Who are you?

In my life thus far (which is a few years), I have only had food poisoning once! It was because I consumed some raw salad which, I later found out, was washed in contaminated water.

I believe my good track record is thanks to the beliefs instilled by my mother. As far back as I can remember I can recall my mother saying, ‘you should be able to eat a rock and digest it’.

She did not mean it literally of course, but it was her analogy for eating anything, trying anything, not fussing and not having misgivings about food and more. I know she wanted me to use my common sense but mainly I know she was nurturing my future way of being to be one of curiosity, courage, and openness.

I have travelled far and wide and eaten street food in countries where people would think twice about eating at a restaurant. In fact, in one such country that I travelled to with my friend, we both ate some street food. My friend had an upset stomach, and I was good. We ate the same thing, and it was cooked in front of us on the street.

I realise there are variables in each situation, but given all things being equal the only difference in this instance was the two of us!

Our beliefs

To clarify, my friend was hesitant when I first suggested stopping by a street vendor during our bike ride around the city. Her first instinct was that it was not safe. But when I showed her that it was being freshly cooked (in front of us) and that it should be ok, she succumbed. Within an hour we were back at our room for an unscheduled stop and we did not go out after.

Was it her nurtured belief that caused her stomach to react whilst mine did not? I had travelled before with my friend and she was generally more cautious than me but open to adventure.

Just about anything meaningful we choose to do every day requires a belief in ourselves and our ability to make an impact. If we are not open to curiosity and beyond, easily rattled or thrown off balance, then navigating ourselves in the direction we want to go becomes harder.

We are multifaceted and we all have parts of ourselves we appreciate and parts that we are not so crazy about. But understanding ourselves, what we stand for, our beliefs, how we think and feel plays a vital role in how we show up in the world and the impact we make.

Assessing our foundation

We need to go back to our 2-year old self. Yes, 2-year old! Our beliefs from back then contribute to forming our identity.

This brilliant article by Col Fink describes how our beliefs have an impact on your identity.

He uses the metaphor of a house, we have built for ourselves, to represent our identity and the bricks that have been laid, from foundation up, to represent our beliefs.

As you can imagine some of these early foundational bricks may have cracks in them, maybe misaligned or laid the wrong way round. At 2 years of age, we did not know much about our beliefs, we just ‘stored’ them or laid them down as best as possible.

Fast forward a few decades when we became better at understanding ourselves and are now laying new bricks to align with our identity we may become aware that some of the foundational bricks may not be as stable as we thought. New bricks are only as stable as the old bricks they lay on.

For most of us, including me, some of these foundational bricks may have been laid a little askew. Some may be misaligned, some crooked, whilst others may have cracks in them.

A few misaligned foundational beliefs may be distorting an otherwise well-formed identity.

It is not impossible to fix, but it takes conscious effort, compassion and time to fill in the cracks, replace and re-lay some and clean up any debris. This is working with our core and a discomforting task in many ways. But one that should be embarked on, with kindness and compassion, as the result can be life-changing!

Back to my friend. I asked her if she was told to be cautious with trying new food. Her reply was everything I expected. Not only was she brought up to be cautious with trying new food, she was told to be extra cautious when travelling to new countries.

I shall let you decide if it was the food or the consumer that played the bigger role.

Connect with me at yoga@yoganesadurai.com and let me have your thoughts. article by Col Fink