Only you can get inside your mind and be who you desire to be.Photo by Diego Lozano on Unsplash

Everyone has their own way of doing things. Some people swear by this routine or that practice and tell you it’s the One True Way. Maybe what they do will work for you, too.

Maybe. But there are no guarantees. That’s because who you are is not who they are. No two people are the same. Alike? Sure. The same? No. Every single person on Planet Earth is a unique individual.

Some people put time and effort into getting to know themselves. They see that self-awareness allows them a degree of control over things they experience. I know that, in my experience, this has made my life a far more interesting trip.

By far more interesting, I mean it’s had ups and downs, good things and bad, and all kinds of crazy happenings. But via my choices and decisions along the way, I’ve steered my life so that I am largely in the driver’s seat.

There are a lot of messages in the world at large that imply you have to be a certain way, own certain things, and make certain choices to have the optimal life. Then, we drive ourselves insane pursuing these things to meet those expectations.

The problem is that what works for you won’t necessarily work for me. And vice versa. That’s because you alone can know who you are. Who you really, truly, are, at your core.

First, however, you need to know your selves.

Your three selves

Everyone is of three minds. This, however, is not the unconscious versus the subconscious versus the conscious. This is a different three-mind experience everyone has, but we often fail to see it. In this instance, I’m exploring the passive subconscious, passive-aggressive egoic, and active conscious minds.

The passive mind is directly connected to your subconscious. It’s the place where your values, beliefs, memories, and habits live. It simply is, just lying there in pools that you only swim in when something makes you reach for a value, belief, memory, or habit. Because it’s passive, things live here that are not true to you anymore. Without active conscious actions, this becomes like the junk drawer you toss random things into and forget about – until suddenly you need that turkey-shaped cookie cutter.

The passive-aggressive mind is your ego. The ego is a construct that comes into being at a time when your conscious and subconscious minds connect. Then, they formed an idea of who you are. However, the ego is often just a snapshot of who you are for a short time and then becomes who you were. Yet the ego believes itself to be your true self. The ego thinks it’s who you are.

It’s passive-aggressive because it’s the ego that sparks brain weasels, causes you to second-guess things, and holds you to a comfort zone you actually would prefer to leave. It’s obnoxious, and infuriating, and it really wants you to avoid active conscious awareness.

Your conscious mind is active. This is when you are present, here and now, and making choices and decisions for yourself. It’s active because you are engaged with your inner thoughts, feelings, intentions, and approach before taking action.

Your active mind is you in control, at least right this moment, driving your life.

Photo by Samuele Errico Piccarini on UnsplashYou alone can know who you are

Your passive subconscious mind and passive-aggressive egoic mind are not the truth of who you are. The subconscious holds onto everything like a sponge and only releases it when an effort is made to wring it out.

The passive-aggressive ego knows it’s just a construct of who you were and not who you are. That’s why it fights you passive-aggressively to maintain its false sovereignty. The ego also feeds on outside validation and influence, which is how you get narcissistic assholes with zero situational awareness, let alone self-awareness. But that’s the extreme.

Your active conscious mind engages with your inner being. This is where, from the present moment, you make choices and decisions about who, what, where, how, and why you are.

This is active because it’s not done in the past nor in the future. It’s in the here and now, the present, alone. That’s because the only time that’s real is the now. The past is easily misremembered (look at current American politics for a truly horrific example of where that can take you). The future will be impacted by things you cannot in any way, shape, or form control. But this moment, right now? You can get behind the wheel and drive.

In this moment, you can ask questions that can only be truly answered in the now. These tell you who you are. They include,

What am I thinking?What am I feeling?How am I feeling?What are my intentions?Is my approach positive or negative?What am I doing?

None of these can be answered in the past or future. They’re pure products of the here and now. The answers tell you who you are.

Knowing who you are empowers you

Most of our so-called leaders want us to be passive. They prefer sheeple they can manipulate, influence, and control. They want you at the back of the bus, not in the driver’s seat. Not active.

To do this, they strive to disempower you at every turn. Blatantly, by passing restrictive and harmful laws and policies. Subtly, by creating the “other” for you to fear.

Your passive subconscious and passive-aggressive ego have little ability to resist. That’s why being actively conscious and making choices and decisions for yourself empowers you.

There will be times you need to fall back on rote, routine, and subconscious habit as a defense mechanism. The construct of the ego can be a momentary source of empowerment when needed (and only becomes a hindrance when things change and its efficacy ends). No matter the case, you always have the power to shift into active conscious mindfulness.

This isn’t easy, relatively speaking, but it’s worth it to know who you are, so that you can make choices and decisions to drive your life where you desire it to go. And when you choose wrong – and you will – you can choose anew and change directions. You alone can know who you are. And you are worthy and deserving of that knowledge.

I don’t know about you, but don’t you think knowing who you are sounds better than being someone you don’t desire to be?

This is the seventh-hundred-twenty-seventh (727) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to repost and share this.

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out my author website for the rest of my published fiction and nonfiction works.

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