A Process of Self-Discovery
We spend our lives learning (the process of acquiring knowledge). This starts as soon as we are born. As we progress through life we acquire new learning “tools” (methods, techniques, strategies) from our parents, our teachers, our peers, our society, our culture, our jobs, our relationships, etc.

Most of our acquired knowledge is used to understand the external world: e.g. how to relate to and interact with others; what is acceptable behavior; how to live and function in our society; etc.

The process of Self-Discovery is using our learning “tools” to acquire knowledge of ourselves. Below are important areas of self-exploration. 
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Your Conditioning – You are born into this world with no experience and no learned behavior. Immediately, you were given a name. You had no choice in this name and this became your persona. As you grew up, you spoke the language your parents spoke. This is why your initial language is called your ‘mother’ tongue. You ate the food your parents fed you. You lived where they lived. You adopted their culture and world view. You had no choice in your initial conditioning. As you progressed, you started to school and started interacting with others. Now you had other inputs besides your family. You were influenced by others. You learned new ideas and behavior from your teachers, your peer group, your role models (heroes), your relationships, your jobs, etc. This has continued though out your life and this acquired knowledge is your conditioning.

Your Roles – As you progressed in your life, you started picking up roles. The first significant role was your name. But also as a child, you had many family roles – son or daughter, brother or sister, cousin, grandson or granddaughter, niece or nephew, etc. You learned how to behave and react in these roles: e.g. what worked and didn’t work; what you could do and not do, etc. As you progressed in life you took on more diverse roles and more complex roles – husband/wife, father/mother, titles, vocations, avocations, etc.

Your I’s – How many times have you been asked the question: who are you? or what do you do? or tell me about yourself?  You usually begin your answer with “I am _______”.  The blank is filled by one of your roles or characteristics depending on the situation. Each I is a relative identity -- a relative identity from your collection of I’s. You may have a favorite and this I becomes dominate -- I am _______

Your Body – At an early age, there was a realization of a difference between yourself (your body) and the External World. I am different from others and everything else in the World. Your input of and interactions with the External World (seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching) comes through your body. Therefore your body is the first and most easily identified I. But there are two other states besides the waking state: the dream state and the deep sleep state. When you go to sleep, your body is asleep -- you do not have access to the External World through your physical body. But, when you wake up, you remember that that you were dreaming and say, “I was dreaming” or you remember nothing and say, “I slept like a log”.

Thoughts -- Identifying yourself with your thoughts is very easy. You have a collection of thoughts and thought processes from the present and the past. But there is something (another I?) that knows when you are thinking. There is something that knows what you know (I know the Capitol of the US) and what you don’t know (I don’t know the Capitol of Mozambique). There is something that is an observer of your thoughts, thought processes and lack of thought.
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You are the only person who has complete access to yourself.  Self-Discovery is using that access to explore your conditioning, your roles, your I’s, your body and your thoughts. It is the process of self-inquiry, self-reflection, self-exploration and self-knowledge to discover your Self.   

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