November 29, 2012
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XANGA CHALLENGE: LABELS
Below are some questions that I ask myself sometimes just to take stock of myself, and my life. For those of you who wish to take up this challenge, answer the following questions in great depth, and with brutal honesty. I plan on this becoming a series, with new questions and themes each time I issue the challenge. I hope for good participation, so if you happen to like the idea of this challenge, even if you do not wish to participate yourself, promote it however you see fit. I would be interested in reading peoples responses to these questions, so if you do decide to take up the challenge, please let me know when you post your response. I have a new post indicating a good example ---> HERE <----
XANGA CHALLENGE: LABELS
What labels do I attach to myself?
How and why, do I identify with each of these labels?
How do I allow these labels to affect my behavior?
Examine each of these behaviors, and determine what benefit it brings into your life, and how it negatively impacts your life, and list them.
Comments (15)
As I am taking a break from blogging, I wont be sharing my answers, but I am definitely thinking about your questions.
artist, spiritualist, nonconformist, weird, traveller, foreigner, girl
it's easy to identify with them, they just are.
they affect my behavior by allowing me free range to do what i will in the name of art, love, sacredness, strangeness and eccentricity. they give me freedom to be what i am...or do they.
the positive behavior is listed above:
the negative behavior...I will think more on. i'd say leaving.
I very much like this idea.
Your post says "LABLES" twice, in caps. It's misspelled. It's spelled correctly the other times the word is mentioned on your post. Weird.
I like the post, though. I just found it rather curious that you'd misspell a word only when writing it in caps.
@In_Reason_I_Trust - That happens frequently, I don't know why I didn't catch it this time. *Smiles* It is fixed though, thank you.
@silveranstavern - It's that evil CAPS LOCK key, right? It's EEH-VEHL I SAY!!! LOL!
Labels, huh? I think I'm weird (everybody tells me so), empathetic, loving, kind & generous. I am weird, I know I am, but I don't consider that a bad thing. I take it as a compliment. I am compelled to help others & I would do anything for my friends. My friends are my family & I love them all to pieces. I love it when everyone works together & help each other. I am very attracted to broken people, I want to help them all. I love to love people even if they don't love me back. I guess I should add that I'm broken myself & maybe that's why I have to help others. I think it's great that you drained your bank account to help someone get their child. It sounds like something I would do. I'm very attracted to addicted people & do everything in my power to understand them & help them realize they are so much more than just their addiction. I try to encourage them to change or to at least talk about their problems. Addiction is an illness not a choice. Maybe it was a choice in the beginning, but once you are an adict you no longer have a choice. I try to let them know they are not alone in this & that they still have a value even if they no longer value themselves. And I love the 2 in my life now more than words can say & I hope they can kick their demons, but i let them know I love them no matter what because they need to be loved so badly.
How does all of this affect my life? Dealing with addictions has turned my life upside down and caused me many a sleepless night. It has also made me so much stronger because somebody has to be. It has brought me such unexpected joy because I know they both love me just because I care even though they feel like shit about themselves.
This affects my behavior by making me think more about other people's problems than my own. Sometimes this can be a bad thing. It's also made me work out more (I took out my anxiety on the treadclimber), loose weight (couldn't eat) & made me realize how relatively unimportant everything I had been worrying about really was: people are what's really important in life. They are what deserves your time, your energy & your life, not things. OK, I think I've gone on long enough for now! Ü
Atheist, Schizophrenic, Artist,
I used to write a load of atheist material, I grew up being an atheist my whole life and am interested in promoting it with art. I've had five bouts of psychosis which lasted months but have since learned to take the damn meds like most schizophrenics do. I am interested in a few different types of art music, painting and writing, so identify with being an artist because I pursue these things ie I write songs on guitar, I paint and draw, I write.
Atheist and Schizophrenic I am pretty much in the closet about most of the time. I just say nothing. And I hardly say I'm an artist because I figure that to mean I make my income off art, which I don't. Inside my head I'm proud to be an atheist and someone who strives to do well at art. I'd rather not be a schizophrenic though. I attach that label to myself lest I stop the medication and think I'm fine (and then become very unfine). But behavior? I don't know how labels affect my behavior really.
Negative - schizophrenic and atheist. I put these labels on myself and don't much like other peoples reaction to it. It's like calling myself a godless crazy person. Positive - artist - keeping the dream alive keeps me alive. It gives my life meaning and makes it interesting. All the troubles I have go away when I do art.
@ohellino - @shadow320 - Thank you both for participating. *Smiles*
As my participation in this challenge is... somewhat lengthy (are you too surprised, sil?), I've posted it on my own site instead of clogging up this comments section for miles. Anyone who wishes to view it, comment upon it, publish me and make me rich, print it out and rip it to shreds and stomp on the resulting confetti, be my guest. I'm new to Xanga and am so far enjoying my stay.
@Lovelydruid - I already posted a new weblog entry, indicating that thus far, you are the only person, aside from myself who is still working on it, who has taken the challenge fully in the spirit intended. *Smiles* Thank you.
I really don't believe in labels. It boxes a person in and we change all too much to put a label on ourselves.
@BookographyReviews - I resonate highly with the your comment, but the point of the exercise isn't to define our self with labels and then rigidly adhere to them. It is being used in this instance as a introspective tool, to assess our view of ourselves. I lead a very label free life, but even I can see the value in introspection.
Introspection is one thing, but you say label and a label is a label no matter how you twist it. I can look inward and see where I am at in my life and how I see myself in this moment but I'd never look inward and ask myself "what is my label today?" I am what I am without a label and I don't need introspection to label myself for that would limit myself and hem me in.
@silveranstavern - Hrm... Yes, well I did have an advantage, considering those memorable discussions we've had regarding labels and their pitfalls and uses. Labels are very much on my mind right now, as my dear friend's daughter, who used to be labeled a son, just last week had her name legally changed in court, from Michael to Michaela. So even labeling myself female had to incorporate my realization that who I am on the outside has to agree with how I feel on the inside, or it isn't a fitting assumption. I do, in fact, feel like a girl, inside and out. *wink* But I recognize that isn't always the case for everyone, and I admire Michaela for her bravery, for her thinking outside the label put on her from birth.
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