We are not born with an instruction manual, yet we constantly have to make decisions in life. In every interaction, we basically have to put ourselves in society. People can step over our boundaries, and we might end up in life circumstances that definitely do not suit us. The first question that we need to ask is “know myself” because it plays an essential role in living an authentic life with your own choices and great satisfaction.
Here is an example of what could go wrong when we don’t know ourselves. Elijah (a fictional character) ends up in a difficult situation because of a lack of self-knowledge.
From childhood, I had a very chaotic mindset. I wasn’t sure what I wanted in life. I chose mathematics because, in high school, I was fond of my mathematics teacher. But when I graduated, I didn’t trust myself to apply to be a high school teacher. Then there was a masters’ education about linguistics at a university in my hometown. Then I assigned for it easily because there was not a competition in that department. When I graduated, I did not know what to do. I don’t think I know myself.
I think this was not the direction that I wanted to go in my career, that resulted in a lack of satisfaction and fulfillment. Furthermore, I now found a job in a supermarket and doing something completely unrelated to my education.
As you can see from Elijah’s description, he didn’t know what he wanted or had low self-confidence to make choices that were convenient for himself. Thus, he did not feel fulfillment in the end.
When do I know myself?
As you navigate through life and gain experience, you will have additional information about what you like, what you don’t like, what you want to work on, what you don’t want to work on, who you like to spend time with, and your boundaries. The earlier you start thinking about this, the more fulfillment that you would get from life. Understanding your strengths, weaknesses and motivations would help you explore yourself. After this insight, you would make choices that would suit you the most and ultimately get more fulfillment out of life.
A new step toward getting to know myself
Awareness is the key to enlightenment. You need to train yourself to look objectively and do it consistently every day. Journaling is a powerful way to do this. Journaling is an effective way to gain awareness of your thoughts. There are no rules when you journal. You can express yourself creatively and write down your positive moments, your goals, and your progress. Each time, you get the chance to reflect on yourself and gain more consciousness over your thought patterns. The more you write down and reflect, the more you get the chance to understand your decision-making process. Then you would be a step closer to self-knowledge (know myself).
Journaling can help you with
- Manage anxiety
- Help you to gain healthy coping strategies
- Monitor your thoughts and actions
- Relax and meditate
- Helps with emotional regulation
- Clarify thoughts and feelings
A guide to get to know yourself
Getting to Know Yourself Workbook is designed to help you discover yourself and guide you toward wholeness. The book provides you the essential information and knowledge to help you discover your identity, your focus, and tools to foster long-term happiness. You will reach harmony by the end of the journey. Click on the link to learn more about the workbook.
Your journey toward self-discovery
There could be many methods to start your inner journey. The ideal is to start from a high-level. Here are some prompts to brainstorm your situation.
- Am I happy with my current life?
- What are my passions in life?
- If there were three things that I would change in life, what would they be?
For example;
- I can sometimes be stubborn, I would like to work on it.
- I want to be more social.
- I would like to be more organized.
Then you can set goals and take actions toward achieving your goals.
The power of meditation
Meditation has many benefits to reach to a mindset with peace and harmony. It is more than just sitting for some time and doing nothing. When you meditate, you train your brain to get focus. The other benefits of meditation is that it helps you to adapt to an objective point of view to life. There you gain the habit of viewing the situation as an outsider without judgement. It would help to gain the skill of awareness. Then it would lead to knowing more about yourself.
As you learn to monitor your thoughts, the more you will gain a distance from it. There you will learn to distinguish yourself from the emotions and thoughts. The more you adopt a high-level perception, the more you will gain the skill of awareness to learn yourself better. Click to read more about meditation.
Learn your traits
What qualities do we possess, and what qualities do we not possess? Make a list and work on it. The more you search for yourself, the more it will help you get to know yourself better. People’s traits reflect on their pattern of thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
Here is a list of positive and negative traits that you could use to discover yourself. You can also ask them about people you know well to discover more about yourself. For instance, you can construct sentences like “What I know about myself is that I am an inventive person.”
Discovering yourself can be a lifelong journey
Learning never stops, and our inner journeys can last lifelong. As we proceed through time, the circumstances might change, and therefore we might need to reinvent ourselves to adapt to new circumstances. In any case, the beginning point is ourselves. That is the core of everything. The more we acknowledge ourselves, the better choices we can make that suit us. This would bring more fulfillment, happiness and comfort.
