Introduction

Know Thyself is a term coined by the great Greek philosopher Socrates meaning "Know Yourself".

Knowing yourself is a life long process. You need to remove all of the multiple personalities that you put on for different people and at different times. You need to get down to the core of your essence and then you need to get rid of your own false selfimages and delusions.

You must live your lives in search of identifying your true self. You may not be able to know the full-well of yourself. Still it is possible to know it to a greater extent by knowing yourself, your strengths, weaknesses, fears and so on.

To know oneself is to know one's true identity. Your personalities are made up of many facets that you pick up and reflect from your experiences. Sometimes they are strong and cover the real you.

How you manage your life, guide others, take charge, perform and behave in relationships really depends on how effectively you use your strengths and identify your weaknesses which you will discover when you truly know your "self."

Corporate life has become complex. You need to work with people of different region, religion, language and culture. Therefore to understand others first you need to understand yourself. It is impossible to understand others unless a person has understood himself/herself.

You therefore need to discover and become your own true person, not what others perceive you to be; and also not who you believe you must be, but the person that you truly are.

To summarize, knowing yourself is to know your true identity. The true self is the one created in the image of the creator. So to know oneself is being true to oneself and living one's purpose.

Importance of knowing yourself

If you know yourself you will be able to know your strength and weakness. Subsequently you will be able to remove your weak portion. You must know yourself in order to be useful to yourself and others.

1. Helps to control emotions

Knowing yourself guards yourself against your responses triggered by your emotions. Everything you do is based on your emotions only and often emotions lead to miscalculations. Knowing yourself helps you to take control of your emotions and helps in decisions and choices when you are in an emotional state.

2. Helps to reach your goal

Knowing yourself is a very important task that you have to undertake, and the most challenging as well. When you know who you are, and clearly understand what you want, you have a better chance of discovering how to reach your goal, personal fulfillment and happiness.

3. Helps to reach better decisions

Knowing yourself is important because it will help you to make better decisions and be a better person. The more aware you are of your faults the less detached you will feel. You will also feel more at ease with yourself. You will also be able to improve those things that you want to and let go of the things that you can't.

4. Helps to improve relationship

Knowing your true and inner self will be of great help in working to reach your goals more effectively. It will guide you along the path to success and take you to such calmness that it will improve your attitude as well as your relationships with others in your life.

5. Helps to realize and improve your full potential

Knowing yourself will enable you to develop your full potential and be happy, contented and fulfilled. Knowing yourself ensures success in business, friendship, love, sports, or altogether.

6. Helps to experience happiness and joy

Knowing yourself enables you to discover and attain your goals and then when you reach your goals you turn out to be a happy person. This not only fills you with much happiness but also improves your mindset. And that is the happiness in the truest sense.

Process of knowing yourself

1. Maintain personal diary

Maintaining a diary helps you in learning what you are, your likes and dislikes, your passions, and what you want to be in life. Find five to ten minutes every day and choose a comfortable place to write. Write about how you feel, what bothers you, what excites you, and establish a connection between you and yourself.

2. Practice meditation

Meditation helps you to observe yourself in the present moment. Often meditation is misunderstood to be a tough practice and only the sadhus and sanyasis can perform it. It is not so. Meditation is not a state of emptying the mind but emptying yourself of anxiety, worry, excitement and so on. Find 10 minutes every day and sit comfortably. Focus on your breath and allow the thoughts that enter your mind. Acknowledge them but don't allow them to disturb you.

3. Exercise regularly

It is proved time and again that exercise helps a person physically and mentally. Exercise is a kind of meditation. It helps you in different ways. If you are a person facing hard times then exercise is the best way to slow you down.

4. Go for walk regularly

If exercising is not possible, opt for walking because walking is a moving mediation. It allows you to slow down, and notice what's going on around you. It can provide you with an opportunity to mull over something that may be on your mind, or simply to notice the beauty and bounty of what surrounds you.

5. Do some riding or driving

This may look a bit odd here. But driving proves to be a good process particularly when you find it hard to locate a quiet place. Do not forget to take your electronic gadgets to listen to your favourite music.

6. Do some outings

Practice a habit of going out for sight seeing particularly when down with something in life. A day spent in the park, a theatre, coffee house and so on help a lot. These are the outings that allow you to be with yourself. The purpose of these activities is sheer enjoyment.

7. Develop some hobbies

Identify the hobbies of your early days. Try to do things that you used to do those days. It will give you a chance to identify your passion within you. After all what was done in the early days has a lot of impact in a person's life. Hobbies help you to find some time to relax.