Lifestyle: Self-knowledge As A Path To A Full Life.
We all want to find meaning in our lives and make our mark on the world in some way. Sometimes this search for meaning can be overwhelming and make us feel empty and disconnected, or make us feel that our existence is meaningless.
Many of us struggle with the idea of who we really are and what we really want from our lives. The concept of "Success" our own drive to make our lives a satisfying expression of who we really are, makes the pressure to succeed immensely. We are inundated with messages that tell us we have to do this, we have to own that, or we have to look a certain way.
We are constantly told that we are not good enough or that we don't have what it takes. And the real problem is that we believe it. We start to believe these messages. We start to believe that we are not good enough to achieve our dreams.
And so, we spend so much of our time trying to achieve things, impress people, make a name for ourselves, compare our lives to others and wonder what we are missing out on. The truth is that we are all on a spiritual path of self-discovery and evolution. We are all on a journey to find our unique path in life, our unique purpose, and our meaning.
As far as we know, humans are the only animals that conceptualize themselves. In other words, we are the only species that sees itself as separate from the rest of the world. This special ability has given rise to many wonderful things, such as science, philosophy, and art.
It is this ability that makes self-knowledge of great importance. Socrates, the great Greek philosopher, considered knowing oneself as one of the pillars of wisdom, in fact, self-knowledge was one of the first steps of his "Socratic method". This philosophical path would allow, through reflection, to know ourselves, this being the first step to increasing our knowledge. And thus, by knowing ourselves, we would become aware of what we know, but also of what we do not know, in order to find the way to awaken consciousness and thus be able to evolve and liberate ourselves.
So, we know that self-knowledge is important, but what exactly is self-knowledge? Self-knowledge essentially means to be aware of oneself.
It means being aware of our strengths and weaknesses, our likes and dislikes, and our unique traits. Self-knowledge is the key to living a life in freedom because by being aware of the reality of your being, you abandon the idealization of yourself and this leads you to understand your personal limitations and strengths starting from reality and not from an idealization. With this knowledge, we can discover the areas in which we need to improve and heal.
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| Photo| Gabriella Clare Marino |
Self-knowledge is the awareness of our motivations, the ability to distinguish between what is ours and what is "the real us", and the courage to follow our authentic path in life. Creative expression, on the other hand, is the act of releasing what is within us through the release of our inhibitions and the inhibition of social pressures. If we want to live a life of purpose, meaning, and authenticity, we need to cultivate self-awareness and expression. The more we immerse ourselves in the superficial, the more we lose touch with our true selves. The more we repress our natural impulses, the more we lose our connection to our true desires, motivations, and talents. Expressing our creativity is the key to unlocking our true potential and living life on our own terms. Observation is also a tool to know ourselves in depth, stop for a moment and observe ourselves, analyze ourselves from any starting point, always our essence, our being, seeks the way to be present and this happens unconsciously, through our body language, our tastes, and through our body scent, our being communicates and everything we are is a perfectly coordinated and interrelated whole.
This is why self-knowledge and expression are the keys to a full life. It is never too late to start living life to the fullest.
Article Written By OTSM's Lifestyle Contributor- Julieta Isabella
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