Most people barely know who they are because they suppress the parts of themselves that weren't socially accepted in childhood. It all began with what people call "the serious side of life" at school—a centuries-old system of discipline and punishment that forces children to obey in lockstep and be judged by criteria they don't understand. When parents simply say, "That's just how life is; it gets worse when you grow up," we quickly unlearn how to listen to our own thoughts. Yet our thoughts are the root of all our feelings, dreams, and life choices.
