The difficulty of knowing yourself

To live free it is necessary to know yourself, and I’m not referring to first and last names, what I like to have for breakfast or what I want or don’t want to do. Rather, I am referring to those parts that we find so difficult to look at and that hurt us so much when others dare to point them out to us.

What is it that hurts us so much? What do we resist? To envy, pride or cowardice. These are qualities that every human being possesses, that some deny and that many others reject.

However, turning away from what is part of us will not prevent it from continuing to be there. Knowing yourself is not easy, but it is not impossible either.

Know yourself (Nosce te ipsum, just as it said in the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi) and you will know the entire Universe and the gods. You will know your lights and your shadows.

However, knowing oneself is the basis for developing all the human potential that we carry within our being. We are all different, however, we all have the ability to give the world something that others cannot. Know yourself and you will discover what it is.

Seeking the approval of others

The difficult thing about knowing yourself is finding yourself, therefore, with those parts that we reject.. What to do with them? Let’s think, for example, about those feelings of anger that sometimes invade us. It is important to observe that feeling and the situation that caused it. Now is the time to make a decision, do we let that emotion out or do we repress it?

The usual thing is to repress the emotion, accumulating it and causing it to one day come out without any control at the least opportune moment. We make this decision based on what others will think if they see us in that state of fury in which, most likely, we will find ourselves hearing phrases like: “calm down”, “it’s not a big deal” or “you “You have gone crazy.”

We can’t stand the thought that others might reject us., blame ourselves and bring out our fears and shame. Thinking about how others will act if we express how we feel makes us not want to realize that this is part of ourselves.

To know yourself, the important thing is to ask yourself: Could I love myself despite allowing myself to feel and express negative emotions or would I perhaps be filled with guilt, shame and fear? The answer will be very important because it will give us the keys to know how conditioned we are by others and how many things we allow ourselves to feel and express or not.

You might be interested…

The freedom that comes with knowing yourself

On the path of knowing yourself, It is important to be aware of how and why we react to various stimuli. To do this, when anger surfaces and settles in our body, for example, it will be necessary to observe, without judging and without entering into confrontation with this sensation.

This way we will realize the thoughts that arise in our mind and how we behave. Surely, then, we feel urged to blame others for our behavior. However, this does not interest us, because what we want is to know ourselves, discover ourselves.

We do not wish to interpret the acts, but rather to explore ourselves. In this way, we will realize the number of times in which that sensation is repeated and under what circumstances it does so. We may feel very responsible, very resentful, or even helpless. What does our internal dialogue tell us?

The deeper we are able to dig, the more lucidity and answers we will obtain.. In this state of exploration, of knowing ourselves, we can discover how ingrained our behaviors and habits are.

Often, we have learned to react like this since childhood where as children we did not have enough skills to fulfill our desires and we needed others to do it for us.

Once we understand our way of reacting, as well as the fear and basic desire that is always behind that anger, it is easier to get out of that trap. Today we are no longer children, we can take control of our livesmeeting our needs ourselves, without waiting for others to do so.

Knowledge and freedom

In summary, Knowing yourself is essential in order to conquer our freedom.while we understand the meaning of our emotions, listening to them deeply, replacing our usual automatic reactions with conscious decisions, inspired by the intimate knowledge of what is really happening to us.

To live free we need to know who we are , follow the path advised by our own essence. Knowing yourself is essential to start being happy today.

You might be interested…