The Importance Of Knowing Ourselves

We all want to control our destiny, and it is through the importance of knowing ourselves that we can take back our lives. By knowing and understanding who we are, we control our lives, giving us a sense of self-confidence. Independence and self-awareness are linked to the kind of confidence everyone strives for at a point in their lives. 

I suppose we never fully know who we are and evolve into becoming so much more as time progresses on. I once felt secure in who I thought I was at a time in my life following tragic events early on.  In time, that security faded, and I found I didn’t know who I was and that my goals had changed. Through new events, I began to evolve as they shaped my life. I had started to evolve more through recent events that had begun to shape my life. These events were positive and not traumatic life before. 

Here is how knowing ourselves help us in shaping our life:

1. Staying present and focused on each moment

It was at the beginning of 2021 that I relaxed mentally and emotionally, opening myself up. I had found myself no further ahead of establishing a sense of self. Instead, I ended up finding myself, along with billions of others, living in a world of unknown. What I had once thought was one of my greatest strengths, I now find to have been my greatest weakness. My strengths had now become new details and developments about myself not known before. 

By forgiving past regrets or hurts, we can minimize fear and anxiety, freeing ourselves to focus on the present. Mindfulness allows for a life of purpose by improving mental clarity, emotional fitness, and reducing stress. The practice of mindfulness is an awareness of each moment and acknowledgment of that moment. Living each day as it is given and living it with a fresh outlook and unique insight. 

2. Our thoughts manipulate our personality

Our thoughts persuade our behaviors by provoking our emotions, which can be noticed by contemplating our thoughts' impact. We can choose our thoughts by recognizing their effects and learn through our experiences and emotional responses. By becoming intentional in influencing our inner thoughts and emotions, we will behave, interact, and evolve to improve our lives.

For over 35 years, I never attempted to pick up a paintbrush or create on a canvas because I thought myself at a loss of that creative and artistic talent. The moment my hand touched that paintbrush early this year was when I saw myself and captured what I saw in the same way that I will myself to capture the same in the words that I write. 

3. Tallying our strengths

By identifying our strengths amongst our weaknesses, we can learn clues about ourselves that allow us to maintain our identity. Through knowing ourselves more, we can begin to shape our future and decide on which directions in life to take through highlighting our goals. 

When our strengths are identified, we can look at our weaknesses and learn what needs to be done to improve them. Goals are also important in the short term as they are long-term. Goals can strengthen weaknesses through consistency, improving our life’s structure and getting us to those long-term goals faster.

4. Practice makes perfect

Consistency is vital, as is also trial and error. We can deliberately practice new behavior by replacing old behaviors with new ones. Learning new skills is also a key element in improving and learning things about ourselves we didn’t know. Through revisiting each day as if it were a lesson from the day before allowing us only to improve more and more, eliminating all of the distractions and noise that only slow us down. 

A journal or written self-reflections of each day is a great way to map out a plan and set this short-term and long-term goal while identifying changes and advances. Starting the day in meditation and manifestation only sets the day up in a positive direction. At the end of each day, reflecting allows for a celebration of personal gains and identifying what needs improvement before the next day.

5. Discovering Your True Self

Realizing who you are and not who you want to be by discerning your passions, uncovering and understanding that you excel. Having desires allows for more confidence and willpower to overcome the formidable hurdles in life. Awareness of who you are allows for a more authentic version of yourself, opening yourself up to new opportunities, experiences through becoming more carefree and vulnerable. 

Through my writing, I can discern more of myself through reflection on what I have observed of the world and individuals, experiences, and opportunities. Through my visionary tale set on canvas through paint or sketch, my inner self is reflected, and it's through my written words, transparency is revealed. 

Words have mattered so much to me. My script and those written by others have left me with a deep connection to the written word. The same has become true in art and the vision it grants me through the use of color, light, and shadows. My strengths became the use of expression needed in my life and expressed through my written word and the art that visually creates that expression.