What is your idea of your identity?

@Cleo2

Thank you for your thoughtful response. Yes truly who am I?

I like the thought that I am a spiritual being having an Earthly experience. Yes indeed, I am nothing but stardust or an intelligence that existed before I had a body

For me I like to think our identity is who we are, how we see ourselves, how we express ourselves, how we respond to the inner and outer worlds, and its all wrapped up in our values.

Eg. I am a 31yr NB, I am Australian, I am artist. I like to express myself in various ways, usually quite extravagantly. I can be loud or quiet depending on the situation-an omnivert you'd say. I am competitive, I love to have fun. I am kind and empathetic. I care a lot for people and this world, and I am learning to care for myself. I love knowledge and learning new things. I am creative in the way i think, as well in what I produce. I have mh issues but they no longer define me.

@Oaktree For me, part of my identity is about my ancestors.

I’m a grandchild of farm hands and descendant of Ireland. A lover of animals and nature. A rebel. A caring person. Enjoy making things with my hands. Music lover of 50, 60’s songs and Irish ballads. A country girl by heart who grew up in suburbia who has a warped sense of humour whose hot Irish temper gets her in trouble at times

@ArraDreaming

That’s a great one!

Tough question, which requires a preface for context

1979 the same week I was born, my mother had an astrology chart done down to the minute I was born. Lots of the output pointed towards creative/arts etc

The first 20ish years of my life, I was taught that I was artistic. The arty one in the family etc. This myth followed me through both F.O.O and adopted family

My school grades were good across the board. And atually stronger in STEM subjects than Arts. Science and maths I got A or A++. Arts I got Bs. But I was always taught that my core was artistic. I was never offered a choice in that

I did postgraduate study in Fine Arts. I made Art about Science and Philosophy. And applied to minimise the practical component in favour of more written work for my honours degree

That myth didn't suddenly crash and burn. It was a slow fade over more than a decade

All that to say that I am not the person who my parentals insisted that I was for 30 or so years of my life

I'm still working out who I am. But I know not the above. And that's a start

I'm not sure how to answer this question @Oaktree

@Bill16

That’s ok

@Oaktree I think it's difficult to pinpoint because our identity is made up of so many individual things. For example our core values, interests, job, beliefs, emotional reactions, our relationship with people around us and our background/heritage to name a few. I think there's just so many that would be needed to fully describe my identity.

But i think it can be divided into two main groups... factors I can control (my interests, dislikes, roles, values etc) and those that I cant (gender, age, ethnicity etc)

I also think there is no definitive identity because there are those factors that we can change, so some (or many) will change over time so out identity changes slightly as these factors change with time.

I wonder if our sense of our true identity can be formed from finding out what we are capable of in our life and then to try and find a purpose in life that is within our capabilities. Something we want to achieve in life.

So if we try to achieve things that are beyond us then we will feel like failures and be unhappy. It might be beyond us because of limitations with our capabilities or it might be down to limitations placed on us by the society or culture we live in. But we can also change those compatibilities by learning new skills and knowledge. This unhappiness with our identity may also be self inflicted. I know I pretended to be something I wasn't to please other people so I was not being my true self and was unhappy. If I rely on others to give me that sense of identity, how can I find my true self? So is happiness just knowing what our true self is and living our lives true to that? And as I said our identity is fluid because of those factors we can control so it continues to change throughout our lives. So we can learn to be happy, or alternatively be happy, but become unhappy.

I think if you asked me now who I am... I would say i'm someone who likes to help other people. It makes me happy because I feel it matches my capabilities well and is something I now feel that it is something I really want to accomplish in life. It is fully what I feel and not what I think any one else has made me feel like.

If anyone understood any of that, please explain it to me. 🤔