We started this week’s conversation with a Gestalt exercise. Each participant chose a personal item and described this item from the perspective of ‘I am’. For example I chose my shoe; ‘I am dirty, I am fixed in my settings but I move around a lot, etc.’
This exercise had the affect of skipping the lens through which we perceive ourselves. There we found some attributes that fit into our curated selves, some that were welcomed with grandiosity combing our egos, some a little disturbingly vulnerable and others revealing shadow aspects of ourselves. Some of which were owned and others unconscious or disowned.
There was a huge amount of sense-making happening in the background as each person described an item as themselves and no matter the detail, connections and associations were established. Most descriptions could be understood as details of ourselves.
So why do we hold a static idea of ourselves and are we using the identity in a functional or dysfunctional way? Can we optimise our identity in a way that is best for ourselves, our environment and those around us?
If we are creating a perception of ourselves based on all the mistakes we have made and the people we have hurt, how do we think of ourselves? Do we think we are a bad human, and does this feeling of being bad manifest into our reality via the responses and reactions we make?
What if we are creating an identity based on all the trauma we have experienced or all the luck we have been showered with? Each of these various ways of carrying the idea of ourselves generates a feedback loop that confirms our identity.
This Gestalt exercise exposes the dynamic nature of identity, existing as a meta construct that is of our own creation and it has no tangible or quantifiable truth other than past actions and reactions. The future however does not need to be dictated by an identity that does not serve us.
One participant asked; Do we need an identity? Aren’t identities the issue? Getting stuck in our habit of seeing the world and limiting our own capacity. Why aren’t we moving and changing at the same speed as the evolving nature around us?
Maybe we are. Though the damage we are causing to our environment does suggest strongly that we are becoming increasingly more removed and out of sync with the earth.
We do seem to be resistant to change and the way we think of ourselves is a huge component. Can we remove ourselves of identity completely? What would that look like?
Another participant challenged this idea saying that they are totally grounded and strong in their perception of self and that it is a positive attribute. Identity is something that enables a navigation of this reality. It enables a level of control.
In witnessing both sides of the discussion I could see that there must be a middle way. We are meaning making machines and I do not think we can operate without a concept of self, ever since it evolved into our consciousness. So we must create it in a way that optimises our nature and functions in a dynamic open way.
Instead of education being comprised of static facts, and past knowledge and observations, perhaps it could be equally balanced by a story of exploration, mystery and endless possibility?
Maybe school can be one in which the child is observed for their nature through exposure to all aspects of society and our environment?
The more I think about the educational changes, the more I believe isolated schooling needs to be deconstructed entirely and made decentralised within a functioning society and community as a structure to explore the reality, environment, current ways of living whilst exercising our imaginations and creative capacity.
So what is the change you wish to be?
What actions does this person do?
How are they perceived by community?
What if you perform the actions of this person? Can we set the precedents for a new feedback loop, that develops us towards the change we wish to see?
Perhaps this is the next stage in the optimisation of self perception.To activate a conscious creating of our identity with the power of our will and determination guided by our imagination and engagement with our community.
It is difficult to describe anything without it sounding like an absolute. So with everything that is described and encouraged above, note that all of this is theoretical conjecture offering an opportunity to experiment with any trajectories inspired. Godspeed.
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