentions?
- Is my approach positive or negative?
- What am I doing?
These can only be answered here and now. Memory of past answers is imperfect and inaccurate, and the future is still unfolding.
When you practice active conscious awareness – mindfulness – you open yourself to get control of your inner being, look at your subconscious and what you believe, and go with it or change it.
How you go about changing it is up to you. Maybe you read a book about the particular element of what you believe that you desire to change, find a teacher or guru, get into therapy, something else, or some combination of each of these. The how is for you to choose and decide upon.
You are what you believe that you are, but it’s not written in stone. You can change yourself to be the best version of yourself that’s possible.
Can you see why this is both simple and complex at the same time, but utterly worthwhile?
This is the seventh-hundred-second (702) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying 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 repost and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out my author website for the rest of my published fiction and nonfiction works.
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