[Life] How to understand yourself?

[Rajesh Rana]

"Know thyself" ~ The Ancient Greek aphorism 

Today, my old colleague and friend asked me, “My biggest problem is that I can’t understand myself, How to get rid that, any suggestions?”

This is one of the most important question that anyone can ask to himself as trying to answer this question opens up the gateway of new possibilities, opportunities, spirituality and whole new world. We all want to know ourself, who we are, what we want, what is our purpose, what is our potential, capabilities, and strengths and I believe that nobody can help you to answer this question, others can only show you the path but  only you can walk through that path to discover the answer of this age old question.

I try following things which helps me to understand myself in better way, you can also try it once - 

1. Do not try to get rid of yourself, but try to accept yourself, accept yourself as you are - What other people think of you is none of your business. If you keep rejecting who you are then your self-esteem will keep getting hurt, you’ll keep losing your self-confidence and eventually you may lose everything, as every time you try do something new, you’ll doubt about your abilities, if you can do it or not and when you fail then you start beating yourself and you may never try that again in your life. So, try to accept who you are, once you do that, you’ll start regaining your self esteem and confidence to try and learn new things, to move forward in life.
2. Be nice to yourself, give yourself full attention, care and love - In whole universe, you, yourself need your own love and attention the most. Miracles starts happening in your life when you stop beating yourself for who you are and start loving yourself. Your world around you is reflection of who you are, your feelings and type of thoughts you carry all the time. If you love yourself, have good feelings and thoughts about yourself then you start meeting with happy coincidences as you feel confident enough to take over world. You’ll start realizing your potential and hidden power within.
3. Free your mind with information overload - We are living in an age where we are bombarded with tons of information and most of us tries to absorb it as much as possible as we have been taught in school that if we don’t watch TV and read newspaper then we’ll be outdated and incompetent, many of us even try to access all kind of information to increase  their GK, so that they won’t left behind in any sort of gossips of their office and casual meetings. I personally feel that, it is not necessary to glue yourself with TV and access to everything that comes to your way. Try to be very selective while accessing to any information. Try this challenge, stop watching TV and reading newspaper for one week, then for a month and if it works then try even for an year. It’ll help you to find time for yourself, the constant noise of information clutter in your head will start pacifying, when that happens you will start listening to your own original thoughts, you’ll start knowing yourself.
4. Try listening to yourself - Find a quiet place in your home or near by, call it your sacred place, it can be an empty room, rooftop, park or any place where you can find solitude. Visit your sacred place everyday at same time for half an hour, without getting distracted by anyone or anything. Sit there quietly, do not do anything, just listen to whatever thought comes to your mind, observe them. After a week, get new notebook, write all your thoughts in that notebook, no matter what it is. Do not judge your thoughts, do not try to control it, simply observe it.
5. Ask questions to yourself - After few weeks spending in your sacred place, ask questions whose answer you are looking for like who are you, what is your purpose, what you should be doing, what is your strengths etc anything which is troubling you. You’ll be amazed to find your answers within.

If you practice this even for a month, then I’m sure you’ll start knowing yourself much better.

Link: http://www.kheljao.com/post/95533918755/how-to-understand-yourself