[Image Used is Mine]
I love the fact that the concept of self and identity can be different for different people because we all have different ways of dealing with situations. Two people can experience the same situation but come out of it differently. While one individual sees only the negative, the other sees the experience as a stepping stone.
With a lot of going on around us, it can be easy to sometimes loose yourself in the lives of others and forget your own identity. It's quite a lot of baggage to carry when you're so focused on the dramas in the lives of others or their expectations of you. There are times when taking in too much external baggage within can become a problem for self growth. Finding yourself and your identity then becomes an issue.
Social media is a prime example of how one can loose oneself. There's just too much happening around to keep up with. Minimalism isn't limited to the physical environment, and soaking up all of this distractions can equally lead to an unnecessary toxic maximalism of the mindset.
I remember one time in the university during a particular bullish period in the crypto scene when my friend made quite a lot of money and decided to buy himself a car. Of course I was happy for him and wanted every bit of success for him, but I soon discovered I was disgruntled with myself. I had the WHY NOT ME syndrome. I was soon lost in his life and his priorities soon became mine. His problems became my problems. This in itself wasn't an issue, except that I was on the way to becoming him while loosing myself.
Decluttering my mind towards what I had already conditioned it to, took some serious reflection. I realized that although I would love a car myself, I was just stressing myself out because I didn't really need one and frankly didn't think I could keep up with maintaining one.
Finding that peaceful place in my mind required silencing the mental criticism. It was a simple matter of realizing I was distracting myself with baggage I didn't need. It wasn't easy finding a solution to the problem, perhaps because the problem was my mindset. But once I realized how important I needed to self reflect, to shed the unnecessary worries clouding my mindset and focus on my goals, it was easier to find myself once again.
This is in response to the #kiss prompt.
