What must you do to truly understand ourselves?

Answer 1

It may be helpful for you to start a journal. Personally, I've never kept a journal for more than a week before I'd started typing mine on the computer. I keep a journal in a word document on my computer and write something every once in a while. (It's so much easier and faster than hand-writing it.) In the beginning, I'd begin to write about some of my thoughts, and then I'd stop and write "I know, this is so rude and mean and discriminating and stereotypical...", like there was actually someone there reading it and judging me. I don't do that anymore. I write what I feel, no matter what it is. No one will read it, no one will judge me. It's a way to vent your feelings, to get out exactly what you mean, without any risks. I'd definitely recommend it.

You pose a very deep question. You might first want to ask "what don't I understand about myself?" and tackle it from there. With all of the pressures of the world, it's really easy to get lost and tangled up. It's sometimes hard to distinguish between "who I am" and "what others want me to be." When I'm feeling like this, I actually take a moment to reflect. I know who I am better than anyone else does, because I live inside my head. No one else does. Sometimes I need to say to myself (either in my head or out loud) who I am. It's not a bad thing to be honest and say "I am a strong, confident woman (or man), who doesn't follow trends, who treats others with respect, who wants to be successful, who is scared of failure and letting others down..." etc, etc. Say to yourself who you KNOW you are, just for clarification. Don't let anyone else define you. Understand who you are, what you want, what you need, what you're scared of, what you hope for, etc.

Hope that helps ^_^

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i think the above way is just as great as this one

in order to truly understdnd ourslves we must embark on a journey in which we identify our role in the family, as a global citzen, and our purpose in life. this is also very much evident in Yann Martel's Life of Pi, Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage (Henry realizes his true purpose in that he must fight with his regiment, not because he needs to prove himself ti others that he is a war hwero, but because he needs to probe to himself that he is not a coward.), and Bless Me, Ultima, (a novel in which a 7 year old must pick between his mother's destiny or him which is becoming ap reist or picking his father's destiny for him which is becoming a cowboy. as he stuggles, he realizes that he does not have to prvoe himself worthy for his parents for he is neither a priest nor a cowboy. he is just a man of learning.)