"Just be yourself"

[LadyMay]

I've been thinking about this phrase lately, and whilst it used to make a lot of sense to me, I'm not really sure how much sense it makes to me anymore. 'Myself' doesn't really exist, outside of nature and nurture. Who we are is determined by our environment.. even our genes are a part of our environment. Everything about us is situational. People imagine that when we incarnate again we're very different people, though the essence is the same, as it will be in everyone, because it is source essence. This essence is our potential.. we could be anything or nothing if we choose to. Every incarnation is different (speaking from a linear view), and we play different roles. We are experimenting with our roles, experiencing what it's like to be influenced by the environment. Everyone is creating and weaving this large tapestry together. So who are we then? I can't really say "this is me" or "this is not me", because potentially they're all me. 'I' am whoever I want to be.. I am however I decide to react to my environment. If I decide to change a way of responding to my environment, then something fundamental about me changes. I'm not the same person I was. But at the heart I still carry the same potential to be anything and everything I want to be. Who we are is like a blank template, coloured with different experiences, that are always changing and switching around. You look at your template from thirty years ago and compare it to now.. loads of it is probably different. Yet the same 'blankness' is always there. We're always blank slates, we're just trying out different outfits from time to time.

So when people say to me "just be yourself", or "don't try to change yourself", it doesn't make sense to me. Because I'm not the outfits I try on. I'm the blank slate trying the outfits on. I can be anyone and everyone I want to be, because that is who I am, in potential.

Does that make sense to anyone?

Feel free to add anything.

Originally Posted by ScarlettHayden

I've been thinking about this phrase lately, and whilst it used to make a lot of sense to me, I'm not really sure how much sense it makes to me anymore. 'Myself' doesn't really exist, outside of nature and nurture. Who we are is determined by our environment.. even our genes are a part of our environment. Everything about us is situational. People imagine that when we incarnate again we're very different people, though the essence is the same, as it will be in everyone, because it is source essence. This essence is our potential.. we could be anything or nothing if we choose to. Every incarnation is different (speaking from a linear view), and we play different roles. We are experimenting with our roles, experiencing what it's like to be influenced by the environment. Everyone is creating and weaving this large tapestry together. So who are we then? I can't really say "this is me" or "this is not me", because potentially they're all me. 'I' am whoever I want to be.. I am however I decide to react to my environment. If I decide to change a way of responding to my environment, then something fundamental about me changes. I'm not the same person I was. But at the heart I still carry the same potential to be anything and everything I want to be. Who we are is like a blank template, coloured with different experiences, that are always changing and switching around. You look at your template from thirty years ago and compare it to now.. loads of it is probably different. Yet the same 'blankness' is always there. We're always blank slates, we're just trying out different outfits from time to time.

So when people say to me "just be yourself", or "don't try to change yourself", it doesn't make sense to me. Because I'm not the outfits I try on. I'm the blank slate trying the outfits on. I can be anyone and everyone I want to be, because that is who I am, in potential.

Does that make sense to anyone?

Feel free to add anything.

I like an old signature line I once had..


Dr Seuss if I may..
Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

― Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You!

So how YOU see yourself and choose to be, is just you being you.

What I see you as and choose to see of you is just me being me.

But you know you better than anyone else and its your life not mine..:)

[wstein]

Identity is of course an arbitrary self definition very subject to change.

Your inner nature is far less subject to change. The very choice of identity is largely defined by your inner nature.

Be yourself refers to acting/responding from you inner nature not from your experience or due to outside forces.

Obviously as you act, you interact with that around you. This issue is not about what you do but rather why you do things in the way you do things. Being little creatures on the same planet necessarily means there will be similarities in what and how things are done here. What make each an individual is why and in what manner one does those things.

Its not an easy thing to see clearly. To try to get a handle on being yourself, you need to track down what actually motivates your actions and where does that motivation come from. Are you doing things in a way that is in alignment of who you are or are you doing thing the way others would have you to do them? Obviously knowing who you are helps a lot in working out the answer to that question.

'just be yourself' is an ill considered phrase for sure, for the reasons that you mention. It seems to go side by side with the more negatively aligned phrase 'you've changed'... well yes, we can seem to change because we adapt to life's circumstances and circumstances change. Do we change? I guess the answer to that comes down to what we consider ourselves to be.

You might like these in regards to this thread:

Are you the paper or the picture that is painted there?

Are you the image of your intention or of your result?

Are you the question of now or the answer of yesterday?

Are you all that you have been, or all that you could be ?

On a different note, choosing to be whatever we want in any moment can become confused with choosing to act like whatever we want to be in any given moment. If I choose to act like a guru, am I wise? If I choose to act like a fool, am I foolish? To be, is a present tense noun, and we can only be what we are in each moment - to know what that is comes down to open self-honesty. However, there is wisdom in realising that it is momentary, and that we are the creators of our future. In this way, time ceases to be, and at once we are what we are now, yet, we are also what we are creating.

[RedEmbers]

Just be whoever you are in this present moment lol

how can you really be anything else anyway?

I tend to think that even if we come back in some form that our essence most probably will be something else entirely to what it is now...
Same as who I am right now tends to change (or adapt, adjust... shift yada ya) from this moment to the next.

In this present moment I am being myself, just as I am in every other moment

[It Is]

It means not caving into peer pressure.

Staying true to what feels comfortable for you.

Originally Posted by ScarlettHayden

So when people say to me "just be yourself", or "don't try to change yourself", it doesn't make sense to me. Because I'm not the outfits I try on. I'm the blank slate trying the outfits on. I can be anyone and everyone I want to be, because that is who I am, in potential

It's the difference between "I should be Spiritual" and "This Spiritual stuff is interesting." If it resonates with you, if it's driving you or you're simply interested then by all means be Spiritual if it feels right. If you can't get your head around it, if it's causing you grief or you feel like the proverbial square peg in a round hole give it up. If you feel comfortable in a flowery dress and a floppy hat, wear it (suits you, sir) and if you like wearing a tuxedo that's fine too.

We change daily sometimes, it just takes someone to type a phrase in that pops a light on and our whole paradigm takes a different turn but there's still a 'core us', we have a basic nature that doesn't really change much. There's a phrase - "You can take the Brocher out of the Broch but you can't take the Broch out of the Brocher." 'The Broch' is Doric for Fraserburgh, the town I live in and a Brocher is a resident. It means that there's a basic nature or behaviour patterns in Brochers that don't change no matter what environment they're in and trying to change them doesn't happen. If being 'Spiritual' isn't in your nature don't try and change it because you'll never be 'Spiritual'.

Although we're very different people through incarnations there's usually a way to tell that it's the 'same us' every time. I've been told that by a few people who have known me in different Lives. One said that although I've had a different physical appearance my eyes have never changed, the eyes being the window to the Soul. We have a unique energy signature, an energetic thumbprint that's unique to us that remains constant, even though we 'raise our vibrations' or we're in a mood.

Or even more simply, "don't try to change yourself" could mean they like you as you are.

[Swami Chihuahuananda]

Working from the everyday level upwards, I had to learn to love myself , even after finding myself and all my flaws , to facilitate and create a harmonious, nurturing (or at even the worst moments, not self-destructive)
environment for ....

working from the Spirit level Earthwards , the everyday self must be attuned , attenuated, and adjusted to facilitate transpersonal , transcendent, transformational ways of being .... your Self .

Haha ! I do amuse myself sometimes

Dar

[Jatd]

Originally Posted by ScarlettHayden

I've been thinking about this phrase lately, and whilst it used to make a lot of sense to me, I'm not really sure how much sense it makes to me anymore. 'Myself' doesn't really exist, outside of nature and nurture. Who we are is determined by our environment.. even our genes are a part of our environment. Everything about us is situational. People imagine that when we incarnate again we're very different people, though the essence is the same, as it will be in everyone, because it is source essence. This essence is our potential.. we could be anything or nothing if we choose to. Every incarnation is different (speaking from a linear view), and we play different roles. We are experimenting with our roles, experiencing what it's like to be influenced by the environment. Everyone is creating and weaving this large tapestry together. So who are we then? I can't really say "this is me" or "this is not me", because potentially they're all me. 'I' am whoever I want to be.. I am however I decide to react to my environment. If I decide to change a way of responding to my environment, then something fundamental about me changes. I'm not the same person I was. But at the heart I still carry the same potential to be anything and everything I want to be. Who we are is like a blank template, coloured with different experiences, that are always changing and switching around. You look at your template from thirty years ago and compare it to now.. loads of it is probably different. Yet the same 'blankness' is always there. We're always blank slates, we're just trying out different outfits from time to time.

So when people say to me "just be yourself", or "don't try to change yourself", it doesn't make sense to me. Because I'm not the outfits I try on. I'm the blank slate trying the outfits on. I can be anyone and everyone I want to be, because that is who I am, in potential.

Does that make sense to anyone?

Feel free to add anything.

Makes sense to me. I honestly have no idea who I am, or what I am or where I came from or where I am going. Its actually maddening.

I agree with this on an existential level. However, much the same way we all have talents that manifest more easily and readily, hobbies, etc that we like to do, there's a part of us that needs to embrace that unique and individual expression of the Divine. So when I hear, "Just be yourself", I think of that individual expression of the Divine that chooses to manifest through me.

Likewise the statement, don't change yourself. We all change. We know that. But what is the motive for your changes? Many times people change to fit into a certain mold. But I often think that there's many modes of expression the Divine and that they don't all have to come through format. some are better writers, some a better at speaking, etc. There's a lot of "enlightened" or whatever people walking around who have never shared their message on a forum or on any online modality. And don't have to. But have instead channeled their being into some other format.

Originally Posted by ScarlettHayden

I've been thinking about this phrase lately, and whilst it used to make a lot of sense to me, I'm not really sure how much sense it makes to me anymore. 'Myself' doesn't really exist, outside of nature and nurture. Who we are is determined by our environment.. even our genes are a part of our environment. Everything about us is situational. People imagine that when we incarnate again we're very different people, though the essence is the same, as it will be in everyone, because it is source essence. This essence is our potential.. we could be anything or nothing if we choose to. Every incarnation is different (speaking from a linear view), and we play different roles. We are experimenting with our roles, experiencing what it's like to be influenced by the environment. Everyone is creating and weaving this large tapestry together. So who are we then? I can't really say "this is me" or "this is not me", because potentially they're all me. 'I' am whoever I want to be.. I am however I decide to react to my environment. If I decide to change a way of responding to my environment, then something fundamental about me changes. I'm not the same person I was. But at the heart I still carry the same potential to be anything and everything I want to be. Who we are is like a blank template, coloured with different experiences, that are always changing and switching around. You look at your template from thirty years ago and compare it to now.. loads of it is probably different. Yet the same 'blankness' is always there. We're always blank slates, we're just trying out different outfits from time to time.

So when people say to me "just be yourself", or "don't try to change yourself", it doesn't make sense to me. Because I'm not the outfits I try on. I'm the blank slate trying the outfits on. I can be anyone and everyone I want to be, because that is who I am, in potential.

Does that make sense to anyone?

Feel free to add anything.