Sublime

I gently reminded Laurie that when we're affected by someone's behavior it's a projection of our disowned qualities.

They might learn how they measure up to their peers in terms of retirement readiness, what kind of leaders they are, or what neighborhood in Austin best matches their personality.

The narrower and rarer the identity you choose for yourself, the more everything will seem to threaten you. For that reason, define yourself in the simplest and most ordinary ways possible. This often means giving up some grandiose ideas about yourself: that you’re uniquely intelligent, or spectacularly talented, or intimidatingly attractive, or es

“Emotion-thought is the root of delusion, a stubborn attachment to a one-sided point of view, formed by our own conditioned perceptions.”

The biggest factor that contributes to a vulnerable identity is “all-or-nothing” thinking: I’m either competent or incompetent, good or evil, worthy of love or not.

identity; it’s how we hold ourselves in the world. We seek to get our identities reinforced. At the same time, our identities eventually become limiting,

we each have identities we claim. We look to others to grant those identities. When we don’t get that affirmation, we feel threatened, which is stressful, and we do things we would not normally do. Under self-threat, we become less of the good people we mean to be.

Identity greatly influences our behavior. People tend to align their actions with how they see themselves.