Comfort of being yourself


When you look at the animal kingdom, most of the times they try to use best of what they are. But as humans we are blessed with the notion of synthetic extensions. We tend to cover our natural selves to put up an identity that we desire to be...Be it at physical level by using perfumes, fancy clothes or even makeup or grooming. Or even at a psychological level many times we are not even true to our selves, or even in presence of certain audience or environments. 

The question then is not about is it good or bad to have this facade over our existing selves, but its about our discomfort with our natural self.

Why are we humans not comfortable being ourself always?

Some may argue that the mask we put up on ourselves is just an extension as against a facade. But then even there whats . wrong with the plain jane us? Is it too boring or is it the drive to prove our identity distinct from other humans? Or perhaps human capability lies in projection of identities in different situations? Or even maybe there is no real self ...we are just empty buckets...
Or Maybe we dont really know who we really are....and hence are scared of that real us.

What is interesting is how design as a field propogates living on human needs, tends to help extenuate this gap between our selves and what we pose to be. 

Reminds me of the sufi poetry by bulleh shah...."Bullah ki jaana main kaun" literally meaning.I know not who i am...

Anyways just a morning thought to ponder upon...untill next time...ciao.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Criticizers == Designers????

As designers many of us start having a savvy attitude of criticism. I know this is a sensitive topic, and I do not wish to find where and how we get it. But somewhere down the mindset we do feel that everything that we ever see be it a product or a service we tend to want to criticize the existing. Of course it’s a part of our job to find mistakes or to find the problems to solve them. However I think that many of us incline ourselves to the first part (find problems) more and second part( solve them) less. Of whatever design knowledge and experience I have till now I think that what needs to be seen is the latter part of solving problems in environments. An intellectual brain will argue with me that to solve problem we need to identify them. This is also what I would agree that it is not an easy task to identify a problem too considering that problems that are seen may or may not be the real problems. Those who understand systems theory know that the core problems can be anywhere in t
Read more

Fear of being "Not Good"

Image
Human beings grow up in social spaces where the value of " goodness" is extremely hyper rated. This not only leads to humans wanting to conform to the good values around them, but also creates a massive fear of not being good. Ever since childhood we are subjugated to this process of discerning between what is good and what is bad. We are shown role models of ideal behavior and told to follow the paths of the ones that showcase overall good values. Apart from the positive values that this brings us to fit into the social structure of humankind. What really concerns me is the negative effects it brings in. Just to be fitting into a set structure and form of "goodness" we avoid questioning any thoughts beyond it. We also fail to recognize that the very "Goodness" that the world preaches us is relative in nature and changes from place to place and time to time. It then becomes a deep imperative to follow the good spirit just to avoid any ire or repulsio
Read more

On Acheivement and happiness

Image
Happiness is a critical emotion to human lives. It not only motivates the drive to stay alive but also brings in a healthy journey through its pains. But what triggers happiness is as important as the pleasure of enjoying it. Also what matters is when does a being realize he or she is happy? One such state that surely seems to be driving happiness is the feeling of achievement. In most of the cases whenever people achieve something in their lives or atleast they feel they have acheived something they feel happy.There is a sense of victory mixed with a deeper sense of self worth proving the need of existential self over others. Although a very motivational and powerful thing...sense of achievement like many other human feelings is a relative sense. If we were to ask ourselves when does one achieve something? and then...when does someone feel happy about the achievement? Most common achievement realizations can be around social acceptance the process of positive acceptance by th
Read more