Know Thyself: A Short Essay on The Importance of Knowing
Stop for a moment.
Take a deep breath in, now breathe out slowly.
Pause.
Take a deep breath in, now breathe out slowly.
Pause.
Be mindful of your surroundings and begin to look around the room that you are in. Do you notice anything that you haven’t noticed before? Focus your mind on the noises that are ambient in your environment. Are there any sounds that draw your attention?
Now repeat.
Take a deep breath in, now breathe out.
Pause.
Begin to look inward, feel your heartbeat throughout your body. Feel your breath as it rises from the bottom of your stomach, makes its way up through your chest, and the warm air leaves your lips. Be mindful. Be present. Be you.
Take a moment to find yourself. Take a moment to get to know yourself and who you truly are. By being present within the now, it allows us to disregard everything that is outside of ourselves. We rid ourselves of the past, we stop looking into the future, and we disconnect from the external world and society that plagues our being.
Know yourself, know thyself, and be yourself.
But what exactly does that mean? Is it some cliché Instagram post or Facebook status? I’ll tell you what it isn’t, to find yourself, isn’t a consequence of any outside forces, actions, beings, or persons. There is no-thing outside of whom you are that is the key or gatekeeper to whatever lies within.
The ancient Greeks traveled to the Oracle at Delphi to seek wisdom and knowledge. Before they entered the Oracle, there above the entrance, was in scripted “Gnothi Seauton” or translated “Know Thyself”. This saying was purposefully placed above the oracle, and would soon after be a prominent hashtag, as those who seek wisdom must first know who they are before obtaining any wisdom and enlightenment from outside forces.
If you know yourself, you will come to realize that everything that you need is within you. All of the power in the world lies within each and every one of us. It is deep within, waiting to be unburied.
“We say act yourselves, not acknowledging some have never met themselves”.
Those who truly know who they are didn’t always have the easiest path or journey to self-actualization. They fought with society and the image that they were told to be, and, to play the part. They had battles with their emotions, some they won and many they lost. They went to war with their insecurities, a victory often hard won.
We don’t meet or get to know ourselves just by being born. Birth is something that is gifted, a gift that is unknown to us, at least until we have enough self-awareness to realize the blessing of what it means to be alive. However, being alive and its accomplice of what is called life, is still incomplete if you never find your reason of why. Of why you are who you are, of why you were gifted life and to know what it means to be you.
“Maybe it’s dumb to look for signs from the universe. Maybe we don’t need the universe to tell us what we really want. Maybe we already know that, deep down”.
Let’s just be who we really are. It takes continuous self-reflection to get to know who you are. If you are like me, this self-reflection is often un-voluntary and begins to force itself from the deepest cracks of your internal being. But, it is also a sign of your internal power, which is, at the very least, a sign of order. That life is okay the way that it is. Everything that is outside of your own being begins to show itself as it truly is. They are things that you can mold, bend, and adjust accordingly to fit into your reality.
Nothing outside of yourself has any dictation on who you are and how you go about your life. When you know yourself, you will realize this, that life is so simple and that you control your own destiny.
Knowing who you are will always be more important than others knowing who you are. Some people will never get it; their egos won’t let them. Ego is the main threat to self-awareness; it is the evil villain in your superhero story. We rid ourselves of ego through practice, such as mindfulness, and as a result, we begin to be at peace.
When we get to know ourselves, we get to know the world. We start to see other people as our brothers and sisters. We begin to see life in the way that it is, that we are all truly connected and infinite beings. Knowing yourself is the greatest weapon that you can have in your arsenal. Its power lies in your strength and the confidence gained when you truly, know you.
Focus on who you are, block everything else out, nothing else matters.
