Answering the question, “Who am I?” may not be as obvious or easy as it seems. If your answer depends on circumstances that can change, you have yet to discover who you really are. Counseling and hypnotherapy are two excellent ways to begin this journey.
Consider my friend – I’ll call him “John” here to respect his privacy. Recently, John broke his ankle, requiring surgery and sentencing him to months of getting around on crutches or a scooter. As a very active man who was at that time training for a long bicycle race, John was devastated. Besides the inconvenience and physical pain that come with such an incident, he also experienced depression. His image of himself as a strong, invincible athlete had been shattered.
Now, let us return to the initial question: Who are you? Most people answer this question with labels or titles related to their achievements, family, job or possessions. As John’s example illustrates, however, these labels and titles are not permanent. It is a fact of human life that misfortune may strike anyone, taking away the external things with which many people identify. Who is John, if he is no longer an athlete?
I help clients learn to connect with something deeper than external labels and titles, something inside. They may recognize it as a higher power, spirit, God or something else, but it is beyond the realm of the physical body. It evokes a sense of being part of something greater, something that connects us all.
For people who have experienced a trauma, hypnotherapy is a good way of making this connection. It allows them to move beyond the obstacles in their path and find that inner source of life’s meaning. Meditation is another useful tool. It helps some people to recognize the attachments to impermanent states or things that are holding them back.
No matter how great your labels and titles may make you feel, your true self is much more impressive than any of them suggests. Deep inside, you are prettier, smarter, stronger, more talented even than the external part of yourself that you value most. It might seem like a sacrifice to let go of who you think you are, but doing so unlocks the infinite possibility of who you really are.
Tags: attachment, self-image, self-knowledge