Identification

Identification is being lost in what we are doing. We are washing dishes and we no longer exist – we become the activity we are engaged in or our minds and emotions wander away in daydreams.

We are on the computer or our phone and we are completely oblivious to anything else around. We watch TV and only the program exists.

Identification is also with our emotional and physical states. I am not my emotions – someone is feeling depressed and they are depressed. My body is tired and I become tired. The body is not I. Or one is feeling bored and there is identification with oneself or there is over-enthusiasm and we become that, and so on.

Work with seeing the extent of Identification in our lives and observing it – attempt to separate even a bit from the state by coming into our presence; Become aware of being lost in our outward activity or emotional/physical state; Connect to our inner selves through sensation and being collected to create some presence that is separate from the activity or the emotion that we feel.

Jerry Toporovsky