As I have encouraged others to be self-reflective and self-aware I have come to realize that simplistically (it is anything but simple) people seem to approach self-awareness in one of two ways, and it basically has to do with how they live their lives.
I have observed that we tend to either attack life full on or we tend to gently embrace it. In the first way we tend to muscle our way through things in contrast to the second when we enter and observe our situations then act. Yet, whichever way we go through life, it’s a push/pull. I’m convinced that the more gentle and honest we are with ourselves in understanding which is our way, the more fulfilling the journey will be and the more rewarding the outcome will be as we grapple with the push/pull nature of this thing we call living.
In his book Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death Irvin Yalom says, "Self-awareness is a supreme gift, a treasure as precious as life. This is what makes us human. But it comes with a costly price: the wound of mortality. Our existence is forever shadowed by the knowledge that we will grow, blossom and inevitably, diminish and die."
Ouch! This blog post just took a morbid turn, but not really. Yalom says the irony and paradox of staring into the reality that we all will die is that we become less concerned about dying. We fret less when we address, acknowledge and embrace the truth that we will die. It becomes less frightening when we look right at it. What a great way to prevent anxiety!
So how about if we just let the self-awareness process have the opportunity to evolve and unfold within us? It is delicate, yet, very powerful journey, which at times is very difficult and painful yet so worthwhile. The longer we live, the more profound this becomes. If we can be gentle with ourselves and allow our self-awareness to unfold in its own time and way, the richer and deeper our lives can become.
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