Self-knowledge Is A Boundless Sea
Self-knowledge represents wisdom and in itself is not an end to be achieved, since we never get to know ourselves fully, not because we put more or less effort in the task but because we are in constant change. But, apart from having a bit of utopia, what is self-knowledge? We could say that it is a journey through which we have the option of learning and growing, flowing with the passage of time and our own experiences.
We are continually concerned with the image we give to others, focusing on the most superficial aspects. This is how we lose sight of our deepest roots, losing sight of who we really are.
As we will see below, the process of knowing yourself requires courage, honesty, love and responsibility. This is so because self-knowledge implies freeing ourselves from prejudice, guilt, hatred and resentment. In such a way that we can deepen our essence.
Self-knowledge leads us to our peace
This road to travel, that of self-knowledge, is not something that can be done in a hurry, with impatience and anxiety to have to get to something, as we have already said, it never really gets there. When we learn to listen to ourselves and attend to our needs, we are in turn getting to know ourselves and maturing each experience we go through.
We are used to mental busyness, to being easily distracted by paying more attention to what others are doing and how they behave. We are experts in judging, criticizing, giving advice, blaming and seeing in others what we are unable to see in ourselves. All this helps us to split ourselves because we do not want to look at all aspects of who we really are.
Get rid of distractions
Interaction with other people is always a double-edged sword and it touches one or the other depending on the attitude we take towards that interaction. On the one hand, the relationship with others is essential for self-knowledge, since relationships are where we can make more discoveries about ourselves. On the other hand, relating without conscience only distances us from others and from our capacity for self-knowledge.
Knowing ourselves through the relationship with others implies listening to ourselves in that interaction, observing what produces us, what we feel, and what emotions are aroused with each of the attitudes that we like or dislike. And above all to understand that what appears is something of our own and has to do with how we are.
No one has the power to generate a feeling or an emotion for us without our consent. For this we must understand that we are always being accomplices, not victims of what we feel. This is true for both the pleasant and the unpleasant: when I feel love it is something that arises from me through interaction with another person. Think, for example, of anger, isn’t it something that usually comes out of you from the interaction? And in all cases it is something that has to do exclusively with you.
Practicing authenticity
Self-knowledge inevitably leads us to authenticity, by showing ourselves in a more honest and real way to others and especially to oneself, without going through self-deception. Removing from us the need to please or blame what happens to us.
By getting to know ourselves better, we increase our ability to show our authenticity. Being more transparent and clear, closer to love and the openness of knowledge. It is in this journey when we explore the depth of meaning that each of the experiences we go through has.
We thus discover how self-knowledge, indeed, is a limitless sea, through which we travel throughout our lives, learning understanding and love for oneself. Getting to share who we are, from love, with others through authenticity.
