Know Thyself

Have you ever asked yourself, “Who am I?” If so, did you give yourself an honest answer? Some of us would probably tell ourselves a big fat lie, to avoid being honest about not knowing who we are. Some of us have given ourselves and others answers that aren’t true because we believe the story we’ve been feeding the world.

From the time you were born, you were being told to act and be a certain way, and being any other way outside of that was wrong. Some of us have dealt with so much pain from our childhood that we don’t know who we are outside of our own pain. Some of us don’t spend enough time with self, so that we can find out who it is we really are and want to be.

As I’ve talked about in my other blog post, I grew up in the church and I was taught to act a certain way. Anything outside of Jesus was bottom line wrong. My mother was far from strict, which meant I got to experiment around with all types of music and people. But my grandmother was strictly Jesus and you were not to go outside of the Bible. My mother carried a few of the “churchy” traits, but not so much to where she sheltered me from the world.

I was taught to ALWAYS use my manners (saying Ma’am or Sir), go to church and be good, never question an adult, and always do the right thing. Now, these are not bad things to be taught but you do find yourself wondering who you are outside of the church. Even with the pain that I experienced in my childhood, which ultimately shaped the way I dealt with other people; I wondered who I could be outside of my pain.

Once I decided to start healing from my past, I realized my identity was being stripped from me. It’s a scary feeling and it left me at times wanting to run back to the pain because that’s where I was most comfortable. I had to start reinventing myself and finding out who I was on a different level; without allowing others to put a limit on who I could be.

When you allow yourself to become stripped of the identity that was given to you, then you get a chance to use your powers and create the person you want to become with no apology. You have every right to change yourself when you feel it’s necessary to do so.

Remember to never allow anyone to define who you are because we’re forever evolving and changing directions. Always know exactly who you want to become, but never allow yourself to stay stuck. Always be willing to reinvent yourself and grow; that’s the beauty of life.