It's a brand new year!

Now is a good time to reflect and ask questions to evaluate what happened and where we want to go.

Let's hear from one of our team members, Aila, who asked herself a powerful question:
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"Who am I?"

How many times have you asked yourself this question?
How many times have you questioned why are you here in this world?
How many times have you questioned your very existence?

For me, it's countless times.

And the question itself makes me ask more questions like, "Will I ever know who I am?" or "Will any answer ever satisfy me?"

These questions tend to overwhelm us most of the time. And when that happens, remember this quote:

"The question 'who am I?' is not really meant to get an answer. The question 'who am I?' is meant to dissolve the questioner." --Ramana Maharshi

Powerful words, right? But what does this even mean? How can dissolving one's identity help in figuring out who we really are?

Let's try to break it down.

The answer to "who am I" is our identity. Our identity is our all-encompassing system of memories, experiences, feelings, thoughts, relationships, and values that define who each of us is. It's the stuff that makes up a "self." Identity is a critical component of understanding who we are because we can break those up into components such as values, experiences, and relationships.

We can identify and understand these components. And once we have understood these, we can get to look at a bigger picture of who we really are.

I know this pandemic made us question a lot of things. It even made us confused on who we really are and what we really want, for ourselves and for our life in general. Some of us even changed.

Say for example pre-pandemic, you love hanging out, you're the life of the party! But now, you'd rather stay at home and embrace your quiet time. For instance, there are also some who changed careers -- from corporate to establishing their own small business. It was very challenging and really, there are a lot of changes that the pandemic brought to us.

We, as living beings, search for and find comfort in a solid sense of identity. It grounds us. It gives us confidence. And our sense of identity affects every single thing in our lives -- from the choices we make to the values we live by. Our identity is a reflection of what we believe, what we do, and what we value. Yet, our sense of identity can be compromised by outside factors. And here's the painful truth -- much of our identity was just forced upon us by our parents or by the dominant culture such as power, appearance, and pursuit of materialism.

This inorganic identity causes us to experience a tremendous amount of stress because we know that "that identity" is false, it's something demanded of us. And the problem is we don't know what our "organic" identity is. That is why we ask, "who am I?"

So what can we really do to find out who we are?

Begin with yourself. Stop searching for external fixes to sort out your life, you'll never find the satisfaction and fulfillment you're searching for. Look within and unleash your personal power.

Build a better relationship with yourself.

Unlock your endless potential and put passion at the heart of everything that you do. And I guess, that's something good that the pandemic has brought to us -- the chance to sit down, alone, and reflect within ourselves because we're a lot MORE than one thing.

We're a whole system of ideas and experiences, and that's something that we always have to keep in mind.

But hey, don't rush! Take your time to get to know yourself more and on a deeper level. You still have a long way, anyway. 😊

And before I leave, here's something that I’d like you to always remember:

The risk you're afraid to take could change your life.

Thanks for hearing me out and I hope you get to share your story of self-discovery with us, too! ❤️