Know Yourself

Everyone wants to be happy and in order to be happy, we must know ourselves and trust ourselves. We are always trying to know ourselves, to return to ourselves, to become inner-focused instead of outer-focused.

When we are young we try to figure out life by being outer-focused; we look to the outside world for the answers to our burning questions. How can I be happy? How do I get approval? How do I get love? How do I avoid abuse or abandonment? We can get to know ourselves and life through our experiences when we are outer-focused, but it usually takes more time and can cause pain! Wouldn’t it be easier if we could access our answers within?

I remember a job interview I had when I was 18 where I trusted the outside instead of my gut. At the end of the interview the human resources person said "I’d like to hire you and I have two summer jobs for you to choose from: you can be a bank teller or you can work in the cafeteria."

I had been cooking and baking since I was four years old so I knew my answer. I said "I’d like the cafeteria job."

She responded, "Take the teller job." So I did. I took the teller job and let someone override what I felt was right for me. Maybe the trajectory of my life would have been different if I would have trusted my inner knowing.

I was also outward-focused when I decided what to study at university. People and society told me I could not be an engineer because I was a woman, so I rebelled and studied civil engineering even though I didn’t even know what it was! What was I thinking? I wasn’t! Maybe the trajectory of my life would have been different if I would have been inner-focused.

I slowly found my way. I went into teaching and after I moved to the United States I became a holistic nutritionist, healer, spiritual counselor.

"To thine own self be true." This quote is from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the longer version is "This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."

But how can we be true to ourselves if we don’t know ourselves? This is a time in which people are trying to figure out how to move forward. What do I believe? Are the beliefs that I have really mine or are my beliefs programmed into my subconscious mind by my culture, family, or friends? Our thoughts are like computer programs, like lines of computer code, and we can reprogram ourselves. But first we must uncover the lines of code that we want to reprogram and these lines of code are stored in the unconscious mind. This programming runs in the background.

There are a couple of ways to uncover our true selves and uncover this unconscious programming. One way is to go from the outside in - to live life, notice when you’re triggered, and then question the old programming. For example, observe your own body language to learn about yourself. Observe other people’s body language to improve your relationships. Another way to uncover our true selves is to start on the inside by connecting to the deepest part of you where truth resides. Uncover your uniqueness. Connect with your inner guidance and follow what feels true in your heart. This is what I help people do.

The result? Joy!