"Am I A Prisoner Of My Identity?" [Part 1]

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"Am I a prisoner of my identity?" This is a question I recently asked myself. I think that many of us have no clue of who they truly are. The thing is, that the identity most of us believe we have, has been taught to us from when we were very young. I’m talking about being conditioned or shaped through the years into a certain identity. 

I see an identity as a collection of attributes that defines how we see ourselves, which is based on a number of things. Examples are:

  • culture
  • nationality 
  • religion 
  • family and friends
  • political preferences 
  • class of society

The path less travelled

The more I advance through life, the more I walk on a path less travelled by others. The further I get, the more I feel disconnected with these attributes I just mentioned. I simply don’t want those things to define me. I am a unique human being, just like you - a 100% authentic. I don’t want to be a prisoner of my identity anymore, so I’m going to share with you what’s helping me along my journey. 

Stop seeking externally

I think we all arrive at some point in our lives that we want to know who we truly are. During that process we’re likely trying to search for certain individuals, groups, religions or philosophies to relate ourselves with. This means that we are seeking for the source of our identity not within ourselves, but outside of ourselves. Don’t you think we should seek internally instead? We tend to search for it everywhere besides inside ourselves and the only thing we’re actually doing is trying to find a label to put on ourselves. My partner helped me a lot with the “un-labelling” process, for which I am thankful. I think that finding a label equals looking for a persona to identify oneself with and this is quite dangerous in my opinion. Let me explain why. 

Persona?

A persona is an aspect of someone's character that is presented TO or PERCEIVED by others. In ancient Latin the word “persona” meant "mask." Because of looking externally for an identity to relate with, you start to play some kind of role in order to see if you’re really feeling comfortable with that identity/persona. This leads to you to putting on a persona, which simply means wearing a mask! If you do that for too long, you might forget who is the person behind the mask. In that case, you really have become a prisoner of your identity. You’re trapped in the illusion of believing that you know who you truly are. 

"Illusion"

This illusion becomes easier to believe in as social pressure is growing these days. When you’re sensitive for social pressure, it becomes easy to enter that trap. Once entered, it can lead to attaching yourself to a label to be defined by. Why would you want something like that? I think it’s important to stop trying to find a label to be defined by, and to start looking deeply within yourself to prevent becoming a prisoner of your identity. 

Freedom!

It provides freedom when you stop attaching a label to yourself and it creates the space necessary to discover who you truly are. When we allow ourselves to be defined, limitations are lurking around the corner. Those limitations are ready to enter your mind to separate you, creating limited belief systems which are holding you back from discovering your true authentic self. The moment you put yourself into a specific category, you slowly become one with it and will eventually only accept and believe the things that are supporting that category/belief system. This is where people stop learning. Make sure to like this video and subscribe to my channel, as in the next video we’ll continue talking about this. Stay tuned. Peace.




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