Who are you?

This article is inspired by a seminar I attended which was hosted by SkyReach Education. The founder and speaker Chetan Sharma carried out certain experiments which amplified the inner thoughts about oneself. It was for me a psychological and an enlightening experience as the seminar progressed. The conclusion was when you exactly know who you are why you are reading this article. Chetan was kind enough to allow me to publish this article as it could benefit a lot more confused souls. This article is my view of what the session brought into me, an insight.

The concept of “Why you?” is based on the power of subconscious mind and its repercussions on us defining our attitude. This sessions was a chain reaction of questions that changes our perspectives about the things that we usually ignore or are insensible in our daily lives.

“Who are you?” is the first question and the answers started to flow, “I am Rakesh, my name is Jennifer, myself Sharath and I am an Architech, etc.”, but the question was however just “who are you?” and not the name or what you do. We define ourselves by what we are named and what we do for living. Rarely you find a person answering “I am a human being born in this geographical part of the world called India for which I become a citizen of this country and I earn money by working in the finance sector for which I have been educated so that I can spend that money I earn on needs of life and meet my expenses which are incurred therein.”

So the basic dilemma in us is choosing what defines us. Does my nationality define me? Does my hair color define me? Does the car I drive define me? The question was in the definition. We go through a lot of emotional stigma just to understand who we are. “I like to ride cos it gives me peace and so I am rider”, one of the participants said. What was interesting for me here was this person’s choice of words. The mirror effect of this sentence is that he/she is not in peace by their daily life and hence finding that sense of excitement and an adrenaline rush that invokes a sense of accomplishment. We are all tuned and manipulated since the very beginning to be able to reach perfection levels and assume higher positions than the competition.

Gary Yourofsky an animal activist who is a Vegan explains in one of his speeches as to how the false propaganda is established in our lives. He says, “Give a 2 year old child an Apple and a live Bunny Rabbit. If the child chooses eat the rabbit and play with the Apple, then I will drop all my Vegan methods and eat a steak sandwich”. So our attitudes change as we grow, as we get a taste of stuff. But as we get a fetish for the taste, we end up forgetting our roots and the whole purpose of being. But if our attitudes keep changing the factors that influence happiness changes, when the factors change, the decisions change.
We might all be wearing formals and sitting in the room answering the same question but the difference in answers showed how uniquely we are blend in to becoming what we are. The choice of color of our shirt, the moustache, the long hair, every single thing are based on some judgements scaled by parameters. You wear a white shirt cos your mom tells you that you look good in it. You buy a Volkswagen cos it is German engineering. You keep your hair long cos you want to cover a scar on your ears. So everything we are doing is based on factors.

By this time I had understood that “who I am” should be unbiased by the factors. So I thought, I am finance professional cos my father told me I can earn a lot in finance field. His contention was based on his experience, his experience may or may not apply to my qualities but the fact here is that I might have been influenced by factors that have led me to do the job I am doing. Then, I am a writer cos I write a blog. But then it was an influence that I wanted to create on the society and hence an influence in itself. So am I? It took me several days but I found my answer.

For you to find your answer, you need to understand the difference between Choices and Decisions. Choice according to me is unbiased, based on a feeling. But decision takes into account parameters. Whether you decide to become a person who you are or chose to be what you are matters. Further, the efficacies are rattled by influences on choice making by previous experiences. But if you choose to do something and if you are not shaken by the consequences, now that defines what you are.

We are constantly in search of ourselves. The quest continues till the very end but to know the direction in which you find the answer is the choice you make. These questions helped me understand the definitions of destiny, choice, decision, attitude and myself.

Hope this array of words I compiled based on my experience helps you under who you are. All you need to do is ask “who are you?”

Credits: Chetan Sharma – SkyReach Education.