The Search for Self Identity

<p>Who do you think you are? What do you think you are?</p><p>We can all find myriad ways to describe ourselves and we often rely on these descriptors to give us our ‘sense of identity.’ “I’m a mother of three, a nuclear physicist, a passionate tango dancer and an advocate for animal rights…”</p><p>The problem with this approach is that our descriptors are always subject to change, and even subject to debate in some cases.</p><p>We’re only ‘young’ until we become not so young. We’re only ‘successful’ until we redefine what success is, which is often based on someone else’s judgment. We’re only X until it becomes more fashionable to be Y and it suits us better to become one of those…</p><p>So is it any wonder that most of us have this gnawing sense of uncertainty. We’re trying to build a sense of identity on the shifting sands of circumstances and subjective judgments. And as soon as we do settle on a solid sense of identity, something changes to make it shaky again.</p><p>Thom’s got your back though. By the end of this episode you’ll ‘hardly know yourself,’ but if you follow Thom’s counsel, you’ll know yourself better than you ever have.</p><p><strong>Episode highlights: </strong></p><p>[00:50] Who We Are and What We Are</p><p>[02:02] "I'm a This. I'm a That."</p><p>[03:17] "Nobody Knows Me at All"</p><p>[04:30] The Distinction Between Consciousness and The Absolute</p><p>[06:21] Change Defines Relativity</p><p>[07:57] I Exist</p><p>[09:28] The Evolution of Psychology</p><p>[11:13] Nurturance Shapes the Way You See Yourself</p><p>[12:47] The Vedic Concept of Psyche</p><p>[14:24] Are We Alone in The Universe?</p><p>[15:21] "What Are We Actually?"</p><p>[16:05] The Body is Constantly in Flux</p><p>[17:15] Unsatisfying Pronouns</p><p>[18:46] Out of Africa</p><p>[20:28] What Are You Actually?</p><p>[21:20] Tat Wale Baba</p><p>[22:49] Ageless Rishi</p><p>[24:07] A Forest Dweller</p><p>[25:00] "I am London"</p><p>[26:04] "That Also"</p><p>[27:10] Also "That Also"</p><p>[27:55] A Mantra is Resonant With the Thinker of I