The Self and The Identity ... An Interesting Concept
What is the Self? Not just what everybody else sees, but the full Self? The real you - usually the person that nobody sees.
TThe real self isn’t just what the outside world views. The real self is someone that is multi-dimensional … like an onion. Each layer of onion skin is another ‘self’ - another personality that different people see. Or even a diamond → each dimension is another facet; like each layer of onion skin, it becomes another ‘self ’.
Many people comment offhand “Oh, I’m just being myself”. Who does this make them? No one really knows who they are, what being themselves really is - until they really sit down and think hard about who they actually are. What are their hobbies, their interests? Do they make an impact on society? Or does society impact on them? You might belong to a group or ‘scene’ … but what does this make you? All it does is blend you into the crowd → making you one more forgettable face among a sea of many.
The 'self as defined by the dictionary is as follows:
a person's or thing's own individuality or essence
a person or thing as the object of introspection or reflexive action
one's own interests or pleasure
The 'self' is not a true thing. Rather, it is a concept or view of who we believe we are. This concept or view, however, is impacted on by society ... and society is impacted upon by the concept or view of one's self. It is a reciprocal relationship → an interaction between two things that is constantly happening.
How we perceive ourselves depends on our mindset; the attitude that we have towards life; our accumulated
self-experience; and our estimation of self-worth. If the reciprocal relationship between ourselves and society is negative, it is highly probable that we will have a negative perception of ourselves. If, however, the reciprocal relationship between ourselves and society is positive, it is highly probable that we will have a positive self-perception ... hereby causing us to feel more motivated to achieve our goals. Motivational levels within each person is affected by the reciprocal relationship between society and that person → the more positive our self-worth, the more we feel motivated to achieve our goals → which, in turn, motivates us further.
Motivation alone doesn’t shape our sense of worth. Achieving goals and dreams that we thought we couldn’t achieve boosts our self-esteem, making us feel like a powerful entity; a person who can achieve anything they put their mind to. Goals, dreams and desires make up a part of who we are → just one more page to add to our ‘personal book’.
Humans as a species have learned a lot. Our first basic instinct when we are born is to cry. And what does this achieve? Manipulation of others around us. They realise that we are unable to help ourselves as the tiny people that we are. So they answer to our whim. Trying desperately to understand what it is that is causing us to be unhappy; causing us to cry. As we mature, the web of manipulation spreads → we can now move, think, speak and act for ourselves. And yet, we continue the cycle of manipulation. This is the one thing that majorly separates humans from the Animal Kingdom. Although, technically, we are an animal. But, being the proud obnoxious race that we are, we believe that we are above all other species that inhabit our World.
It is this obnoxiousness that will ultimately bring us down, causing us to perceive ourselves negatively.
It has been said that the mind is the thinking part of the self. This basically means that everything you do, every action that is played out, is a part of your self. The self is easily able to be understood → simply by the use of visual and oral stimuli. Every person, when asked who they are, answer with the obvious answers: their name, age, gender, current occupation, likes, dislikes, etc. But how many people would instantly tell a stranger their goals, dreams and desires? Not many.
The self as a reality concept is not viewable to the public eye. It is a hidden thing; an inscrutable diamond that is buried deep beneath the rocks. In order to discover the real self, one must delve deep into their mind; their personality; their individuality - and uncover the different facets of the multi-dimensional entity that is their self-concept. They must find out every scrap of information relating to them - how the reciprocal relationship between themselves, others and society impacts upon their self-essence; why their likes and dislikes are what they are; and how and why they have become who they currently are.
Only then can you say that you are being yourself.