Last February I wrote an article about ‘ Being Me’ to encourage people to accept who they are. Of late, each time I listen to the hit gospel song I Know Who I Am by the Nigerian Award Winning Gospel Singer Sinach, that post keeps coming back to me. The psychologists tell us that the experiences you go through shape your character and gradually you learn who you are – your strengths and flaws and what is deep in your heart. Then moments of sudden clarity hit you. Usually, it is an experience like the loss of a loved one, loss of a job, or escaping death by a whisker which initiates you into this new you. Such experiences shock you out of your normal way of seeing or doing things. You begin to search for meaning at a deeper level. Slowly you get connected to your depths and in so doing you experience meaning and authenticity in your life. You accept the responsibility for living your own life fully.
Tapping into the power of your uniqueness, you seek to become more enlightened and transformed. This is when you find yourself wanting to be more and do more with what you have for yourself and the community you live in. You feel you need to belong to something bigger than yourself.You begin to live with the constant challenge for self-improvement and to look out for like-minded people. You join clubs like the Rotary and other voluntary organisations to use the power within you to help yourself and others. The awakened genuine identity deep within you makes you more imaginative and creative. It becomes a lifelong process achieved through day-to-day experiences of your life.
With sharpened imagination and creativity; writers are said to be writing from the hearts, singers are said to be singing from their hearts, painters are said to be dipping their brushes in their own souls and architects are said to be creating houses with souls. You are creating a life and things that emerge out of the truth about who you are. You start seeing things and hearing things differently and thinking differently. Whatever you choose to do, you do it effortlessly and gladly too and the reward is for you to feel completely whole and yourself.
Getting to know the truth about yourself and learning to love and respect yourself is a lifelong process. It frees you to love and respect others. It also opens you up to learn from others and to take more risks in the world. A number of us take a long time to achieve this clarity while a small number never achieve it at all. They go through life confused about who they are and terribly frustrated about what is happening to them. They are not empowered to find their uniqueness and mission in life and therefore never live out what is their own to do and never make their unique contribution to world.
As expected, the process starts with the parents or caretakers. They have the primary duty to help the growing child to acquire the necessary emotional and social skills from birth to the transition to adulthood. The social and emotional skills are closely related to both the social and cultural framework of family and the surroundings and they help the child to shape his future.Children are supposed to be adequately socialized to be themselves, part of the family and later to be effective in the society in which they live. If this is done properly then as adults they are free to follow and assert independent values, opinions and desires.
There is no doubt that you give of your best when you know and understand who you are and the environment you live in. It stirs you up to strive to achieve your inner potential. A few quotes below clearly point this out:
“She understood her worth which made her powerful. The world gravely needed a hero so she became one. No superpowers really, just a strong woman who took no nonsense from anyone.” Rabdall Core
“ No one is you and that is your power.” Anonymous
“When you know your worth, no one can make you feel worthless.” Anonymous
Let each one of us awaken to the unique power within just as Morgan Harper Nicholas reminds us in this quote: “Know your worth, hold your own power, be you.’’
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