Individuality (Pt.1)

Am I an individual? What makes me unique? Do I even have the
ability to answer the question? I think that we all like to think of
ourselves as unique people and we surely hope that we are, but
what’s the fact of the matter? What makes me different from the
next person? The writer Alan Watts points out something very
interesting:

“We seldom realize, for example, that our most private thoughts and
emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages
and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our
society. We copy emotional parents…society is our extended mind and
body”

So, Alan Watts is saying that we copy our emotional responses
from our parents. So is it possible that even that which we claim
to be our inner thoughts and opinions didn’t really originate from us?
Now that’s a thought! If they didn’t originate uniquely
from us and were possibly placed upon us, then what hope
would we have for style, talent or anything else! Let’s take a
look at that though. We are trained beings, we do what our
parents and teachers taught us, turning us into what we are
today. We are bombarded daily with what we need to buy or
think or consume, in order that we may be happy or popular.
We are engulfed with the concepts of what our limitations are
and our “place” in society. The idea that we will never be like
those amazing people “up there” in front of the bright lights
and walking down the red carpets on TV or in the movies and
magazines, constantly. This as though those people are from
another planet, different from the rest of us. That’s just what is
thrust on us from the billboards and advertisements on a walk
down any road, daily. We are being spoken to, literally all the
time through advertising, TV and the media, parents and friends,
colleagues etc.

Does the world influence you? Does it enhance your uniqueness,
buying into somebody else’s idea of beauty, success or morals,
or does it detract from you?

Hmmm…..so when I say to myself “I’ll never be able to dance like
that!” Am I being fair? Am I being honest or am I just repeating what
I think to be correct because I’m not thinking “outside the box”,
but inside the parameters set by other people (which are usually
so limiting)? I would say that it’s based on other people projecting
onto you and you reflecting that back.

The key points to remember are that

• You are the number one expert

• You define your own parameters

• What’s good for everybody else might not and probably
isn’t perfect for you or your set of unique talents and set of
circumstances.

By Anthony King

(Coming next: Acloser look: other people projecting their crap on to you!)