Outside Influences

FROM THE MOMENT WE ARE BORN, we as human beings begin the lifelong process of establishing our own unique sense of self. It starts when we are very young and hardly aware of anything, but as we grow, the external world begins to literary define us.

Influences such as the country and region where we grew up, our ethnicity, religion, the knowledge we’re fed and told to believe in by our parents and teachers, the positive and /or negative connections we encounter with others and the socially acceptable norms we are all inherently bound to abide by.

These life experiences molds us until eventually it hardens into a kind of coherent perspective of reality that comes to outline who we think we are... our personality, belief systems, the very core essence of our being. There is however, one fundamental problem that arises. We are unaware this is happening.

We as human beings are barely conscious, let alone self-aware. Yet we have an urge to define what it is that we are, so it beggars the question that if we are at a primitive consciousness while we’re forming our own sense of self, is the image we create of ourselves a product of the environment, or is it who we truly are?

“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone.
The shell cracks, its insides come out, and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.”~ Cynthia Occelli

Many of us feel the presence of external forces such as cultural / parental / authoritarian pressure, or collective pressures from society at large that the external world has outlined for us. We begin to believe that this image of labels, expectations, and separateness is real and that this is who we are.

Our saving grace is, we not only have the ability to grow physically, but more importantly, to grow in consciousness, or in other words self-awareness. To do this, only one thing is required... that we step outside our comfort zone and into the realm of the unknown with an open mind. Are you willing to take that step?..

Dan’s #Quote: “The purpose of our life is to learn who we truly are
______________ by experiencing the illusion of a physical persona.”


Inspiration for this post came from an article in ‘Wake Up World’ by Tim Bryant.
Header: Sunrise at ‘Glen Helen Gorge’ in Australia’s Northern Territory.