How much of your personality has been shaped by others? By our parents – our genes and our DNA. By our environment, our homes, our families, our schooling, our education, our value systems and our social influences.
The question is how much of your existing identity is really you and how much has been defined by others? Have you found your own voice, your unique purpose? Or have you never discovered it, or perhaps lost it along the way?
This question is acutely amplified when faced with adversity. When we are attacked, we impulsively go on the defensive. But do we get defined by our enemies? Take for example, the natural defense mechanisms and immunity systems we build up to protect ourselves from predators. After sustained attacks, it’s possible that in our fear of being hurt we develop such thick layers of protective armor, to the point of our own detriment, that we cannot distinguish between our armor and our inner identities. You have become the mask and the armor.
Think about that: In addition to the initial pain caused by the abuser, you may have tragically become the ultimate victim — perpetually defined by those who have threatened and hurt you. Instead of being your own person, you are then giving the perpetrator the power to dictate who you are. You will never be able to win against an enemy that continues to shape you and define who you are meant to be. It is critical to find yourself and not allow yourself to be defined by anything else in life.
Please join Rabbi Simon Jacobson in this vital discussion and discover that while yes, there are factors that shape our lives, they DO NOT determine who we are. We need to face and fight our enemies, but it is critical that we not allow ourselves to be defined by them. Discover how to access the real you — independent of all your surrounding circumstances — and unleash its power in your life and in the world.
B”H
Such a beautiful explanation on how we all can let go of; negativity, pre conceived ideas and anger with the world and embrace our themselves by drawing closer to HaShem.
What I can give for in relation with the other (live), it begin with me own focus for what is meaningfull, here an now, an alway’s. A human in the world have learn word’s. How good this is, there is also how fast It go. Excample, look the other in the eyes, an in me come up, concept. But use word’s…it can be dominance. It is more better create balance for inner that have feeling’s, memory’s (picture) to an deeper, the energy itself, live. This in balance, for inner an than in relation with an other is more meanless. Is the other one more soft than hard, are we connected, in love an trust an with desire for alway’s love, trust……it is very special. Maybe it is not posseble to see G’d in word’s an al the pictures make of this, in memory. We need the more special energy an by this we can use what is help for in communication for theme, that need (more) concept. So, I can see an can’t see G’d……..also, in (no) corrupt world as current, today.