Most of us are curious about the world around us. We watch the news and read the newspaper because we want to know what is happening in the world. We watch celebrity gossip shows because we want the latest scoop about the lives of our favorite celebrity. With all this attention being focused on other people and external events, do we really know what is going on in our lives?
Have you been curious about your inner most thoughts--your hopes, fears, and dreams? What do you believe about yourself and your life? Are you happy with the state of your life? If not, why? Do you know who you are--what you want, what you need and what really makes you feel happy? During times of despair, are you willing to look inside your soul and find out why you feel angry and frustrated? Are you ever really curious about why you seem to stay in the same emotional or physical place, even as you desire to move on? Are your beliefs about yourself and your prospects for happiness hopeful or hopeless?
Most of us cannot answer those questions. We have focused our attention outside ourselves and neglected our inner world. We distract ourselves with other stuff that really does not matter. As we settle into a new year, maybe it is time to be more curious about ourselves. We are the most important resource in our lives.
We may ignore our inner selves because we do not trust or believe that goodness rests within us. We cannot see the value within ourselves. We may not want to look inside because we are afraid that there is an ugly, cruel monster inside of us that keeps us from accomplishing what we want most in life. We may be afraid to look inside ourselves because we may not believe we are strong enough to handle whatever we may find.
Looking inside ourselves and getting in touch with ourselves is powerful. We are connecting with ourselves, which only helps us to get to know ourselves better. The better we know ourselves, the more capable we are to make choices that support who we are and what we want. We will encounter some powerful feelings about what may not be good about our lives, but we can handle it. We have to allow the answers of how to address the unhappy parts of our lives unfold over time. We may also discover what we like about ourselves, which gives us reason to celebrate whom we are. We will also uncover new parts of ourselves that we have kept hidden for years.
Looking inward gives us a new opportunity to learn who we are. Getting in touch with our inner world helps us shift our focus from outward to inward. When we make choices from within ourselves, those choices are more reflective of who we really are. We begin to take a stand for ourselves rather than blindly make choices that will win approval and acceptance from others.
Are you ready and curious enough to begin looking inside yourself? You can meditate to connect with your thoughts. You can work with exercises from self help books which offer thought-provoking questions to help you to connect with your soul. Check out our Empowerment Library page for helpful books. You can also write in a journal about thoughts and feelings that occur to you on a regular basis. You can see a therapist about an issue as way to discovering more of who you are. It really does not matter what method you choose as long as you are willing to discover more about yourself. Be more curious about yourself and your life.
Copyright©2008 Jeannine Robinson All Rights Reserved