99 steps to reclaiming your individuality Step #35 

 

Theories and models:

Individuality to us is the goal, that is, if you are reading this with intent on change, not just out of curiosity. But like everything else in the universe, it is built on discoverable theory and structural model. Discoverable, in that it is a juxtaposed undertaking. One must first inquisitively desire to understand ones nature, and parallel in that it is both the will to understand and the knowledge of the understanding that culminate and catapult the individual into an enlightened state of being. This premise is nether new or unique to any one discipline, it is as a matter of fact, foundational in all throughout history. In order to unleash it in ourselves, we will need certain models to fashion our behaviors (natures) around in order to reap the conscious benefits of it.

This is nether complex or difficult, we need only understand that it is our willingness to undertake the challenge that is as integral to the exercise, as is the formulating of the action steps. The carrying out of those steps in our daily routines will culminate in our eventual overall success. For this we are encouraged to draw from any of the disciplines we have learned in our lives so far. Their particular origins, affiliations or doctrinal associations to us should not be of concern, for we are not trying to incorporate those ideologies into our project, we are simply utilizing their modeled framework as grounding points for us. The familiar is always the best ally when undertaking change.

We must grow from what we know. As previously asserted in preceding steps, our lives have been a sequence of conditioning exercises. Many of which are common throughout our peers. This in its simplest assertion, is one of the bedrocks of societal cohesion, our likes tend to draw us together, our differences  tend to keep us apart. You would find very few that would disagree with that assertion. The same can be said of our internal community of selves. The natures with which we feel comfortable with we willingly project externally as our public self, and the ones we don't quite fully comprehend, or the ones we lack confidence in or control over, we either hide or deny, or are at times victimized by in moments of out of control behavior. When we can earnestly grasp the truth that these are conditioned behaviors, then we can work at first by accepting, and then altering their stigma or detrimental effect on our natures as a whole. When we can shape these differences under the critical scope of analysis, not under the norms of an often grossly generalized external overview, but internally as getting to the roots of their origin. We can then rightly assert authority over them, and then achieving this they will integrate wholly into ourselves, and our public self, which is in essence the external manifestation of our individuality will be strengthened and empowered both publicly and integrally.