Who are you?

Do you believe you are who you are? Really? According to whom? These are some of the questions you will be forced to contemplate if you delve into the latest book by Srikumar Rao, entitled Happiness at Work (McGraw Hill).
It was these questions that I was pondering on my lunchtime walk just now. Rao says we all plays roles – we are all actors on this great world stage. He says the only constant in our lives is our consciousness, the ability to say “I am” with nothing added to that. For everything you ever add to that statement – “I am… a mother”, “I am an employee”, “I am happy” – can change with circumstances.
Then I thought about how perhaps we are all like cells, but on a macro level, with different jobs to do. I thought about how I would consider myself a communication cell, passing messages from one part of the body to another. Some people are lymphocytes and phagocytes (aren’t they the ones responsible for mopping up germs and dead cells? Sorry if I got this wrong, it was years ago I did biology!) which look after the body, like nurses etc. Others are builder cells, who construct the body in various ways, and repair things. And the rivers are arteries, and the roads are communication lines, and the trees are lungs etc. I was thinking what a great analogy this was, but then it dawned on me that we are not exactly comparable to cells, as each cell only has one function to perform – that we know of – whereas humans, as Rao says, can change what they decide to do. We have free will.
So, I could become a caring nurse cell, or a builder cell, if I chose to do so. So why do we chose the functions we do? Is it because they are innately easier to us? Do we have an inner guide to draw us to the things we are good at? I’m not saying I have the answers, but it’s an interesting thing to ponder. But one thing is for sure – we all do have the power and will to change our role. You don’t have to be a victim, or a martyr, or a winner, or a loser, or unhappy, or an employee, or anything; they are all just labels to describe what is going on at a present moment in time.

Free your mind
So, don’t get stuck thinking you are who you think you are. Everything evolves and changes, and you have a say in that. You can choose how to view your life; whether something is good or bad is all a matter of your perception, and things you may think are ‘bad’ may even turn out to be ‘good’. You’ll explore all this in Rao’s book, which is in my favourites list as it is seriously fantastic and mind expanding; it’s one of the best books I’ve read and I highly recommend it; though am not sure why it is called Happiness at Work, as I’m near the end and it has nothing to do with work, per se – it is applicable to everyone in every situation. Perhaps he was trying to attract executive types who stress a lot, and show them there is more to life than working to gain material possessions, as this is a strong message in some of the chapters.