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If you were to sit back for a moment and think about who you are and what parts make up you, how many would you come up with?

If you were to remember the last time you found yourself at a stalemate regarding a decision, or a time where you had too many choices, did you consider your parts were involved?

There are many parts that make up you.

There's the Musical You, the Friendly You, the Amazing You, the Genius You, the Calm You, the Peaceful You, and many more parts that make up who you are ' much like an identity check list:

• All round good guy/gal part ' check
• Uniquely amazing you part ' check
• Witty and intelligent part ' check
• Lovable and charming part ' check
• Moody and indecisive part ' who me??? Never?
• Selfish and greedy part ' not me! Never?
• Self opinionated ' Nope, not me! Never?

We all have wonderful attributes; we also have parts not so wonderful which we'd rather keep hidden but really, it's okay to acknowledge we have both. There's a part of me that's greedy. I can be greedy and thirsty for knowledge. On the flip side I will give away this knowledge to others. In a nutshell, there's a part of me that really wants it and another part that gives it away.

Sometimes we have infighting between parts because one wants to do one thing and the other part wants to do the opposite, much like a tug of war. An example is when you hear yourself or someone else say 'A part of me would really love to move on but then again a part of me would rather I stay' or 'There's a part of me that loves what money can bring but there's another part that says it's not important'.

Eventually we can become indecisive, apathetic, confused or frustrated, to name a few. If a win/win negotiation becomes lose/lose our parts will slowly begin to separate from our true self.

Imagine for a moment a plump juicy, untouched mandarin. With the mandarin's segments still deliciously intact and protected by its shiny, orange outer skin, it's whole. Now imagine that these segments are the mandarin's parts or aspects if you like. Once peeled and a segment is broken off it then becomes separate from its original form. Very much like our parts when they separate. The difference is we can reclaim ours - the mandarin simply gets eaten.

Something Fun to Do

If you've haven't given much thought to how many sides of you there are, maybe you'd like to try the following exercise. You can do this as a group or as something private and only for you.

Here's what you do:

• Pencil in approximately one hour of 'Me Time' in your diary for the weekend, a day off, or after working hours and find yourself an area where you'll be undisturbed.
• Get some A4 coloured sheets of paper, coloured pencils/textas/crayons, scissors, glue, and a large sheet of white card paper, and anything else you might like to include.
• Get into the Zone by spending some time in quiet contemplation before you start.
• When you're ready - write on your coloured sheets of paper the parts of you that you discover.

Some examples might be:

• Busy Me! Genius Me! Loud Me! Considerate Me! Hormonal Me! Selfish Me! Masculine/Feminine Me! Creative Me! The Sex Goddess/God Me! Wicked Me!
• Cut out all the different parts and glue to your large card paper ' you might like to add stories to it, favourite quotations and anything you believe is relevant to you.
• When you've completed this exercise, step back and notice how truly unique you are.