What is your identity based on?

Question

Katiana: lol...w/o making it philosophical, I'll just mention a few that my identity is based on:
having been a minority all my life, being a woman, my parents & upbringing, social status, sprititual convictions, physical appearance, the internal strength I rely on and more...

I forgot past achievements.

Thank you ms. sophi. I enjoy you sharing your thoughts and experiences as well, you always have some of the greatest answers sans judgement & prejudice.

Layla: I think you can be very rude and defensive and I don't agree with most of your answers, but I also believe you to have a lot of strength--it's not easy to be on a forum where you feel that the majority is jugding you but you still articulate your thoughts and opinions. And I'm sorry about your past and family--I know it takes a lot to rise above it all.

Answer 1

my mixed race background
having grown up in poverty
being female
going to university

Answer 2

Let me take the time to tell you that it has been a great pleasure sharing my thoughts with you. You are one bright and thoughtful lady. So, whatever it was that made you that way, was used well.
Now, I would like to think, that my identity is based on my many roles in life: daughter, wife, mother, friend, employer and a woman. It also based on my past and present victories and failures: struggles... I am used to a role of an underdog: it keeps me on my toes, and I like it that way. My family, spirituality, knowledge of other cultures and traditions and a need to share it... There is also a need to make this world a better / safer place for all the children ...

Answer 3

These have in some ways shaped my identity:

- Upbringing
- Cultures
- Experiences (both unhappy and happy ones)
- Society
- My own choices to think, be and do...a certain way or the other.
- Spirituality (not to be confused with religion or gods) - the things I don't fully understand, and haven't tapped into completely nor profoundly, yet my intuition and some experiences hint to me that it is there, as a part of me, or rather that I am a part of the whole of it.

And I don't mean to make you laugh again (well ok, maybe I do)...but seriously, what about you? :-)

Answer 4

I'm not really sure, so let me say safely that it is based upon my inner strength. It most certainly is not based upon relegion, though I follow the relegion of Islam. This I know because before I became a Muslim I was hauled into psychiatric evaluations so many times it would make your head spin. In addition to being ripped and torn apart more than once, yet I'm still the same. Above all I'm not afraid to follow my own path no matter what others say; meaning it has nothing to do with acceptance, the way I look at it they accept me they do, they don't they don't.
Perhaps it has something to do with what is, is meant to be. No one in my birth family, and my family as a whole is like me; in fact, we are as different as day and night.
My advice is to never make excuses for me; for you will fail. I am not the same nor was I ever meant to be like other women; I follow my own path. As for my family it's their loss not mine.
Let me add here that others too have judged me and all they managed to do was to make gits out of themselves.
Edit Lioness: That's because at those times I am being rude and defensive. I can't cover up for it and besides that I won't.
When I'm nice I'm nice when I'm cruel I'm cruel.
As for my family that's their loss not mine.

Answer 5

The past does not exist
you cannot point to yourself typing and posting this question
that event only exists in your mind
and if you dwell on a past your focus is diverted from the present

However if in the present you walk through your day and always pay attention to what you enjoy and constantly be aware of how things could be even more blessed
your identity is that you are someone in a relationship with the flow of Nature
so one becomes a child of Nature
my personal view of my identity is that I am a catalyst
things seem to happen in my presence or because of my presence
I enjoy the miraculous and extraordinary
and consider that I am always awakening to more and more "I"

Answer 6

I think a person's identity is or should be based on the things that can never be taken away from them. That would include their education, intelligence, interests, sense of humor, how they interact with the world. Jobs, money, cars, houses, clothes, etc can all be lost - but we can still have a unique identity.

Answer 7

I guess there are two types of identity: how you see yourself, and how others see you. Sometimes these are in agreement with each other, and sometimes they are not. What is more important to me, I think, is how I see myself...what I believe in, what my purpose is, what my goals and dreams are. I care what others think of me, but only to a certain extent. I strive to be the kind of person that projects outwardly the same person I am on the inside.

I know this has little to do with the question, but I am a Pisces (sensitive, emotional, deep-thinking, sincere, humble, humanitarian, idealistic), yet my moon and rising sign are in Leo (these Leo traits are what people actually see on the outside instead)- I'm outspoken, fiery, headstrong, and sometimes it comes across as arrogance...though this is not who I am on the inside...the inner and outer identities conflict and at times clash. Whether you believe in astrology or not is really beside the point, but it's this principle that can hold true for anyone's personality traits: there are traits that are less visible to outsiders (yet may be the very core of how you identify yourself), and there are traits that are very visible, and can be easily misunderstood or, be the only traits that others seem to notice (unless they know you very well.)

Answer 8

The sense of self and my role in the world as imparted by my family. I listened carefully to what the church told me I should do, because I always knew I would not live that way. I read everything I could, and cobbled a place in life based on what I thought would work.

Answer 9

My identity is based on my abilities to give stuff to others and to this world in general.

Though I might see to have a number of identities on the basis of my beliefs or color or race or relegion or caste or profession or sexual orientation, I have found that none of this matters in real life. If I were to be presented before marsians I want to be given an identity based on my abilities to give stuff
(NOT necessarily based on what I have already given )

Answer 10

I was raised by a single alcoholic schizophrenic mother who horribly abused me and my 2 sisters back in the 60's and 70's. We all grew up strong and successful in spite of tremendous odds. I would say my identity is strength and resiliency