Know Thyself!

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 The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself! 

~Thales

If someone would have asked me today "What is the truth of life?" I would have definitely answered with this quote! This quote may appear to be a paradox, but if we ponder on this, this seems to be the truth of life. How many of us can actually say we know ourselves? Or the ones who claim that they know themselves, mostly have a certain perception of themselves, which they claim to be their understanding of oneself. How true is that? 

If I ask you, how much you know yourself, then what is the probability that you will be able to answer that question with self-awareness? Is knowing oneself, and one's habits the same as self-awareness? In my opinion, no. These are two different things. Being self-aware makes you see through yourself in an objective manner, where you can actually decide on what wrongs you have without blaming the situation or anyone in life. It is a way to see through our own actions and be able to put them in right and wrong buckets as objectively as we do it for others. Or is it about being judgmental about oneself? 

Self-awareness, as per the English dictionary is "Conscious knowledge of one's own character and feelings". In this definition, each word has its own importance and can not be omitted.  In other words, we are aware of our own character, but how many times can we accept it without any bias? If we need to answer anything about the things we have done or decided, we tend to defend our acts or decisions, and that is definitely not being self-aware. Self-awareness is more about being conscious of one's actions, and decisions and taking ownership of the same without being defensive about them being right or wrong or if I can say, being objective about one's own decisions, actions, or feelings, and being able to put the same across in a conversation. 

Well, I do consider myself pretty "Self-aware" and this may sound like boasting about oneself, but there are people who read this blog and are sure will agree with this! 

So how about you? Are you self-aware?

While I was writing this one, I tried to research the topic and came across different articles, excerpts of one of the articles I liked 

There are many different ways to think about self-awareness, but four keys that are often mentioned included mindfulness, self-compassion, reflection, and feedback.

Based on this, and my own understanding, mindfulness, reflection, feedback mechanism (or constructive feedback), and self-compassion or being kind to oneself are important and integral steps for reaching to a level of self-awareness. 


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