http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFIyhseYTWg&feature=related&noredirect=1

This TED talk explores the concept of self. It’s 10 or so minutes well  worth watching. We are a collection of memories and perceptions that make up who we think we are. The self doesn’t exist really and on the You Tube clip the presenter compares what we know as water – just a collection of hydrogen and oxygen molecules – to the concept of self. As human beings we look for certainty, clarity and meaning but when you scratch beneath the surface there is no real you. Now before you have a big existential crisis, imagine the possibilities that opens up. You can embrace what you want of yourself and given that most of the self  is learnt, you can be and become the person you’d want to be. How cool is that?

Every day I meet clients who are stuck because of a misplaced perception of themselves. I am depressed, I am an alcoholic, a smoker, I am worthless, a gambler and the list is endless. People mistake their behaviour with their identity. Given that we have learnt these habits, we can unlearn them and become the person we’d have the best fun being free of habits and patterns that can rule our lives. Now that’s worth making changes for isn’t it?