If we base our sense of self on what others demand of us, and try to conform to that,Then we won’t know who we are, how we feel, what we think--and that’s never any good,But if you make mindful choices of who you see yourself as, then you won’t be a doormat,You’ll become the person you always wished you could be, but never thought you could.   [full text below] Ep. 421 - Happy Identity  We begin as always with the Happy Creed. We believe in Happy, in Balance and Growth, of being Mindful and Grateful,Compassionate and Understanding. YowzaHahaMy Happy Friends! Happy Identity means being true to yourself, knowing who you are and who you want to be.And then becoming that Happy version of you. I used to sign my name in cursive letters,I hated it, but what could I do? Well, anything. So, I stopped. And it instantly felt more like me,And nobody cared, and here I thought I’d face the same backlash that meets all trendsetters. So, then I started to look at all the other things I did just because I thought I had to--I stopped eating foods I never really cared for, and cut out friends I could never please,I even changed the way I coughed--you didn’t know you had control over that, but you do,I used to cough in sharp, violent bursts, and then I switched it to a painless wheeze. It might sound weird, but I also stopped caring so much about what other people thought,They didn’t have to live my life, that was mine and mine alone, and I just had to do my best,I could read what I liked, and watch what I liked, and think what I liked, believe it or not,I could sleep on my side, I could sneeze loud or soft, I could pick up and move West. And so I did. I moved thousands of miles away from anyone I knew to find my tribe,Artists and filmmakers and free thinkers and rebels and people looking for connection,And I found them--buried amongst monsters too strange to convincingly describe,But we all have the potential to become monstrous if we don’t fight the identity infection. If we base our sense of self on what others demand of us, and try to conform to that,Then we won’t know who we are, how we feel, what we think--and that’s never any good,But if you make mindful choices of who you see yourself as, then you won’t be a doormat,You’ll become the person you always wished you could be, but never thought you could. HahaYowza