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keokutah
09-06-2017, 04:04 PM
How do you perceive yourself? I'm at a stage in my life right now where I'm feeling a lot more confident and I am just starting to build a new perception of myself, and I'm not really sure where to start. What makes me who I am, how do I define myself? I'd like to hear what it's like for everyone else here.

For example, some things I'm trying to perceive are my age and how that should affect my place in society. At my age (29) am I considered young or old? I'm guessing I'm at the in-between age still, which is why some people still think I'm a student in high school and others call me Sir and treat me like I'm an older gentleman (or maybe that's just respect I don't know). Either way, does it matter how others perceive me? How do I feel? I guess I still feel very young and I think I also look younger than my age. But I'm also at the stage in my life where I don't want to be seen as too young or too inexperienced. I'm also not ready to get old or get gray hair, and apparently some of friends are already spotting gray hairs, I have one buddy who's already going bald. I guess I'm lucky so far but it worries me because I haven't had the chance to do everything I wanted to do in my life yet, because I had a slow start.

I was part of a failed generation (at least in my school). My friends and everyone my age are notoriously known as the slacker generation, none of them really grew up, they still don't have jobs and all they do is party. My sister's generation, however, which was a few years after mine was very successful. But for whatever reason, all the people that I know around my age never matured. In my case they suspected I had a developmental disability or something. The thing is, I am way more mature than any of my classmates are, since I sobered up and got my life back on track, but I'm still learning to be more independent now and I don't feel ready to start a family or be a full-time adult. I feel like I'm finally getting there, but it's been slow.

After dealing with all that past life stuff and forgiving my murderer, I was freed from body image issues that haunted me for so many lifetimes.

But walking away from that leaves me with this next step: changing the old perceptions of myself and solidifying who I truly am to myself.

It's been years of letting other people tell me who to be and letting their comments about my physical appearance control what I see. The problem with that is their comments about myself were always different, so over the years I've built up a very shaky foundation. I need to stop relying on their perceptions and create my own.

Their perceptions made it very difficult for me to adopt a solid perception of myself, due to being mixed race (i think only mixed race people know what that's like, because you constantly have people mentioning how your eyes change colours, let alone how your skin changes colors very dramatically. So I'm constantly flooded with different perceptions of what I look like and what race I am (I've heard everything under the rainbow lol) because my appearance changes dramatically based on the seasons.

So right now, since I am feeling way more confident, I am trying to define my perceptions about myself. I guess I'm realizing that in order for me to do that I can't just look at one perception. Because I am many things, I have to look at the bigger picture.

I've realized that maybe all this time I didn't really know who I was, I didn't even know or trust what I looked like in the mirror.

Anyways, I guess I just need to sort through all of this and figure out where I am now in life and where to go from here.

Baile
09-06-2017, 04:19 PM
What makes me who I am, how do I define myself?I had a higher self awakening at age 29 during my Saturn Return. That was instrumental in leading me onto the path of discovering my essential self, my soul self. So for me it wasn't so much about thinking and wondering about it. It happened as a direct experience that kind of woke me up and helped me step into a new consciousness paradigm.how do you perceive yourself?What I've learned, what my self-development path has taught me, is I am. This is me, world, this is who I am! And I am comfortable with who I am. And because of that, my life focus is not on how I perceive myself, but how I perceive the world. If I perceive something in the world that bothers me, that means my relationship with the world is out of sync. I then look within to examine what I need to work on -- how I need to change my perception of the world -- in order to get back in sync with it.

And in that process, I evolve my relationship with life. I understand life better. And myself better. And I am even more comfortable with myself as a result. I am never uncomfortable with who I am. I am always content with who I am, even as work to improve myself.

naturesflow
10-06-2017, 08:14 AM
How do you perceive yourself? I'm at a stage in my life right now where I'm feeling a lot more confident and I am just starting to build a new perception of myself, and I'm not really sure where to start. What makes me who I am, how do I define myself? I'd like to hear what it's like for everyone else here.

For me opening fully to my conditioned perception meant opening to let go of all "others" who skewed my own "clarity" of perception about myself. This was a fairly long process but I wasn't prepared to just know the difference, I wanted to integrate this fully into my being so that I "felt" myself clear of the conditioned ideas in me. So now my perception of myself is simply I feel clear and open to myself as I am. I don't require to label or define myself, I just have a deeper clear perception that I am ok as I am. What I am on the surface is a changing, natural aging form, so rather than identify with my skin colour, hair colour or size, I now feel clear to perceive myself more from my core essence of being. I am just myself, as I walk, as I feel, as I want to be continually allowing my awareness now in clarity to deepen my experience into life itself. I think as we age and develop and the aging process kicks in, naturally we are moved in change to move with the times of ourselves in this way. We adjust ourselves through the changing process of ourselves and life, so our perception will be a changing process if your looking at the surface nature of yourself, but ultimately in the core perception, I just perceive myself as complete. The rest is a surface story that my sensory data feels as it does, perceives as it does whatever it perceives.. all the while knowing, the core of myself feels complete.. If your prone to being a little more visually stimulated and have respect for all you are in body as well as essence, as a human, you will work towards a mind, body, spirit connection to build a more satisfying awareness of you connected in everyway. That is how I create myself ongoing. I cant ignore myself in anyway of myself. For me the quality of life and perception of self is the totality of being. So focusing on health, inner aliveness, joy of being, with a focus on balance supports all this.. I simply accept the changes and do the best I can with what I am and can be through the process of change.

For example, some things I'm trying to perceive are my age and how that should affect my place in society. At my age (29) am I considered young or old? I'm guessing I'm at the in-between age still, which is why some people still think I'm a student in high school and others call me Sir and treat me like I'm an older gentleman (or maybe that's just respect I don't know). Either way, does it matter how others perceive me? How do I feel? I guess I still feel very young and I think I also look younger than my age. But I'm also at the stage in my life where I don't want to be seen as too young or too inexperienced. I'm also not ready to get old or get gray hair, and apparently some of friends are already spotting gray hairs, I have one buddy who's already going bald. I guess I'm lucky so far but it worries me because I haven't had the chance to do everything I wanted to do in my life yet, because I had a slow start.

I was part of a failed generation (at least in my school). My friends and everyone my age are notoriously known as the slacker generation, none of them really grew up, they still don't have jobs and all they do is party. My sister's generation, however, which was a few years after mine was very successful. But for whatever reason, all the people that I know around my age never matured. In my case they suspected I had a developmental disability or something. The thing is, I am way more mature than any of my classmates are, since I sobered up and got my life back on track, but I'm still learning to be more independent now and I don't feel ready to start a family or be a full-time adult. I feel like I'm finally getting there, but it's been slow.

After dealing with all that past life stuff and forgiving my murderer, I was freed from body image issues that haunted me for so many lifetimes.

But walking away from that leaves me with this next step: changing the old perceptions of myself and solidifying who I truly am to myself.

It's been years of letting other people tell me who to be and letting their comments about my physical appearance control what I see. The problem with that is their comments about myself were always different, so over the years I've built up a very shaky foundation. I need to stop relying on their perceptions and create my own.

Their perceptions made it very difficult for me to adopt a solid perception of myself, due to being mixed race (i think only mixed race people know what that's like, because you constantly have people mentioning how your eyes change colours, let alone how your skin changes colors very dramatically. So I'm constantly flooded with different perceptions of what I look like and what race I am (I've heard everything under the rainbow lol) because my appearance changes dramatically based on the seasons.

So right now, since I am feeling way more confident, I am trying to define my perceptions about myself. I guess I'm realizing that in order for me to do that I can't just look at one perception. Because I am many things, I have to look at the bigger picture.

I've realized that maybe all this time I didn't really know who I was, I didn't even know or trust what I looked like in the mirror.

Anyways, I guess I just need to sort through all of this and figure out where I am now in life and where to go from here.


Its good you have opened yourself up and looking at yourself with more clarity for you and your own developing perceptions about yourself. I think when you letting go of old patterns, it takes time to establish new ways of being you and seeing and perceiving yourself being and doing differently to build a new perception of self. When you more grounded and clear at the core of your being, the surface stuff becomes more like a creative fun way to create yourself anew. Experimenting with ways you enjoy being you, dressing and designing yourself anyway you feel you want too. Part of perception renewal is finding your own "tastes" for you. Developing a creative connection that fits "you" more continuous so you develop new patterns for your own sense of self through your own sensory explorations, that takes time and practice to build a new creation for you, that fits you no one else.

I have a friend on fb who is mixed race and struggling with his own identity, I observe the struggles he has through this and observe how he just continues to explore and build his own perception of himself, sometimes he has big shifts, sometimes slow and steady change. But like you because he is aware, he is open to grow and move with change, even if its a struggle sometimes for him to do so.

When your happy and being yourself more open to grow, you deepen as you move through life. So all life experiences ongoing support you building a perception of yourself in ways where you will begin to live more in alignment with those values.

Dude
10-06-2017, 12:38 PM
My perceptions constantly change, I don't actually find it beneficial to focus on them. Look at who you are inside, are you happy with that? If no then change what you don't like, don't dwell on roles and actions, looks or perceptions of others, it's all kind of meaningless.

Every quality or description I can list, I can also be the opposite.. apart from awesome... I'm always awesome haha. There is also differences in how we perceive things anyway, what's ugly to one person is beautiful to another, what's selfish to me might not be selfish to you... I have sat there trying to identify all these things and it just muddled my head... so now I am just happy being me.. everything else will constantly change...

shoni7510
10-06-2017, 01:39 PM
I have hit middle age and my perception about myself has changed significantly coupled with my spiritual growth and experiences. I am at a stage where I am just taking stock of what has happened and what does it mean for me going forward. My self esteem had reached self actualisation and catapulted to the next level. I do not want to perceive myself as anything other than who I am at any point in my life.

shivatar
11-06-2017, 07:50 AM
I percieve myself as the boat in my life, my past is the wake and all past selves are also the wake.

who I am can only be found in the present moment by connecting my consciousness to present moment awareness. It's a feeling, like a vibe. When I'm connecting with my self I'm feeling my own vibe. When I do that its strength grows until others can notice it.

When im out of my own vibe I begin to feel anxiety and fear, and if I'm surrounded by others they feel it as well.

Unfortunately I'm a bit clumsy and I'm really bad about staying in my own vibe. Usually I walk around in an anxiety haze.


As far as self-perceptions go, be aware of what they are in the current moment and be guided by that. Not what you have known in the past. going off past perceptions or the perceptions of others is like trying to make the boat and the wake trade places. It just creates confusion and doesnt solve much.

Greenslade
11-06-2017, 10:37 AM
Unfortunately I'm a bit clumsy and I'm really bad about staying in my own vibe. Usually I walk around in an anxiety haze.


As far as self-perceptions go, be aware of what they are in the current moment and be guided by that. Not what you have known in the past. going off past perceptions or the perceptions of others is like trying to make the boat and the wake trade places. It just creates confusion and doesnt solve much.This for me is a large part of my perceiving myself, perceiving myself as I am and not fighting against myself. It's easy to stay in my own vibe because I'm never out of it, whatever vibe it is at the time is my own. One of the biggest problems I had was coming to terms with myself and accepting the person I was, warts and all.

In the present, our perceptions of the past create our future. If we can forgive ourselves for being flawed humans perhaps we can find forgiveness for others more easily, because often self forgiveness is the most difficult. Perhaps then we can move on with something better in our hearts because we've dealt with the past and not tried to ignore it. Like it or not, the past is a part of who and what you are so it carries into the present moment - there are some things that can't be left behind.

I have no regrets whatsoever about what happened in the past because here I am just the same, I've come to terms with me and my warts and I've found a peace that can't be shaken. The connections to some people are very much deeper and empathy has more meaning because of what I've gone through in the past. Even 'mundane' people can feel if someone is connecting with them or having empathy with them on a very deep level. The perceptions of others do count for me but how they affect me is for me to choose, not them. I've always found it very difficult to accept my 'good points' and when people say they like me, it's still hard to accept but it's a measure that I'm doing something right after all. Maybe this weekend I'll crack open that bottle of single malt I received for being our regional unsung hero.

Shivani Devi
19-06-2017, 07:00 AM
I don't really know if I have any self-perception whatsoever. It's puzzling.

For many years I have lived alone and I have not mixed with other people and so I haven't had any feedback...nobody to praise or criticise me...nothing to model any views of myself upon really.

When I try and think about how I perceive myself, nothing happens...I mean, it took months before my counsellor was able to get a 'strength' out of me and all I could say was "I'm neat and organised' but that's not how I perceive myself because I am just like that...without any perception.

I don't have any self-esteem or self-worth - maybe due to an abusive childhood and I totally closed myself off and shut myself down from human interaction.

Then again, I don't feel negative or bad about myself either. I'm not depressed...I am not happy...I just exist in a constant state of "I don't care" and "It doesn't bother me" and "never really think about it" limbo.

All I know about myself is that which is necessary for basic human life...I eat, sleep, breathe and to that end, I am self-aware, but nothing exists beyond that.

I guess I have it luckier than some and unluckier than others in this regard and that's all I know about it.