The phrase “just be yourself” is often thrown around in conversation as if there is a defined way of knowing who you are. In reality, we don’t know who we are, at least not in a conceptual way. We have a set of ideas about our identity that are just that, ideas. Any idea you have about yourself isn’t you. How can it be? What is the thing that is aware of the idea? That’s you. So before we can really be ourselves, it’s important that we take a close look at what’s going on in our minds to understand who we are and what are just ideas that we’ve been clinging to. The “real you” cannot be easily defined. You are not just a set of ideas. You are the awareness of those ideas.
What the majority of people alive believe they are is just a framework of ideas they’ve accepted about themselves and their environment and the mechanisms of defense that uphold those ideas. For simplicity we can refer to this framework as the ego. But it’s one thing to understand the falsity and illusion of the ego in an intellectual capacity and quite another to actually be able to apply this knowledge. Often the ideas we collect throughout our lives are quite limiting and they are usually buried below our conscious awareness. So, without growing and maintaining our abilities to observe our own minds we lack the ability to be our genuine selves, and we will continue to believe we are a set of ideas. All the while, the truth of who we are will remain elusive to us and we will be unable to genuinely trust ourselves.
On The Flip Side…
As we grow our abilities to observe our mental patterns through meditation, we can start to pick apart the concepts that we’ve had about ourselves that have been holding us back. As we progress, the boundaries of our egoic constructs will start to loosen up and we can begin to let go of who we thought we were in order to open up to who we really are. Not only do we realize that we can be who we really want to be “deep down”, but we are also able to see ourselves in new ways. We can really start to embrace our strengths and know our weaknesses in a much deeper way than before. In short, we can really just be ourselves.
The part of just this type of exploration that is difficult to convey in words, is just how much it opens up our minds to new possibilities in life. Knowing who you really are and what your gifts are makes you a powerful individual, but in a genuine way. In a way where you don’t need to be defensive all the time because you know the truth about yourself and you don’t need validation from others. Eventually, you can harness the full capacity of your mind to create the life you really want and not just abide by what others, your culture, or your ego deem acceptable.
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