As we progress through our self-awareness journey, we sometimes tend to suppress or deny our unique personality traits when we are being "influenced" by external sources. Let me explain this with an example:
From childhood, I've always been a doer. I love setting up to-do lists, and schedules, trying out multiple ideas and keeping my mind engaged. While doing my 9th std, I took up Hindi classes in the morning hours, though my school syllabus didn't include Hindi as a subject. I completed Prathmic and Madhyama levels because a kind Hindi Pandit offered the classes for free.
I feel invigorated when I have a long list of things to do. It makes me feel energized when I'm dabbling with multiple projects (personal, home, and work-related).
A few years back, I started to suppress this nature of mine, due to information that came my way. I got misled into believing that I evolved into a doer because of conditioning and social expectations.
I started to make a few changes in my life but it didn't make me feel content. My true nature was saying, "this is not you!". My husband also pointed out the same, having known me for many years.
Slowing down and reassessing our priorities is good for our mental peace, but in the process, am I also denying my true nature?
When a personality trait is formed due to social conditioning, you'll realize at some point that it is no longer working for you. When you drop that nature, you end up feeling so relieved, that a huge burden has been lifted off your shoulders.
Since childhood, I was told that there is competition in school/college and I need to be in the top ranks to get ahead in life. I considered life as a race and colleagues and classmates as competitors until my late 20s.
In my 30s, when I decided not to participate in this race anymore, it made me feel so relaxed. The competitive nature slowly diminished, as it was NOT the real me. As I let go of this trait, it brought in a sense of peace.
Our personality and patterns - Is it ALWAYS influenced by social conditioning?
Or does our inherent nature play a role too in shaping our personality?
Let's introspect and understand for ourselves.
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