3 minutes read
Quick question, have you ever stopped for a minute to ask yourself, why do I think this way? why does this person have the capacity to annoy me so much and yet make me so happy? why do I constantly scan an environment and make up my mind about a person with just a short interaction? why am I so protective of my space? why is it so hard for me to open up and trust people? why can’t I control my temper?
I am sure some of you may have asked yourselves these questions and dismissed the thought because you felt it was not important, while some of you feel it is just who you are, hence, there is zero need for answers and there is the group of people that have actually never thought about this.
I was part of the group of people that asked these questions but never made any effort to get answers. I am committed to become self aware and I hope to help others understand the importance of this.
Believe me, I know how difficult it is to carve out personal time with the amount of daily responsibilities we have. However, it is important that we create time for our personal development. A couple of daily exercises you should consider doing to be conscious of who you are, include;
1. Meditation
This may sound outrageous to some of you. I am sure you may be thinking of a number of chinese monks in a hypnotic state, crossing their legs, mute and unaware of the presence of anyone. However, this is not exactly what I mean. Meditation is just a method of taking control of your mind. It can be done anywhere, even in a crowd full of Marlians, meditation is still possible. It’s all about training your mind to focus on a single point of reference. As Marcus Aurelius said “You have power over your mind and not outside events, realise this and you will find strength”.
If you are interested in trying this exercise, you can learn basic meditation skills via these two links.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEzbdLn2bJc, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwqlurCvXuM&t=172s
2. Research
This is probably more straight forward than the former. We are in the 21st century, that means there have been 20 centuries of human experiences before us. Let us all try and tap into this resource. It has been handed down to us on a platter of gold, by the existence of the internet.
An online resource which has really helped me in the quest of finding myself has been the lifeclub.org. If you do not have time to read, the technology gods have also blessed us with podcasts. Some podcasts which I listen to are, Invisibilia by NPR, Hidden Brain by NPR, All in the Mind by BBC Radio 4.
3. Diary/Journal Documentation
It is important to record the progress of our lives for the future generation. I mean how selfish can we be not to do this? Our predecessors have blessed us by doing so. Marcus Aurelius never knew his journals will ever be published as a book. You never know how documenting your life experiences may shape the future of the world.
Apart from this, the act of writing my experiences, has been very therapeutic. At my lowest point, I realised writing how I felt numbed my pain. It was like I was having a conversation with myself. I was forced to confront my feelings, explore my mind and self-reflect.
I prefer writing in a hardcopy journal, it really doesn’t have to be that way for everyone, you can easily write your experiences down on your mobile phones. I suggest it should be done at least once a week for consistency.
As the great Buddha once said “No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path”. I challenge everyone to walk this path, and make it a goal to find yourself this year. The moment you start understanding yourself, it will be easier to understand others. Imagine if everyone makes a conscious effort in understanding theirselves, the world will be a better place for us all.
Finito.
Mindsmash 