The Self You Were Before the World Got to You

“I searched for myself and found only God. I searched for God and found only myself.”

There is a version of you that existed before the world began to shape you. Before the criticism, the comparison, the conditioning. Before you learned what you were supposed to want, who you were supposed to be, what was acceptable and what was not.

That early self was not perfect. But it was genuine. It had preferences that were truly its own. It had curiosity that had not yet been disciplined. It had a way of being in the world that was not yet edited for others' comfort.

You cannot return to that self. Too much has happened. But you can ask: what did I love before I was told what to love? What came naturally before I was taught to perform? What felt true before I learned to doubt myself?

The answers are still in there.

Related Reflections

Themes that often travel alongside identity.