Every year, I observe an increasing movement of people looking in all corners to find themselves. I actually believe there is no self to be found because we are not a static thing or a lost object to be found, nor we are a set of displaced keys.
When asked who are you, my answer is: “I am many and multitudes”. You can imagine the eyes of my interlocutors rolling and their puzzled, if not scared, expressions. I must say that it felt bizarre to me too when I finally proclaimed my multitudes and went public about it publishing The Whisper.
The world (and we are part of it) does undergo continual transformation, nothing lasts, everything changes. Dr. Carlo Rovelli, the theoretical physicist said "We understand the world in its becoming not in its being".
The power we have is falling in love with our becoming not in finding or chasing a static being. The danger is entering the world of illusion and ending up confining ourselves in small fragments. One of my greatest inspiration is the work of John O’ Donhoue. He wrote in Walking on the Pastures of Wonder: “So many people are frightened by the wonder of their own presence. They are dying to tie themselves into a system, a role, or to an image, or to a predetermined identity that other people have actually settled on for them.”
We profess freedom, independence liberation and actually we end up imprisoning ourselves in fragmented identities. Now wonder why we haven't succeeded in making organisations more inclusive.
Many of my clients tell me: “ I became the person I thought the world wanted me to be.” Does it sound familiar? Of course is not all a lie. However, reality is that we often cut off parts of our expression to fit the mould of what our companies, our society, our families, and even we ourselves think we should be. We think we need to look, act, be a certain way hoping we will belong. In seeking this sense of belonging, which is one of the fundamental human needs, we actually achieve something that is quite different. We get to "fit in" and conform…we lose touch with our complex multifaceted and ever evolving nature. By not living our multitudes and not questioning the “single fragmented identity” we confine ourselves to smaller and smaller compartments.
Values are the way we practice our identities and not simply nice words hanging on the wall of a corporate office.
The only way I know to rediscover, or discover for the first time something, is through inquiry. A question, and especially the simple questions, become a beacon guiding our discovery. I am inviting you to reflect (and maybe journal) about this question:
“How can I start including and valuing my own multitudes I have carved out in order to fit in?”
We are all custodians of our multitudes, to become an advocate of inclusion start advocating your own excluded multitudes. We are larger, more complex and more nuanced than what cultural conditioning, other people’s opinions and inaccurate conclusions made us believe.
My own journey on this ever evolving identity resulted in the creation of Freevolution; a year long celebration of freedom, love and r-evolution, that brings the value of poetry into your life and exploration of yourself and your world, providing the chance for insight and a personalised development.
May Freevolution hold your hands as you learn about yourself. May it help you find a new grammar of becoming.
If you want to learn more on how to re-discover your multitudes or if you are interested in inclusion work get in contact with us.