A New Beginning - Understanding Yourself

How many times have you heard the phrase - or something similar to it - "Just be yourself". Allow me to expand some and add a few more catch phrases. "You have to love yourself before you can love others". "Only you know what you really want". "It doesn't matter what everyone else does, do what you want". There are plenty more and feel free to add some into the comments.

Many times when you have an opportunity to "be yourself", there is something that constrains or tempers how far you can go. If you really enjoy walking around in your house with no clothes on and that is "who you are", there are laws  that prohibit you from doing so. In and of itself, there is nothing inherently wrong with striding around in the buff. If there really were something "wrong" with it, then we wouldn't shower naked. 

The point of this example is to explain how certain things or events change are actions; they sometimes change who we are at that moment. Now imagine that a person has constructed a HUGE list of laws, regulations and rules. They are all self imposed and based on how he or she thinks others expect them to live (be or act). This is what I touched on yesterday. Without really sitting down and contriving this list, I did it as my way of being. I reasoned as best I could, these rules on which to base my life. The rules ruled over my emotions and my thoughts. For me, it didn't matter how I felt or what I thought. My intention was, through these rules, to figure out how I supposed others wanted me to act (feel, think, believe so on)

It's important to remember that I didn't consciously sit down and make this list. It evolved over time. Some through my own conjecture and some by doing the wrong thing, paying the consequences and adjusting my rules. Now try and imagine that anytime you didn't act the way you should, you were in danger of going to Hell. That adds a WHOLE new dimension, doesn't it?