I recently wrote a piece about us not knowing each other. We “know of” many people but probably only “really know” a few. Today I want to look at the other side of the coin. How well do we know ourselves?
Remember the old Greek adage, “Know thyself!” That wasn’t a throw-away line, it had meaning and significance.
Have you ever asked yourself, “Who am I and how I do fit in to the overall scheme of things around me? Am I here by accident or was it predestined that I should be here for a higher purpose?” If so, do I know what that is and am I meeting that higher purpose?
How well do you know yourself? How do you define yourself? I am not just talking about being a father, mother, brother, sister or grandparent, I am talking about who are you deep down, the real you. You are not defined by your position or occupation. That’s what you do.
What do you think of yourself? How do you categorize yourself? Is the public you the same as the private you? It’s good to take stock of ourselves occasionally.
Eighty to ninety percent of our actions originate from the non-conscious. Far more activity goes on there than in the conscious. It indicates that our real self is probably more predicated upon our non-conscious than we might imagine. Therefore our principles for living and our belief system play an important part in who we are, how we think and what we do.
The strange thing is that even if we cannot define our belief system, it still dictates our behavior because that is who we are. We act out what is inside us. What is in our mind determines the messages sent to the brain. The brain in turn sends messages to the body. Thus the body becomes the expression of the mind.
Now we begin to understand how critical and important our thinking is. There is great validity in the quotation, “As a man thinks, so he is!” In other words, we are what we think!
Having asked all these questions, I think it is true to say that deep down we really do know ourselves and who we are. We know our thinking, our preferences, our attitudes, our hopes, our desires and a myriad of parts which make up the whole.
Our responsibility is to ensure that the engine which drives all these aspects about us is clean and well-oiled with good thoughts and healthy thinking, resulting in a natural expression of who we are. Hopefully it will display an attitude of love, compassion, kindness and graciousness which will overflow in blessing to those with whom we come in contact.
