"Know Thyself"

Who am I ? What is the purpose of life? What is the meaning of life? These particular questions have troubled many souls in the world, many have tried to elaborate them in different perspectives. Nothing conclusive has been found to be the ultimate answer. Maybe this is an individual’s cross to carry, a subjective path to be followed by any individual who dares to discover for themselves.   

Socratic wisdom says “know thyself”. Do I really know myself? Do you?  Apart from the melanin in my skin pigmentation, what else makes me African? Sometimes, am troubled by how little I know myself; no one seems to give me any satisfactory answer. My mother once told me; “You are a child of God”, further questioning almost made the situation grotesque. I had to terminate the conversation and postpone it to a later date.

We have had to wear different identities; child of God, student, father, psychologist, teacher, jobless graduate, social media influencer, patient, doctor, male identity, female identity and so forth. I think no single person have a single identity. Even the Christian Messiah had different titles and roles. Though some identities are better than others as per the societal standards, personal standards are rarely consulted.

Nietzsche wrote about “herd morality”, many individuals choose to remain under a single umbrella of the accepted social identities, religion being the oldest. With over 2 billion people being under the Christianity umbrella, over 1.5 billion people in the Islamic umbrella , others close to 2 billion are under the Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto and Scientology umbrellas.

Religion has served humanity well, giving individuals identity and has helped in the maintenance of order and harmony. It still is, except in my mother country where its slowly and surely being crippled by self-centered ambitions of religious leaders. Soon, it will collapse and will require something to replace it. I have realized a considerable percentage of youths don’t follow religion religiously. Religion has been weaponized by politicians and is being used to gaslight the poor. The “bishop” is too close to the “queen and king” to sway the “pawns”  away from the reality.

Other umbrellas include the social media, cults and any other identifiable group setups. Those who descent from the “herds” are met with hostility, most choose to stay in the comfort of the “herd”. For the most part of my adolescent years, I was a devoted Christian, following the dogmatic practices to the latter. I later was interested in discovering other religions and philosophy.  All religions have a commonality; they all have an identified Higher Power and  a strict moral basis. If all of the religion followers strived to follow teachings religiously, there would be less suffering in the world.

Since we can’t really maintain a single identity, we form concoctions from different identities we possess throughout life. We need to strive to form a moral identity to be a watchdog to the other identities. For this to happen, we have to have exposure to appropriate information to activate our inner potential. As an upshot, much of the motivation from motivational speakers don’t work. It isn’t grounded on facts, a person who hasn’t identified a particular path/s to follow can’t be impacted by any motivation. Coaching is a better approach to such an individual.

A folklore is told of farmer who had a single hen, he discovered that the hen could not lay eggs until it saw another hen. He went to the river, showed the hen its reflection and it started laying. In my clinical practice I often educate clients presenting with esteem issues to visit the mirror and perceive themselves clearly. In most of the times they discover for themselves they aren’t’ as others  perceive them. They progressively grow a thick skin to repel unconstructive criticism on their body image, which eventually boost their self esteem.

In other instances, we work to find measures to adjust the adjustable such as body weight, irrational patterns of thinking and self perception. In multiple occasions I have observed individuals socially regarded as grotesque transform themselves into admirable social figures. The magic touch is self awareness, then your productivity is unleashed just as the hen observed its reflection and started to lay.

Erick Erickson theory of psychosocial development was inaccurate to constrict the stage of identity vs identity confusion/ role confusion to adolescent stage (12-18) years. In the 21st  century a lot of individuals  are experiencing identity crisis throughout life. Aren’t we in an era where individuals are claiming to be in the wrong body? With technological advancements individuals will need to recreate themselves multiple times to suit the demand of time. These tendencies are likely to speedup, as the AI will absorb more jobs and all roles that can be automated. Individuals will have to recreate themselves more times than in all other centuries.

An individual’s task is to recreate themselves through exploration to uncover their life’s purpose, that’s the adventure of life. Openness, positive attitude and curiosity pushes an ordinary man, towards his only chance to be a hero.  As  depicted in many folklores where the man had to persevere through land of chaos ( forests and waters) to restore order (kill monsters).

   ~John Wanjiru

 Mental Health Professional              

wanjirukjohn@gmail.com