You Are More Than Your Labels

Visualize an iceberg.  The tip is the only part you are able to see and on it are all the things you see yourself to be: maybe a parent, child, employee, friend, cancer patient, southerner, mother, father and so on… The tip of the iceberg is covered with all of your identities. Consider: What happens when you lose one of your identities?  Maybe you lose your job, or your child gets married, or something else changes the way you identify yourself. When this happens, there is a notable loss, and at times, an emptiness. What we have forgotten is how to take a look beneath the water’s surface. What will we find there? A vast iceberg.  It is massive – unimaginably so. And, if you only focus on the very tip – on identity markers – you will miss out on the enormity of who you are.  You are much more than your body, your mind and your identities. When we can quiet our minds, even for a moment, we can see that we are so much more than we ever imagined. What do you consider yourself to be beyond the tip of the iceberg?  Please share in the comments below.