Imagine this:
You wake up one morning, only to find yourself in another body. Maybe even the opposite gender. You walk out into the streets, only to meet ‘you’, walking around, doing exactly the things you do, as if the absence of your consciousness has made no difference whatsoever. How will you feel?

And how will you feel that all of a sudden in ‘this’ body, you don’t like the things you used to, your height is different, you tend to dress differently. What if everything you knew about yourself was now different?

I know its never going to happen. But this simple exercise gives you an idea of what things you tend to attach to yourself as your ‘identity’.

What do you consider your identity? Is it the way you dress? Or your best qualities? Or your addictions? Or those million little things about yourself that you forget at large, but are so used to?

I’ve heard the phrase ‘don’t want to lose my identity’ very often when people talk about marriage. Thats probably ok, provided it doesn’t miss out on progressive growth.

But what if our ‘identity’ is preventing our progress? There are certain things we believe about ourselves.
‘I never cook’
‘I can’t stand up for myself’
‘I always misbehave with that person’

No! It doesn’t always have to be that way! When we need to change a long-standing behavioral pattern, there is always a resistance. Subconsciously we’re thinking ‘If I change this attitude, then I won’t be me anymore’ and it is accompanied by the fear of being a different person. Is it really worth holding on to your negative traits, just so you can remain ‘you’?

As the sages say, the biggest hindrance in your progress is your ego. The ‘I’ factor. The person that you think you are. Let go. You are not your qualities, they are just there to serve you – so pick only the best!