If one is self-aware, or seeking to be
self-aware, it is quite possible to become aware of one’s flaws, and then doing
something about them – whether that is contain the damage they do, or actually
change oneself so the problems have been either transformed or resolved.
As an example of that, when I was a kid I
became aware that I have a bad temper, largely because of my involvement in
personal growth / spiritual development/evolution, including – as a teenager - Buddhism.
Knowing, because of that personal growth work, that I am a “work in progress”, I
was able to make the decision to use my anger, rather than being a tool for
that anger (or, more accurately, whatever was behind it) to express
itself.
If I’d been caught up in some sections of the
New Age movement, I would have been focused on the “accept and love oneself as
one is” view, and thus failed to acknowledge the value of, and need for, transforming
and integrating that aspect of oneself so one becomes a better, more effective
person.
The process for doing that is often referred
to as shadow work.
This concept and terminology has, however, a
much older lineage – one which goes back to the Temple
of Delphi in ancient Greece, where it was the first of three sayings.
For more on that,
see :
·
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Know_thyself&oldid=1088998966,
which includes the various attributions and historic usages;
·
https://exploringyourmind.com/the-origin-of-the-famous-saying-know-thyself/;
·
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/201403/know-thyself;
and
·
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/Know+thyself.
I have also
written about this at :
·
Post
No. 873 – The Importance of Knowing Thyself … and Doing Something About It.
·
Post
No. 2,130 - Burned bridges and other changes;
·
Post
No. 2,106 - the puppets of social conditioning;
·
Post
No. 1,214 - Courage in the Workplace;
·
Post
No. 1,208 - Some Thoughts on Living;
·
Post No.
1,181 - Trauma;
·
Post
No. 718 - Intellectual Cowardice (and conspiracy theories);
·
The
brutality and sometimes sadism of engineering;
·
Post
No. 2,357 - What is the term for the opposite of wisdom?.
Related to this is also :
“The
unexamined life is not worth living”
For more on that, see :
·
https://www.socratic-method.com/philosophy-quote-meanings/socrates-the-unexamined-life-is-not-worth-living;
·
https://echoesofquotes.com/the-meaning-behind-the-unexamined-life-is-not-worth-living-what-socrates-really-meant/;
·
https://thinkpeakstudio.com/blog/quote-explained-socrates-july-2026/;
and
·
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_unexamined_life_is_not_worth_living&oldid=1369756590.
For my original writing ONLY on this blog:
Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2025
NO AI
I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence
(AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or
other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to
reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise replicate any part of
this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product. Otherwise,
fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Links to others works and excerpts from others works are NOT covered by the hereinbefore, and remain subject to the conditions of the original source.
