Two Yous

George Gurdjieff said that if you observe carefully 'You will see that you are different from what you think you are. You will see that you are two. One that is not, but takes the place and plays the role of the other [the real you]... Learn to look until you have observed the difference between your two natures, until you have seen the lies, the deception in yourself. When you have seen your two natures, that day, in you, the truth will be born'.

Another way of looking at it is that there is the you that is telling you a story about yourself and then there is the real you. Difficulties arise because we get so caught up in our story about ourselves that we think that that is who we really are. And when someone says or does something - or something simply happens in life - that doesn't affirm the way we see ourselves, we are confused and, more often than not, we get annoyed.

So what is the story we tell ourselves? For example: Are we a rescuer? Are we a victim? Are we the most competent person in the room? Or are we the misunderstood person in the room? Are we the reliable one? Are we easygoing? Or do we deserve better?

Our story is not who we are. It is who we think we are. The realisation of this is the beginning of the journey.