The Costume of Self Identity

One of the most striking differences between young children and the rest of us is how quickly the youngsters tend to get over things.

If you observe a three or four-year old going about their business, you'll see them being sweet and generous and possessive and insecure and loving and fearful and confident and frustrated, all in the space of an hour or two! And beneath the surface fluctuations you can see the natural, innate well-being and healthy self-esteem shining through that is every individual's birthright.

Watch an older child or an adult for a few days and you'll see they have developed the ability to hold onto things, to remember past upsets and dwell on them, and to worry about imaginary futures that don't yet exist. Not only that, they will have formed the habit of thinking about themselves in certain ways, and believing those thoughts to be real and true, thereby obscuring their natural radiance.

What was once a momentary, passing experience for the toddler becomes a costume of self-identity for the grown-up, which, if worn regularly, begins to infiltrate and dominate our daily life experience. Once we had insecure moments. Now we say 'I'm an insecure person', and we start behaving as if that were actually true.

An understanding of the principles behind your psychological experience enables you to break free from the limitations of your own habitual thought patterns and to reclaim the resilience, spontaneity, creativity and present-moment awareness that you enjoyed as a youngster.