What makes you yourself

This means we earn a small commission on items sold through this site. There is NO additional cost to you on any of these items. Personal Reading time: 5 minutes This was my last post for , and I wanted to leave you with something of value to start your even greater.

What You Can Do Now? How will you start your ? What personal changes do you strive for in ? Like this: Like Loading Related Posts. Personal , Relationship Personal , Psychology Tobie Paredez December 7, at The content was rather grabbing and interesting enough to receive all probable nuances to recall.

Alexzandra February 28, at Stopping negative self-talk I think is the hardest! Ye Chen February 28, at Thanks Alexzandra! Danielle February 28, at I really needed this post right now.

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Ye Chen January 1, at Hi Doug, thank you! Ye Chen December 31, at Thanks John! Phill Slater December 31, at Really positive post to end Look forward to reading more from your blog in z. Ye Chen December 31, at Thanks Phill! Have a great ! Justine December 31, at This article is exactly what I needed to read!

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I really needed this, so happy I came across your blog today! The second thing these tests reveal is that the difference between Boston and London you might not be the nature of the particular atoms or cells involved, but about continuity.

The Cell Replacement Test might have left you intact because it changed you gradually , one cell at a time. This could also explain why the teletransporter might be a murder machine—London you has no continuity with your previous life. Could it be that anytime you relocate your brain, or disassemble your atoms all at once, transfer your brain data onto a new brain, etc.

A few years ago, my late grandfather, in his 90s and suffering from dementia, pointed at a picture on the wall of himself as a six-year-old. He was right. But come on. It seems ridiculous that the six-year-old in the picture and the extremely old man standing next to me could be the same person.

Those two people had nothing in common. And they shared almost no common brain data at all. Any year-old man on the street is much more similar to my grandfather than that six-year-old. If similarity were enough to define you, Boston you and London you, who are identical , would be the same person. The thing that my grandfather shared with the six-year-old in the picture is something he shared with no one else on Earth—they were connected to each other by a long, unbroken string of continuous existence.

As an old man, he may not know anything about that six-year-old boy, but he knows something about himself as an year-old, and that year-old might know a bunch about himself as an year-old. As a year-old, he knew a ton about him as a year-old, and when he was seven, he was a pro on himself as a 6-year-old.

You may have repaired it hundreds of times over the years, replacing wood chip after wood chip, until one day, you realize that not one piece of material from the original boat is still part of it. So is that still your boat? If you named your boat Polly the day you bought it, would you change the name now? It would still be Polly, right? In this way, what you are is not really a thing as much as a story, or a progression , or one particular theme of person.

As his cells and memories come and go, as every wood chip in his canoe changes again and again, maybe the single common thread that ties it all together is his soul. After examining a human from every physical and mental angle throughout the post, maybe the answer this whole time has been the much less tangible Soul Theory. The way I actually feel right now is completely off-balance. You can buy this post as a PDF for printing and offline reading here. Sources Very few of the ideas or thought experiments in this post are my original thinking.

I read and listened to a bunch of personal identity philosophy this week and gathered my favorite parts together for the post. It's obviously harder to take the same approach with family members, but Schwartz says there's no reason to put up with people saying or doing things that are unkind.

But be careful--don't let caring for your health turn into a reason to beat yourself up if you slip. So I bought some and I ate them. I don't beat myself up when I have a treat. Grab something, even if it's just a salad. Neuroscience tells us that letting your blood sugar sink sends stress signals to your brain.

So if you truly can't stop and grab a meal, make sure you have healthy snacks at your desk. Don't forget that when you're feeling stressed, overworked, or upset, simple breathing exercises can up your happiness quotient dramatically, Schwartz says. For years, Schwartz never made her bed, simply throwing the covers over it.

Now she makes it every day for a simple reason: "Walking into my bedroom when my bed is made makes me smile. Take the same approach with your workspace, she advises.

Acceptance can be a powerful motivator. If this changeable sense of self served you well during your teen years, this lesson can remain with you well into adulthood. You might take on a certain persona at work, another when with your family, and still another when you spend time with friends. Your belief system can help you recognize what matters most to you and determine where you stand on important issues.

For example, a desire to protect animal rights may lead you to choose cruelty-free products and make more informed choices about the foods you eat. Values can help guide the boundaries you set with others in your life. Your decisions should, for the most part, primarily benefit your health and well-being. If so, it might feel uncomfortable, even scary, to start making decisions for yourself. Practice doing things because you want to do them, without asking for input from others.

When you want to get to know someone , you spend time with them, right? It follows, then, that getting to know yourself better will involve some quality time alone. Older research suggests that differences between your ideal self who you envision yourself as and your actual self who you really are can contribute to feelings of dissatisfaction, even depression.

Failing to honor this sense of self could have a negative impact on your emotional health. Once you have a more firmly defined sense of self, consider what you can do to align your life with your identity. You might, for example, ask yourself what changes you can make in your professional life or interactions with others.

If you feel stuck, consider reaching out to a mental health professional for guidance. A therapist can offer support with emotional distress that relates to your sense of self, such as:. The connection between mental health and an unstable sense of self goes both ways. Issues related to personal identity, such as an unclear, frequently changing, or distorted self-image, can sometimes happen as a symptom of:.

These conditions can be serious, but they are treatable. A trained mental health professional can help you explore other symptoms and offer guidance on treatment options. When you consistently feel unfulfilled or struggle to name your needs and desires, consider taking the time for a little self-discovery. Crystal Raypole has previously worked as a writer and editor for GoodTherapy.