In unity, everything you once thought was “out there” is seen to be part of yourself. What prevents this experience is a false sense of self built from images of past experience. To get rid of this baggage and re-experience yourself as a free, uncluttered person, you have to work at stripping away the crusted varnish of self-image.

Your action plan can take many different directions in accomplishing this goal. You can take up a new activity that is totally incongruous with your self-image.

Take up aerobic dancing if you are a gray-flanneled business executive. Expose yourself to people and situations that challenge you to grow beyond old habits. Write your autobiography. Putting down every detail of your life as candidly and honestly as possible will help you detach from ingrained attitudes by showing you where they came from.

Resolve to take one step every day to correct some behavior that you know isn’t an expression of the real you. For example, you may be an habitual people-pleaser. The next time you find yourself falling into that trap, say what you really feel. On the other hand, if you are always outspoken and tend to feel that others should listen to you, stop yourself and listen to them for a change.

These simple exercises can actually be quite challenging; you need to learn to lower your social facade, and the more you practice, the less critical you will see it is to wear the mask.

Adapted from The Essential Ageless Body, Timeless Mind by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2007).