WHO AM I?

I have been presented with a recurring question for most of my life, but lately it is becoming incessant in it's need to be answered.

WHO AM I?

This question is so important, in that if we do not know who we are we cannot move forward in the direction we need to be going. We mis-represent ourselves, we become confused and we feel low if we are not being ourselves.

Why is it so difficult to know yourself? We are bombarded by so much external information from the time we are born to adulthood that we just shut down our naturalness and spontaneity. We identify with other's views of ourselves. We want to be liked so we try to please 'them' by doing more of the same.

There are also the expectations of society, your peers and what the media says we must be all doing, feeling, being. So is it any wonder 'Who am I?' is hard to answer.

Following is a fun and creative way of tapping into your authentic self. It can be very insightful and helpful in deciding what parts are the real you and which parts are made from others' opinions/expectations;

1. Write down who you are without too much thought. Let whatever comes to you flow, it may not be in any order or make any real sense. It can be in a list form or poetry or bullet points.

2. Write down your childhood dreams, what did you want to be when you grew up?

3. Write down your likes and dislikes.

4. What kind of person do you think your family and friends think you are? i.e. kind, thoughtful, stingy, rude etc.

5. Write down the important people or animals in your life.

6. Once you have done that you can let your creativity take over. Look at your list and cut out images that represent you from your list. If you are artistic you can paint, draw, use colour instead of images. You can even use different textures, for example, if you think you are cool and calm, you can use a colour that represents cool to you and a texture that is calming.

7. Take your images and/or artwork and arrange them on a piece of card board as small or large as you wish. Everything is representative of who you are. You can put your name on it in any way you like, you can cut it in any shape you like. This is you, all of it shows who you are.

8. Before you stick the images down, look at each image again. Do they still feel they represent the real you? If they do, stick them on.

9. If there are images that you feel should not be on your board, put them aside for now. Stick what you feel happy with.

The process of finding, cutting, arranging, discarding and then sticking your images can be very healing. It is like collecting all the different parts of what makes you and integrating them to make a healthy whole.

Your likes and dislikes may change in time and your childhood dream may not have been realized but one look at your board will be able to show you and others who you are in essence.