Bruce Lipton, MD said his life changed when he realized that his identity was not to be found inside his body but in the “field” outside his body.  I like to stretch my thinking to realize that my spirit exists outside my body and that my body is not who I am.

Then, today, I read something else that spoke to me on the same subject.  My friend, Chris Trout, is a Strengths Coach in Maine.  Today his newsletter featured excerpts from an article by Mel Schwartz, psychotherapist and life coach,  and I like it.  I have asked this question of many people over the years.  How do you answer, “Who are you?”  I like Mel’s thinking and wanted to share my updated version of the quest for identity.

From Chris Trout’s weekly newsletter, “Living Strengths”…….enjoy reading……

Who am I? Is that the right question?

Every once in a while, I come across a piece of writing that is so right on, I wish I had written it myself! So it is today. Psychotherapist and executive coach Mel Schwartz wrote this thought-provoking piece: “Who Am I?”

This question, asked so often, suggests that there is actually a plausible answer. Almost as if our being were a fixed thing. People who ask this sort of question are typically struggling with their identity and are searching for a core sense of themselves. The irony is that the more you seek to identify who you are, the more fragile you are likely to feel about yourself. There may be an inverse correlation between the question being asked and the ease with which you experience your life. The emphasis shouldn’t be on discovering who you are (what is buried beneath) but on facilitating the emergence of what you’d like to experience.

 

 

 

Our identity should be seen as an ongoing process. Rather than a static snapshot, we should embrace a flowing sense of self, whereby we are perpetually re-framing, re-organizing, re-thinking and re-considering ourselves. How different would life be if rather than asking who am I, we contemplated how we’d like to engage life?

And, so, today, August 15, 2011, think about this:

Instead of asking, Who Am I?, why not facilitate the emergence of what you’d like to experience?  Make a list of all the things you would like to experience.  Let your mind soar into new possibilities and begin to create yourself the way you really want to be.  Add what you want to have and what you want to do.  Enjoy!