Michael Mitchell: Archive

You say "identity" and "reality". I say "state of mind" or "spirit" or "character" or "self", if you prefer, and "reality". You have the power to control your consciousness and your existence, your life, but only within the limits of what's naturally possible. It's not a matter of semantics, though. Concepts (words) are derived from reality. Reality isn't derived from concepts.

It's right there in root of the word, "identity". We use it in many different contexts, depending on one's perspective, such as differentiating members of groups of things, but in the metaphysical sense it just refers to the fundamental nature of something, and every single thing that exists is unique. Groups only exist in the epistemological sense, in our minds. A single quality of something may be enough to distinguish it from other things in a group, just as a single quality can be used to define things in a group, and we may even narrowly define ourselves by such limited qualities, but in the broadest sense "identity" refers to all of the qualities or characteristics of something, not what makes it fit in, but what makes it stand out, what makes it unique from everything else in the universe.

Even though all of your physical and mental qualities and characteristics have changed since you were born, you're still the same ENTITY, the same human being, in this context. Whether you change by natural processes or by conscious choice or by subconscious chance or by some random, unfortunate accident completely beyond your control or whatever, you can't change your nature, the qualities and characteristics that make you human. You can change who you are, how you think and look and act, to some degree, but you can't change what you are.

The word "identity" refers to the "what", not only the "who", but you're using it in the context of a human being, yourself. What you really mean by "shifting your identity" is simply uplifting your spirits, controlling yourself, focusing your mind more clearly on what you want, purposefully acting more consistently to achieve your values. Everything in your room has an identity, but you're the only thing in the room with the power to "shift" it. If that little trinket thingy on your necklace hung any lower -- Wait. Where was I? Beautiful smile. 🙃