"You" are a
bodymind, not a body with a mind or vice versa. Things that influence either,
influence both…powerfully.
"You" are a verb,
not a noun. "You" are fluid, constantly changing…at every level. The
static "you" is a persistent illusion.
"You"… "Your
self", persona, ego…”who you are”…however named, is a construct that is
formed by the interaction of genetics, imprinting, conditioning and learning.
"You" have little input into this process until after "you"
have been thoroughly shaped by "your" parents, peers, culture.
Now consider that this
"you" that "you" now seem to be is, actually, very much
like a fictitious character that may appear in a novel, play or movie and may
be re-written, re-produced and re-performed, using the techniques of those media…
More specifically…
When someone
asks, who are you?, your response may include your name, age, sex, race,
height, weight, hair and eye color, where you live, whether you are married or
not, whether you have children, what you do for a living, your hobbies, your
likes and dislikes, your religious beliefs, your hopes, fears, hang-ups,
skills, etc. If pushed, you could produce an exhaustive "character"
description of all of the things that, when combined, make up what you take to
be you. You identify with this description, this construct.
This
description of who you take yourself to be...your ego/persona/self...includes
genetic, biological and physical components as well as culturally conditioned,
learned and psychologically "shaped" components. Most of these
components have been assembled over a long period of time without your input.
(e.g. you were born with black hair and learned to speak Spanish growing up.)
Some you believe you have intentionally cultivated (e.g. you decided to learn
to play the guitar and make your living as a musician). In many cases the
distinction between which of your attributes were come by intentionally and
which were thrust upon you by nature or nurture is very blurry.
In any case,
this description of who you think you really are, this construct with which you
identify, can be looked at in another way. If written out, your description of
yourself reads like a character description in a movie script, play or novel.
Consider yourself a fictitious character that has been devised by the
haphazard, natural forces of ordinary life in the world but which you have
believed is the real and only you.
Now that you
realize that this "you" that you can observe and describe is very
much like a character in a movie, consider the possibilities. If your life is a
movie and you are the star, lets have a look at how your character was
written...to a great extent not by you...and how you are being directed...also
in many cases not by you. If you don't like what you see, demand a re-write.
Your character...your self...is not written in stone. It is malleable and can
be re-written, then rehearsed and performed by you...at first with the
collaboration of and direction by a professional and then by you alone. You can
also learn to be your own best, most discerning audience, write your own
reviews...decide what is working and what is not. You become the producer, the
star performer, the critic. You learn how to take charge…
You learn how
to Selfshift…you
learn Intentional Selfshifting. You are now able to see yourself as an actor not a person…an
actor who is playing with the self…engaged in the endlessly entertaining Infinite
Game of life instead of
just wading through the daily drudgery. You may construct several variations of
your self that you can shift among, identifying and dis-identifying with one
after the other depending on which one you want to “wear” in any given
situation. You now have a “wardrobe” of personas to choose from, all the while
realizing that none of them are really YOU. You are now the creator of these characters, these
selves/personas/egos, not their slaves. You are the master not the servant, the
host not the guest.
