Life is a simple as, looking into a mirror and like any mirror, Life will show you your identity, or rather what you identify yourself as. And in terms of manifesting things in your life, what you see is actually what you get. Our Behavior is based on our Emotion. Our Emotion is based off of our Perception. Our Perception is based on our Beliefs. We must first detail the terms that we will be using.

Beliefs.

This is where our knowledge and opinions that we have access to are. What makes a belief knowledge or opinion is based on if it’s true or not, but what gives a belief power is simply How Much we believe in it. The distinction between whether a belief is true or not does not matter in relation to behavior. Many of us believe in lies and delusions and act on those beliefs, daily, simply because we have the belief.

Perception.

This is how you see things, the way see things. Our perception is directly influenced by our beliefs. Whether you know something or not, if you believe someting, then it will shape how you see things around you. This is the lens you see the world through, the angle you have on concepts, dieas, and stimuli you encounter. What makes a closed minded or an open minded individual is developed here. How wide do you want your lens to be? How many ways are you willing to understand things.

Emotion.

This is how your perceptions make you feel. Two people can see a snake and have two different reactions. If on believes they have knowledge about snakes then they are likely to not be afraid of them. If you do not believe you have sufficient knowledge about snakes then you are more likely to be afraid of them because you don’t believe you can handle the situation. This is how belief affects perception and how perception affects emotion. Even in less stressful situations it works the same. Even in everyday conversations, the way you feel about the topic is based on your perception, or how you look at the topic at hand. This is your motivation to act, however significant or insignificant you find the action.

Behavior.

This is quite simply what you choose to do. The way you act. Your Karma. Whatever action, or even non-action you take is your behavior. How do you react to certain stimuli and pressures around you? This is not only how people will identify you but also how you will identify yourself. What you are and what you are being is very important when it comes to your identity. They ask you what do you want to be when you grow up, you ask yourself what you want to be as you plan out your goals in life. Hamlet on the verge of suicide asks “to be or not to be?”. These are all a call to behavior and what you want to be doing. When you look at yourself and see that you are being something you don’t want to be, you have an identity crisis, which can lead to extreme emotional shifts that can lead to depression, which can lean to non action or extreme action and drastic changes in one’s routine in an effort to be what you want to be.

Self Awareness.

When you look into a mirror, what you see is a reflection of yourself. Your physical body represents your beliefs, and your reflection is your perception. Now how you feel, the emotion you have, about yourself is based on what you see in your reflection because you can’t see your face otherwise, or to be technical, you won’t be able to get a good look at it without the reflection of it. How you feel about this image of yourself, your identity, will dictate whether you do anything about it, which is your behavior. If you like how you look, then you’ll keep that identity. If you don’t like how you look, you’ll start making changes. Maybe your face is dirty, maybe you don’t like your hair, maybe you don’t like your nose. This ability to see our identity brings self awareness and allows us to either feel good about who we are, or feel bad about who we are. Emotions that can drastically affect how you treat yourself.

Some of us have never looked in a mirror before and don’t know what our identity is. We do what everyone else does without being aware of ourselves. Simply mimicking the identity others have put forth. You notice people usually group with people that have similar beliefs that they do because they end up doing the same things. People they “identify” with. People even behave like others they want to identify with even if they dont’ have the same beliefs as them, which creates conflict with themselves.

So if someone comes by and criticizes your identity, will you change it? Are you happy with who you are and what you see in the mirror? If not, simply look in the mirror, and question what you believe in