The moment you are born, you are empty and clean. Without preferences, opinions, judgments, and even without any thoughts. But as you grow as a baby, you learn things; you notice when you cry, you get food or something to drink, and your diaper gets changed. This is how the first conditionings are formed. And how your parents treat you, how they feel, and the energy they bring with them and radiate will gradually shape you as a person. As a baby, you are so open to influences and energy from your environment, especially from your parents. You copy certain facial expressions and learn certain skills. As you get older you develop preferences, opinions, etc. As a child, you join a sport that you like, or rather, think you like. After all, how many of us, as children, take up a sport that one of our parents also likes or does, or perhaps because a friend does it? You form opinions about other children based on the norms and values you have adopted from your parents, or opinions from other peers. And so, as you get older, there are all kinds of external influences that shape and condition you as a person. And the "choices" you make stem less and less from who you were at birth, and more and more from your formed new self (ego). That ego, with which you identify more and more, consequently becomes stronger and claims a right to exist within you. And it will do whatever it takes to continue existing. For more and more people, depending on how strongly that ego has been shaped over the years, a feeling or little voice will emerge from deep inside. This indicates that something is wrong not only with that formed little self, but also with the people around you and the world. You come into increasing conflict with everything, and more and more resistance arises. These are often the first signals for people to start delving into topics of personal development and/or spirituality. Hopefully, along this path, you will encounter one of the most important philosophical questions: ‘who am I?’ or ‘what am I?’. A good way to gain more insight into this is primarily to ask the opposing question: ‘who or what am I not?’. Try doing this, peeling of layer by layer, examining, analyzing, and being critical to see what remains at the end of the line and who and what you really are…