+ Can you choose what shapes your personality?

Question

Because if not then freewill is just an effect of a cause not a choice.

You can't make a choice beyond your personality. Just accept man, freewill does not exist, but you still gotta responsibility for your actions.

Answer 1

Your personality is shaped by the choices you make and the choices you make are based upon your personality and experiences. You're trying to create a correllation that is not considered in context of these facts. To choose something that is outside of your personality is not the absence of free will, rather it is evidence of a mental illness.

Answer 2

You cannot choose what shapes your personality. One's personality is shaped by biological and environmental factors.

However, this does not mean that freewill doesn't exist. Just because you can't choose what shapes your personality doesn't mean that you can't choose how you act. You personality doesn't necessarily determine your actions.

Answer 3

You can choose how you react to things that happen to you.

I know many people who play the vicitm and blame their parents for their own shortcomings: "I'm short-tempered with my kids because my own parents never cared for me." You can choose to break free and change the effect events have on you: "I am extra affectionate with my chidren because my own parents never cared for me."

There are many more examples; plainly put you can choose to let bad things continue to be bad things or you can do all you can to change them in a positive way.

It takes a great deal of self-examination and brutal honesty to do that, but I believe it is within anyone's power.

Chicky the Optimist : )

Answer 4

By the time you are old enough to think about it, your basic personality is set. But you still choose how you respond to every situation. That’s such a copout to say you can’t choose. Yes you can!

Answer 5

I believe we can. I think the best way is through some sort of mysticism, like meditation or the use of symbolism. For example, in many forms of Buddhism, people meditate in order to face who they really are. In that very process, people are, ironically, changed. If you see something about yourself that you don't like and want to change, sometimes just seeing it is all you need.

Another way to go is through balancing out various aspects of your self. In many forms of Wicca, for example, there is the concept that each of the four elements (earth, air, fire and water) corresponds to a part of our personalities. Earth corresponds to the most mundane parts of ourselves (eating, drinking, sleeping, going to work, cleaning house, etc.), Air to our rational side, Water to our emotions and Fire to our goals in life and the things that make us truly passionate. By meditating on each of element in turn, holding those corresponances firmly in mind, the concept is that we can balance out those aspect of ourselves and make ourselves more well-rounded.

Some ancient Greeks believed in balancing the Apollonic with Dionysian. The Apollonic is our rational side that plans everything out to a fault. The Dionysian is our non-rational, intuitive side that is more impulsive. The theory is that we need both to be the best people we can be. By doing activities that emphasize each and then both together, the concept is that we can balance those within ourselves.

There are many other ways to transform ourselves. Qaballah (or Kabballah or however it's spelled) is a great system. The Qaballistic Tree of Life contains 10 spheres, which are different aspects of the soul (as well as different aspects of the Divine, according to the concept). These 10 spheres are all connected by paths. One can do Path Workings in which one meditates on each sphere and path, traversing the Tree in various ways to bring about various forms of internal change. For example, one can balance one's severity with one's mercy by doing a path working that joins Geburah (the sphere of severity) with Chesed (the sphere of mercy).

If you look, I'm sure you can find plenty of other ways to transform yourself. My advice is to play with lots of them until you find something that works and then concentrate on that for awhile. After that, you can start getting other forms of personal transformation under your belt and keep going. The important thing is to work hard at it. Whatever you do, work at it a little every day.

Answer 6

My friends and things that ive learned shapes mine!~

Answer 7

yes, because we are humans and we have the mind to choose what is right and what is wrong, unlike what you christian churches try to make us believe.
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