Simple Exercise Answers One Of Life’s Most Challenging Questions: Who Am I?
Yesterday I had lunch with a friend who happens to also be an amazing life coach- she is not one of those uptight, well rehearsed and energetically switched off coaches that we have become so used to seeing. She is a hugger, an energetic feeler and really knows her stuff on all levels!
Anyway the reason I am sharing this is because she shared an exercise with me, which is really simple, fit for its purpose and can actually put you into a deep altered state if you allow it too.
It is so easy to get bogged down and blurry on your vision these days- with the endless advertising, media and the opinions of others, it is common to find yourself buried under the pile of other people’s ideals. This exercise is perfect for answering the age old philosophical question- “Who am I?”
The exercise is simple: Give yourself 20 minutes or whatever you feel comfortable with, you don’t need to time it, just allow yourself to instinctively feel out the whole process.
Stand in front of the mirror, stare into your own eyes and ask yourself “who am I?” don’t force an answer just allow it to come (if it comes). Breathe deeply, keeping focus on your eyes (or sometimes it is easier to look at one eye) and when it comes again ask yourself “who am I?”
You can repeat this as many times as you feel is necessary, my advice would be not to force it, it took me about 15 minutes before my higher self started to speak and tell me who I am. However I have practiced similar exercises before and not got the same results. Patience is key and allowing the answers to come! One of the things that happens during this exercise is your face warps and changes shape in a similar way you would expect from taking hallucinogenic. Don’t let this put you off, it is all part of the exercise and really allows you to step outside of the normal waking state of consciousness.
There are many theories on why it has this effect- however in early 2015 vision researcher Giovanni Caputo from the University of Urbino in Italy conducted a study in which he recruited 50 volunteers and got them to sit in a dimly lit room and stare at their reflections in a mirror for 10 minutes.
According to the study faces started to warp, and by some even animals and deceased relatives were seen, this had a similar effect to that which you would expect from taking hallucinogenic substances. Caputo says, these sensations indicate symptoms of dissociation. This is the term used to describe a disconnection with reality. He also found that dissociation correlated with facial deformity, but could not explain the hallucinations that caused subjects to see strange faces.
So do you know who you are? This exercise will help in answering that question! Please share this article so others can see it.
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