Who am I? Asmita and the stories about ourselves

Along our lives we create successive narratives about ourselves, which try to explain who we are, and fill with meaning the ways we behave. As the years go by, we start to realise that all those clusters have gone one after the other; all the tags we used to define with, sooner or later became old, insufficient and porous. A short blanket that leaves our feet out in winter.

So, from here, we can state that we weren’t any of the things we thought: and even, that we are neither what we are right now (!). Our life will keep on changing and evolving, as it already did before.

From a yogic point of view, we can say that we are not any of those changing states, but the consciousness that perceives the changes. Standing on a social analysis, we could affirm that identities are much more complex and intertwined than a single category: what feminisms have called intersectionality to explain the intricacy of gender, ethnicity, age, social class. According to queer theories about identity, we could say that it is never fixed but constantly changing, becoming something else.

Asmita: False narratives about yourself

The yogic name for this narrative is Asmita, and it is creating a story about who we think we are, that takes the place of self-knowledge. Asmita is one of the obstructions (or kleshas, which are five) that cover consciousness and cause suffering. These are definitions from the Yoga Sutras, main text of yoga as a traditional Hindu thought school, compiled by the sage Patanjali at around III AC.

The clinging to that false narrative keeps us doing the same things, in old behaviour patterns, and might be part of why we can’t move forward when something we expected doesn’t happen. The gap between who we think we are and reality can be painful and frustrating. Yoga is the tool we have to be able to look inward and see the transitoriness of those temporarily assumed identities, as Eddie Stern says in his book One simple thing.

Asmita could be, as well, a non-Western way to help explain nationalisms, xenophobia, racial hatred, aggression against trans and non-binary people, and any other violence which justifies itself from perceiving the different as a threat, something that endangers that fake self-narrative.

We are made up of stories

So… Is it wrong to create stories about who we are?

No, not at all. It is human.

Stories have been there bonding people together since the first bonfire and they keep on multiplying on social media, blogs, news sites and on-demand platforms.

Just make sure that the story you tell to yourself is healthy, one made up with the things you enjoy and find meaning in. One flexible enough to adapt to life changes and where you do not suffocate.

Even something based on freedom like being a vegan or a yogi, can be rigid if you stake it. Go ahead and move with the wind.