Mindfulness meditations show that the mind moves, just like the body.  Rodolfo Llinas, a neuroscientist and author of I of the Vortex: from Neurons to Self offers a framework that helps make sense of this movement (2002).  Llinas proposes that mind is a kind of glorified movement system that has evolved to assist a multicellular organism with motricity (evasive action).

The mind—for all intents and purposes—is the body, and thinking is action.

The gerundive word “being” says it all: life is motion; it’s always in process, always in formation.  Not coincidentally, the word “emotion,” for example, is related to the word “motion.”  Indeed, we experience emotions as some kind of inner motion: first, you feel one way; then, all of a sudden, you are moved in another affective direction. 

Self is a memory of what you were.  As such, self, with all its accomplishments and their implications, is a bygone.  Let bygones be bygones.

The informational self is a train of a wedding dress of a wedding that is already over.  You kissed the reality.  It kissed you back.  Now, forget this glorious highlight of an accomplishment.

Yes, you had your shining moment or two.  Maybe hundreds.  What now?  It’s time to plug back in to the reality that’s still awaiting your attention, time to cut the anchor of accomplishments.  Out of the long shadows of the past, it’s time to bask in the sun that still shines.

If you’re like most people, you will spend about a third of your adult life working for somebody.  Employment is most likely a huge part of your identity and a source of meaning in your life.  The loss of work identity that comes with being laid off, being fired, or even retiring can feel crushing.  A good way to defend against that is to begin to dis-identify from your work identity while you still have it.

Naturally, this is a private process.  I’m not calling on you to demonstratively burn your company’s name tag in front of the main building. I am inviting you to take your name tag off psychologically. 

The question of “What am I?” may lead to self-objectification or to self-liberation.  Which path would you take?  How would you answer it?  By saying something along the lines of “I am this” or “I am that” or “I am such and such”?  I hope not.

Understand the self-limiting meaning of the verb “to define:”

to define, according to OED, means: “to specify; to end,” from O.Fr. defenir “to end, terminate, determine,” and directly from L. definire “to limit, determine, explain,” from de- “completely” (see de-) + finire “to bound, limit,” from finis “boundary.

Recognize:

Eugen Herrigel, the author of a 1948 classic, Zen in the Art of Archery, offers a thought of dis-identification from the outcome of one’s performance:

“The archer ceases to be conscious of himself as the one who is engaged in hitting the bull’s-eye that confronts him.”

Indeed:

The Arrow is the Extension of your Arm.

The Arm is the Extension of your Body.

The Body is the Extension of your Mind.

Your Mind is the Extension of [the arrow of] your Consciousness.

Generally, however, recognize:

When you release the bowstring of your performance and when the arrow of your behavior hits or misses the target (objective/goal), you are still standing where you were standing, you are still you, regardless of the outcome.