Happy Sunday!
And welcome to today's edition of 'Conscious living with Purnima'. In today's post I share with you what it means to truly 'be you' and ways to practice. I hope you relate. Do write back if you have anything to share on the topic. I would love to learn from you.
‘Be You’, ‘Do you’ have become such commonplace statements, that even though they are powerful messages, their significance is not truly understood. In the highly distracted world of today most of us are not even in touch with the deepest parts of ourselves and are prone to fall into the trap of following others. In such a scenario, what meaning do those statements carry for us?
'Being you' in a distracted world:
From my experience, everything boils down to practice. Take the habit of pausing before reacting, for instance. We don't learn to pause by reading a quote by Victor Frankl or by having someone tell us the benefits of it. We learn it by having a practice that allows us to naturally pause at the opportune moment.
Same way, to truly be ourselves, we need to first be aware of who we are and that involves practicing introspection and paying attention.
Ways to heighten self-awareness:
A. Practice some form of meditation:
I will write a more detailed note on this in a future post.
B. Pay attention:
Notice what excites you, what saps your energy, what scares you, what your burning desires, needs and fears are, what kind of people enhance your self esteem & what kind of people pull you down. You can even journal about these for greater clarity.
Now put this knowledge to use in everyday life by consciously practicing the following:
A. Act in accordance with your deepest self:
Instead of succumbing to doing what will win you acceptance, remind yourself to act in accordance with your inner self. As Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist monk said, “You don't need to be accepted by anyone. You need to accept yourself.”
“Give yourself the love you seek. Give yourself the respect you seek. Give yourself the validation you seek. And be free.”
B. Share content that comes from your heart:
“How to get your heart into the world: be obsessed with creating and more creating and keeping the fire burning and rising. Then let it go, almost like a balloon. Be completely detached with where it lands, or who sees it, or how many people it affects. Just completely free it from you. Then, with empty hands, go and create something new.” - Victoria Erickson, Author, Rhymes and Roads
C. Increase association with those who speak to your heart:
Create personal and professional associations based on deeper qualities that you value & admire in a person / company vis-à-vis the superficial - looks / popularity / money.
D. Stay open to newer experiences:
Oftentimes we box ourselves operating in the same way, doing the same activities, meeting the same people, reading same kind of books or listening to same kind of music. If this is you, then try something new and notice how that makes you feel. Staying open to newer experiences can help us connect to hidden parts of us.
A personal, most recent experience:
In my school and college days, I used to spend a lot of time in libraries and bookstores. I would browse through many books and pick the ones that spoke to me. It was like the book would find me instead of the other way around. And I have found many gems that way.
I realised over the years I had lost that habit. I was purchasing books based on recommendations alone and that too on Kindle. So, this weekend I spent couple of hours by myself at the bookstore and picked up books that I felt drawn to. Allowing my inner guidance to help me make a purchase made me feel so good about my choices. I would personally like to extrapolate this experience to other aspects of my life as well. Something I seem to have lost the art of doing, along the way.
As a new week starts tomorrow, I invite you to reflect on how you would like to embrace and express more of your authentic self.
Good writing Puri.