Heal Yourself-07

– Be Yourself

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” ― Oscar Wilde

“The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self.” — Fred

Rogers

We all need to learn to be ourselves again. This is one of the

most crucial aspects of successfully navigating through this

catastrophe we call life. This encouragement is in no way giving

you the right to be a jerk. We have already discussed that healing

ourselves from the pain caused by this world requires that we

work hard to get rid of our negative traits.

Traits such as being arrogant, rude, dishonest and stingy have no

place in your life. When we proudly walk around with these ugly

habits, we are inviting all sorts of negativity into our lives. The

result of that is only more pain and disappointment. That is why I

encouraged you in the very first chapter to get to know yourself.

This will better equip you to heal yourself, by learning more about

your faults.

So what exactly does it mean to be yourself? It requires that you

distance yourself from all the labels the world around us has

imposed on us. These ugly labels come about because of the way

we look, the way we dress or even the community we grew up in.

There is no reason for us to allow the world around us to squeeze

us into a mold that doesn’t really represent who we are. Just think

about how liberating it would be to not have to pretend to be

something you are not. This is all within reason of course. We

would never want to take certain liberties that may have far

reaching effects on our personal life, and may even jeopardize

our jobs. That means that you might want to hold off on anything

drastic, like dying your hair purple and green, until you find an

employer that is willing to accommodate such a choice.

Here are 5 important reasons why you need to start being true to

yourself:

1. You will never be able to please everyone. If you constantly

allow the people around you to determine who you are, you will

constantly have to change what you stand for in order to try and

make everyone happy. The only problem with this is that you will

be dealing with so many conflicting demands that you will

eventually end up disappointing someone. Additionally, putting

yourself under this kind of pressure will leave you feeling

dissatisfied in the end.

2. The society around us really doesn’t know what it wants. The

media portrays both the meek homemaker and the fierce go￾getter, as the ideal woman. Society also demands that men be

sensitive to the needs of the opposite sex and the dangerous bad

boy as well. Which will you be if you are simply allowing those

around you to determine who you are? Whatever you decide to

be, just remember that it is quite exhausting to be putting on this

kind of show every day.

3. You will end up making life-changing decisions based on the

whims of the people around you, who will not suffer the

consequences of these choices. If you decide to have a child,

simply because your family thinks it's time, you will be the one to

have to take care of that child! If you decide to pursue a career

because your peers think you would do well in it, you will have to

live with the burden of a career that you hate, forever.

4. The truth always comes out. Sooner or later, people will

begin to realize that you are faking. Unfortunately, as we see in

the case of many celebrities, the truth often comes out in a big

scandal or breakdown.

5. When you are content with who you are, you will be truly

happy. How can you love yourself, when you are constantly

pretending to be something that you are not?

When all is said and done, you need to take control of your life if

you want to see real improvements. You cannot expect different

results if you are not bold enough to make drastic changes. And

the time for those changes is now!

Conclusion

I hope you have benefitted from this book. By benefit, I mean that

I hope you have decided to make some much need changes.

Progress may be slow at first, but you will never regret the

decision to change yourself for the better. Every step, no matter

how small, is a step forward, and can thus rightly be viewed as

progress.

The universe has a way of rewarding the good in us and helping

us to find the good in others.

By now, you should have realized that the secret to healing

ourselves, and successfully navigating through the catastrophe of

life, lies in our hands. Unless we acknowledge our own faults,

and actively work to try and improve on them, our lives will never

get any better.

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able

to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in

being able to remake ourselves.” ― Mahatma Gandhi