By Jasmin Acosta,
Healthy Planet Staff Writer
Our existence is often defined by labels that indicate a role for us to fulfill that showcases our humanity such as being a friend, a grandma, a grandpa, a wife, a husband, a mother, a father, a daughter, a son, an uncle, or an aunt but then the issue becomes who are we when we are not in our assigned roles?
When we are not fulfilling one of the many roles that we have we at times feel lonely. Then we tend to lean towards people that we can dedicate ourselves to in order to fill that void, but the issue becomes that we begin to define our existence through another person by being able to fulfill the roles that we give ourselves.
Oftentimes, we tend to place other people above ourselves since we find value in how we serve others because it outlines a purpose for our existence. The roles that we are assigned to provide a sense of direction on how to find meaning within ourselves through being able to give an endless amount of support to a person, and due to this we find it difficult to find meaning within ourselves when we are not in one of our many roles.
Every relationship that we want to sustain should have the foundation of love and support, but the issue occurs when we place an emphasis on fulfilling our roles that it causes us to discard our individuality, which is why it is important to have a healthy amount of alone time to ensure that we hold onto our identity.
By spending time by ourselves it allows us to discover new parts about ourselves, as we are always evolving and changing. Through having time alone it allows us to reconnect with ourselves, and to be able to learn to live outside of being defined by our assigned roles.
Without a doubt the greatest gift that life can give to us individually is to have an identity that is unique to us, and to have the ability to define that identity in order to find meaning within ourselves, as being our authentic selves is what defines our humanity. Each of us has a role that we want to accomplish, but we should always strive to be our authentic selves in the process since our value lies within who we are individually.