Am I the conscious me…
the guy who works and plays and thinks and is aware of himself?
Am I the subconscious me…
the person with deep, hidden desires I don’t even know about?
Am I the spiritual me…
driven by spiritual forces and universal realities I can only guess at?
Am I the person I wish I was, or the person I fear I am?
Am I the person my friends think they know?
Who Is The Real Me?
Let’s check out the possibilities.
AM I THE CONSCIOUS ME?
I know for sure that I’m not just the conscious me.
I can be aware of working and playing and thinking on a moment-by-moment basis
but something deeper is driving me all the time too.
As I sit here writing this I’m aware of my thoughts about the topic
and of the feeling of the keys on the keyboard
and the look of the words on my computer screen.
But I sure don’t know all of the motivations that made me sit here and do this.
Something subconscious definitely nudges me into deciding what I do.
AM I THE SUBCONSCIOUS ME?
I know there must be motives and desires that are unknown to me
and that lead me toward the things I do.
Sometimes these things just pop out and shock me.
How can we explain an urge to suddenly call an old friend
or to take a drive alone
or even to just cross our legs when we are sitting?
Sometimes we can find “triggers” for our impulses,
but usually we just move from one subconscious impulse to another
without any real awareness of why we do what we do.
So I know there are two “parts” of me, conscious and subconscious.
But I can’t know enough about them and how they work
to form a good picture of who I am.
AM I THE SPIRITUAL ME?
Trying to discover the real me through speculation
about historical and spiritual forces
is futility to the infinite degree.
I can believe in this me
but I can’t know this me.
AM I THE PERSON I WISH I WAS - OR THE PERSON I FEAR I AM?
Wishes and fears are just fantasies.
I’m more than a fantasy.
AM I THE PERSON MY FRIENDS THINK THEY KNOW?
No… but we’re getting closer now.
Our friends and acquaintances have a better look at us than we do!
They aren’t confused by our fantasies about who we are.
They don’t know what we fear we are,
or what we hope we are.
They mainly know what they can see, hear, smell(!), taste, and feel about us.
They mainly know the REAL us!
An Important Caution Must Go Here Though:
Our acquaintances see us through their own fantasies,
so their view isn’t pure reality.
So, if all of your information about who you are
comes from a group of people who share the same beliefs,
they might be quite wrong.
If they are all in the same family,
or they all have the same religious beliefs,
or they are all in the same profession as you,
you will need a wider network of friends and acquaintances
before you can hope to get an accurate picture of how you are seen by others.
SO WHO IS THE REAL ME?
The real me is what is observable, actual, and measurable through our senses.
The external me is best known through the eyes and ears of the people around me.
The internal me is best known through my own internal sensations
– what I feel inside as I go through life.
I know I am tall and balding because that’s what you see when we are together.
I know I have a deep voice because that’s what you hear when I talk.
I know I care about myself and others because
I feel warm in my chest when I think about it.
And I know what excites me, and saddens me, and angers me...
YOU KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT WHO YOU ARE
You might not like what your friends think about you
but if nine out of ten friends say you are too thin, you are!
You may be uncomfortable when people say good things about you
but if nine out of ten people say you are kind, you are!
You might not want to believe your body sometimes
but if you feel hunger, you are!
DON’T MAKE IT SO COMPLICATED!
You don’t need to know everything about yourself to know the real you.
You don’t need to gather all of the
conscious and subconscious awareness
you’ve ever experienced to figure it out.
You don’t need to ask historians, or the gods, or the universe.
All you need to know about who you are is right there in your own senses.
It’s what the people you know have told you they see,
and it’s what you feel in your own body constantly.
Don’t confuse yourself about it.
Admit that you know who you are
and can accept who you are!
We do!