“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” — Aristotle

Do you know who you are? Or, do you have a preconceived idea of whom you think you are? Do you like what you see? Or, are you so filled with self hatred that you avoid looking at yourself in the mirror, and you avoid any topic that deals with knowing yourself because you cannot face who you think you are?

Before we discuss details raised by these topics, it is vital to note that no one is as bad as they think they are.

We all have healthy and unhealthy parts of our internal psyche. No one is all good or all bad. It also takes an inordinate amount of bravery to start the process of knowing yourself.

Self discovery isn’t difficult, it is a process, and it takes time. Therefore, it is essential to be patient and gentle with yourself. And, it is crucial to allow yourself the time needed to walk along the road of self discovery.

At the outset of this discussion, here are a couple of steps to follow to start on your journey to know yourself. And finally, it is vital to note that you won’t be walking this journey on your own. The discussion that follows will help you start on this vital walk of self discovery.

How to Navigate The new normal After The Pandemic:

There is no doubt that we are living in unprecedented times. The novel coronavirus, COVID 19, pandemic has forced at least 50% of the global population into a lockdown type scenario.

The global economy has come to a grinding halt with estimated losses of $1 trillion USD predicted for 2020 alone. There are more than 5.2 million infected cases around the world with 338 249 deaths.

Scientists and medical professionals do not know much about this virus’s behavior, except that it is extremely contagious, and it spreads via person to person transmission. Thus, one of the only ways of controlling its spread is

The COVID 19 infection cycle is cyclic. It starts with low numbers and then starts doubling until it reaches its peak and then starts slowing down. Once the infection rate has slowed down enough, governments can start to open the economy again.

The good news is that most of Europe, the UK, and the USA are starting to tiptoe their way out of the lockdown. There is the real fear that if people move around too quickly, it will trigger a second wave of infections, and force a second lockdown.

Discovering the real you as A Way to conquer the post pandemic world:

We are dealing with the virus at the moment, but the strategy is not flawless. It comes with an expense of possible mental health issues.

There are people reaching out to us with serious mental health complications from both the need to stay away from other people for long periods as well as the consequences of not knowing what the future holds.

No one knows what the post COIVD 19 world will look like. This has resulted in fear and anxiety in large sectors of the global population.

Therefore, it is essential to find ways to manage the stress, anxiety, and fear caused by the global pandemic before it results in a serious mental health issue like PTSD and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, or GAD.

Consequently, here are three tips to help you start on the road to discovering who you really are.

1. Be authentic.

Even though this statement often sounds trite and artificial, the underlying sentiment is an essential part of finding yourself. Living a lie is counter intuitive to living a full life. And, if left for long enough will result in mental health issues like Depression and GAD. So the first thing you can do to discover who you are is to be authentic. Whatever that means for you. We often edit who we are according to an approval from others, but you cannot find who you really are if you are pretending. So be yourself. If you do not like something stand by your opinion. If you are passionate about something and nobody else is, pursue it yourself. Share what you really feel, not what is good for your image that you try others to have for you. Stop editing yourself and be your raw self. Believe in who you really are, believe that you are good enough to be who you really are. And remember, the best version of the person you pretend to be will not be as good of a YOU as the most flawed version of your real self. The authenticity matters.

2. Embrace challenges.

As described above, it’s vital to embrace who you are and to allow yourself to believe in yourself. Ergo, believing that you are bad and attempting to pretend you are someone else, will result in negative consequences, especially during tough times like the current coronavirus pandemic. Consequently, it is important to embrace the challenges that you face to peel away the artificial layers and to expose your real self. This is a scary process for everyone going through the journey of self discovery. Thus, it’s vital to remember to take baby steps on this road. Have a strong enough discipline to face the challenges of being the real you instead of backing down and avoiding to face them by pretending.

3. Treat everyone else with dignity and respect.

Big part of the journey to self discovery is to learn to treat people with dignity and respect, irrespective of how they treat you. In other words, it is vital to rise above the petty arguments that occur between people, especially during incredibly stressful times. Be who you really are, stay on your path, but remember to be kind because we are all fighting hard battle. We are all together in this. At the end of the day is not about you being on the top, it’s about all of us raising together as humans.

If you need any extra help with managing stress and anxiety during this crisis please write to us at [email protected] with your problem and how you feel. Our team of coaches will reply to each email we receive and see how we can help you get out of this as a better version of yourself. It’s not a weakness to ask for help. It’s brave and it’s trait of strong people.