Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom - Aristotle

As rightly said by Aristotle knowing yourself can be a game changer in your life and the better you know yourself it will save you from years of frustrations and depression. Often people around us are doing things that were told by others or things that were imposed on them which of course doesn’t give satisfaction in the end. We don’t have opinions of our own, our thoughts or view on something mostly depend on the way we are taught to think. No observations, no conscience of our own. We behave like robots programmed by the society surrounding us largely. Now, what is the end result, most of the people don’t know themselves? I can’t deny the fact that knowing oneself is a life long journey, comes through all the hard times we face, how we react to things, etc but the very start of the process of knowing oneself is missing in the society.

I urge you all to take some time out. Try to know yourself. Who you are actually as a person? What you really want in your life? Do you think the path you are right now is the right one? Try to answer these kinds of questions. Here are certain things you can try to know yourself

• Believe in yourself. The world is there to judge you for everything you do but that shouldn’t stop you from believing yourself. Belief is the first step towards understanding.
• Try to come out of your comfort zone, it will always make you better.
• Take risks. Risks that you think are worth taking, no matter what people think about it. Now the obvious question that comes in our mind is, what if I fail? I would say, without taking the risk you are failing anyway. It is like an unturned page of your life which you never open. You can be successful after that or you will learn something worth lifelong. Best is if the risk was genuine failing once or twice shouldn’t stop you to take risks further. Great people are great because they never gave up on trying things until they achieved it.
• Talk to yourself. People often neglect their own thoughts. By talking I mean talking mentally. It helps you to understand what you want. Investing 5 minutes every day in talking to you can help you a lot to know what kind of a person you are.
• Learn new things, random things. You might end up liking it or you might learn something new. Knowledge is always priceless.
• Don’t follow something which is trendy and have created hype overtime. Follow/do something that you actually find good and useful. Remember, being unique is always better than being anything else.
• Meet new people. That helps a lot to know yourself. The more you meet people, talk to them, understand their thoughts, culture and interests the better you become understanding yourself.
• Do meditation. Connect with nature. Studies show people who meditate regularly have a better understanding of mind and body which is one of the crucial steps towards knowing oneself.

I hope following these things might help people to come out of the agony of knowing themselves. But also remember as I mentioned earlier, human beings are unpredictable wretches. We can never be completely sure that we know ourselves. It is a life long process. And hence we need to enjoy this journey and be patient.