Are You Invisible to You?
View(s):
Day in and day out our eyes keep staring at our external environment.
The only time we tend to take a look at ourselves is when we go in front of a mirror to see how good we look, that is also done since we are much interested in knowing how good we look in the eyes of others.
If you were the only human being in this world and you owned a mirror, you would not be so interested to know how you look. We are dependent on being admired by others rather than admiring ourselves. It is human nature that a person simply picks on the bad body odour of the person next to him whilst his body odour is worst in many situations.
I have heard that many people yell at others saying “don’t yell like a donkey”. The ego within a human being constantly pushes him to comprehend others weaknesses and justify his.
A regular alcoholic persistently discriminates a drug addict. Similarly, people who are addicted to pornography diligently discriminates prostitutes. People have fed and trained their minds to feel good by comparing themselves to others who are worse than them. This attitude has left many to stagnate rather than grow. Be honest to yourself, when was the last time you did a self-evaluation about yourself?
I do not mean your external appearance, but your inner being. It is the most essential aspect you must focus on. Many are very keen to see the little injury in the other’s arm, even whilst their arm is fractured. Paying attention to the outer appearance has become a trend that a countless number of people have forgotten to observe their inner selves.
In the corporate sector there is a tool known as SWOT.
A company uses this tool to analyse their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Once the evaluation is disclosed, they start implementing strategies to further advance their Strengths and mitigate their Weaknesses so that they can resist the Threats and seize the Opportunities successfully. Unfortunately, most of the people focus on analysing the others SWOT not theirs. You live as though there is no such person as You. You are invisible to yourself.
You always tend to see only others. Many people get into accidents simply by trying to look at an accident that has occurred on the road whilst driving. Likewise, we get into accidents in life when we pay more attention to what is happening in others lives, as it makes us forget to keep track of ourselves. When you do not “Walk the Talk”, then your mind gets used to “Talk the Talk” only.
The moment your mind is commanded to “walk the talk”, it resists doing so as it is not the default mode of response. There are some people who strive to do everyone’s jobs, yet they fail to do their job accurately. The popularity of gossip sites in Sri Lanka clearly reveals where we stand as a nation.
Though we ought to look into ourselves as soon as we wake up in the morning, we are doing the complete opposite of it. We log into a famous gossip site or some other news site and check on what is happening in others lives.
Yes, of course you must definitely know what is happening around the world, just as a deer cannot survive in a fierce jungle unless it is attentive to its surroundings so does the same apply to you as well. Yet, it is futile to know every detail of your surroundings if you yourself are not competent and prepared to move forward amidst the challenges your surroundings bestow on you.
Therefore, it is more important to focus on “Self-Development” over “Neighbour Observation”. You cannot experience progress in yourself unless you take a closer look at yourself. How would you ever treat yourself, if you have no clue that you have diabetics? First and foremost you must check your blood to diagnose if you are a diabetic or not. Likewise, you need to inspect your inner self to identify any deficiencies.
When you are aware of who you are, it is easier for you to get assistance from those who can help you. When you seek support you must make sure you are actually honest to the person who is going to help you. If not, you will surely end up in great trouble. It is as though telling the doctor you have a stomach ache when you are having a headache. If you tend to hide the reality, two things can happen.
First, your headache will get worse as you will not receive the treatment you need for your headache. Secondly you might develop a stomach ache as it receives unnecessary medicines that it does not need. If you honestly admit that you have a headache, it will make it much easier for the doctor to treat you, as you are helping him by sharing the right information. In order to share precise information you need to know your real self.
To know your real self, you should be well focused about yourself and not others. Just as you go in front of a mirror, why not close your eyes and dig deep into yourself and see who you really are. To know who your real self is you must deviate your attention from the world and focus on yourself.
When I started the second chapter in my life, I started sitting down and spending more time with myself so that I can get a clear view of myself. The more I sat down with myself the more I revealed about myself to me. Until then I was invisible to myself, as my focus was merely on others, attempting to find out their drawbacks simply to justify my faults to feel better about myself. The more I sat with myself, I came to realise that I seriously needed help as there was hardly anything that I liked about myself.
It is alright if people do not like you, what is important is that you like yourself. It is absolutely stressful and frustrating when you do not like yourself. That is when people seek alternatives to derive joy.
I hated myself so much that I was constantly looking for alternatives to keep myself happy and all those alternatives were fake and temporary that they ultimately led me into a dark deep hole of misery. Therefore, today I invite you to initiate revealing yourself to you so that you would not be unnoticed by you. We ought to see our inner selves on a daily basis just as we look at ourselves in the mirror.
The truth is that we go in front of a mirror for a minimum of 150 times a month, but it is very rare to discover a single occasion that we mirror our inner selves to us.
This has led to the downfall of many, as some weaknesses that could have been eliminated at inception have grown into gigantic trees within us so much so that they have become extremely difficult to uproot.
The older we grow the more mature we ought to become. Unfortunately, what we witness is that people become more stubborn as they grow older. Things that could have been eliminated by using a nail cutter, now sits tall and strong that they cannot be eliminated even by using an axe.
That happens when we walk the journey of life blindly whilst it is invisible to us. Get over your hidden self, open up, so that you can live your life blissfully.
For comments: e-mail: philipnehri@chandanalepa.lk / voice: 0779526496