Our Obsession with Our Identity

Stop labelling yourself so you can finally find your essence.

Naming things is a very earthly, human habit. As soon as a child is born and even before, they learn to process language – long before they start to speak.

Our ability to think and create the civilisations we have would be impossible without language and, more simply, naming every object, idea, sensation, feeling, concept, situation, or state. It’s inherent to human nature and essential to our lives and progress that we name things so that we can then talk about and take action on those things.

Unfortunately, it’s a double-edged sword. Naming a thing often obscures its essence.

When we label others, we narrow the person to that label. We see the label rather than the person, when their essence is more expansive than the confines of the label. The label obscures the truth and often it outright lies or reduces their power or potential to the limitations of the label assigned to them. As the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard put it, ‘Once you label me, you negate me.’

Similarly, when we label ourselves, identifying with the label is ironically what takes us away from who we are, or ever could be – our nature before any labels, before any naming occurred. This is the Ego, not You. Often our ‘identity’ is what keeps us stuck or persuades us we’re victims – of the world, of others or our past – and it’s impossible to transcend such limitations when you don’t know who you are beyond them.

I am _a scientist

I am_ Australian

I am_ divorced

I am_ educated

I am_ poor

I am_ ugly

I am_ a minority.

Naming creates separation. It’s the wall between what we perceive and who we truly are, or what is. It’s the difference between our theories of the world and what the world is.

Shedding superficial identities in favour of who we are, without labels, before the naming began – is returning to our origins before our earthly existence. It’s returning to Divine source, which is timeless, eternal, unconfined, free.

When we shed our individual identity or ego, we become free to perceive, and free to act in, a reality that is far beyond the scope of the narrow lens of that identity, which views things from its own limited vantage point.

I am.

From the process of subtraction, our awareness deepens until we see what God sees. We can only see the same wide sweeping plains as God when we break down the brick walls that block the full view. Then, we can act as agents of the Divine on earth.

So, by all means accept and acknowledge the situations in your life. Learn from them and brainstorm solutions. But never let them define or limit you. Never let them become your permanent identity. You are not who you name yourself to be, only because you’re so much more.

Or, to paraphrase Rumi, why be the individual droplet when you can be the entire ocean?

Recommended to watch:  Wayne Dyer on cultivating a higher awareness