Monday 13 April 2020

Knowledge of Self

Dear Aarush and Aayra,

Knowledge gives us wisdom. There are two types of knowledge one that already you have other that can be acquired. No knowledge is good or bad. It's your actions that decide whether the knowledge is in good use or not. Knowing how to make a bomb doesn't make a person terrorist. All the knowledge does not necessarily give you wisdom. Among all the knowledge in the world what gives you wisdom is the knowledge of self or self-knowledge.

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

- Aristotle


First, you need to understand what is self-knowledge. It is knowledge of ourselves, knowing our limitations, strengths, weaknesses, our goals and aim in life as well as the code with which we would like to lead our lives. In simple words understanding ourselves. Our food choices, our favorite movies, liking for a particular sport, aim what we want to be, etc. these things are too small but self-knowledge is way more elusive than this as we rarely know the real 'us'. It needs a constant introspection to know about ourselves, still, we cannot say that we understood ourselves till the day we die as we can always learn something new about ourselves every day.
In today's fast-paced world, it is really difficult to know ourselves. We are always in constant interaction with others, in school, in colleges, in offices, in the neighborhood, or if you are alone than social networking. So what we know about ourselves is generally what we hear or deduce from our interactions with others. So we need to find ways to actually attain knowledge of self. Self-knowledge is the most important knowledge that one should strive to acquire but sadly we fail to realize its importance.
At a certain point in our lives, we may feel that we are not leading our lives the way we wanted or we are not happy with what we are doing. This could lead to an unhealthy life and depression too. If we know ourselves we can lead our life in the direction of our happiness. There is no second or third person who can know you better than yourself. So to be happy we need to gain knowledge of self. For which we have to take some time out from our busy schedules to talk to ourselves. For this we need:

Solitude: Only in solitude do we get to know our innermost desires. Only when we are alone we can understand our emotions and thoughts. When we are not talking to others, we have nothing to do, no one to talk to then only we can think of our positives and negatives, strength and weaknesses.


Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights. But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge. You would know in words that which you have always known in thought. You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams.

- Khalil Gibran



Question yourself: This plays a very important role in the path of self-knowledge. We can only know our inner selves if we ask questions. Ask those questions to yourself, which you are scared to answer in front of others.

Meditation: Any meditation or an art therapy or yoga could be useful. It gives you time to yourself. It improves your thought process, mood, positivity and gives you inner peace.

Take a break: We live in a society where everyone is running. Everyone has to reach somewhere. Everything is very fast. Even if you are happy, try to give yourself a break. It could be a day or two. It will give you time to cherish what you have and reflect on what you are.

Away from gadgets: Solitude, a break or anything you do should be done without a very powerful thing, which we all are slaves of nowadays, social media. You should give yourselves sometime off from modern gadgets.

Maintain a journal: Sometimes we are too scared to answer to ourselves. We don't want to acknowledge what we want. You can maintain a journal noting your happy and sad moments this gives you answers to those questions when you are in need.



Good Luck!!

This post is a part of Blogchatter’s A2Z challenge, #BlogchatterA2Z  on the alphabet 'K'. My theme for this challenge is ‘Letters to My Kids, learnings of life I want them to know when they grow up’. You can also look for the same under #jainnehas or @jainneha86 on Instagram and Twitter.

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You can find my other posts here A B C D E F G H I J  L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

4 comments:

  1. Self knowledge is very important. And if kids know themselves then they are more likely to practice self love and spread the love in their surrounding.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom. Great post.

    ReplyDelete

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