I’ve spent most of my life misunderstood. One aspect of my life and lifestyle or another someone didn’t get.
It might have been family, friends, coworkers, teachers, bosses, or all the above. Someone didn’t get it, didn’t get me, and I did my thing as I saw fit to do.
I was unhappy every time I tried to be what and who others expected me to be. Working normal 9-5 jobs, practicing the religion I was raised in, monogamous dating, and the like, just felt like I was consistently a square peg trying to fit a round hole.
For a long time, this was important to me. I wanted them to accept me, to get me, to want me to be a part of their world. Over many years of my life, I was a people pleaser, doing things that I believed those around me wanted me to do so that they accepted me.
For reasons both of my own doing and resulting from outside matters and influences, this was never me. When it came to who I was, they didn’t get it or me.
It took a long time for me to realize that was not just okay, but also right for me.
Who the hell are you?
Self-awareness is a phrase often grouped with all things hooky-spooky, new-agey, touchy-feeling, woke, and weird. Yet it’s incredibly important to everyone because you, and you alone, can be really, truly, aware of yourself.
Who the hell are you? Only you have that answer.
The collective consciousness of society, however, tries to tell a very different story. You’re labeled and grouped by numerous artifices that are largely complete and utter bullshit. Yet gender, age, sexual orientation, skin color, nationality, religion, and numerous other utterly artificial things are the labels assigned to everyone everywhere.
Are you the labels you’re assigned? Yes, but no. Yes because you identify as a gender, with an age, a sexual orientation, skin color, nationality, and so on. Is that you, however? Not even remotely.
Labels are how people work to get it and you. By labeling “us” and “them” in all sorts of ways, you can create a sense of community, superiority, inclusivity, exclusivity, and so on. However, the labels barely scratch the surface of who anyone anywhere is.
Self-awareness is not taught in school because you’re expected to just be someone. Do you get it? I don’t. Who teaches you to look inside yourself to know who, what, where, how, and/or why you are? Nobody.
Yet you’re labeled and grouped and otherwise sorted by the world at large. When you do anything outside the expected or the norm, people don’t get it. That drives many to stop being their genuine, authentic self.
Yet the truth is that they don’t have to get it, your art, or you.
Creatives tend to think outside the box. They work apart from the standards, the norms, and the expectations of the world.
How else can you bring something new to the world if you don’t reach outside of what’s already expected, accepted, and/or known?
This can be deeply terrifying, however. Why? Because when they don’t get it, your art, or you, this can feel like rejection.
The truth, unfortunately, is that sometimes it is. You might get voted off the island or booted from the tribe because you are not doing what they expect you to do. They don’t get it, so they shun you for it.
While this can be painful, it can also be incredibly empowering and freeing. You can be your most genuine, true, authentic self without fear. That will draw others to you who are more aligned with you and your values, beliefs, and overall being.
That can take time and come with a period where you are more alone and on your own than part of any group. Still, when you are self-aware, alone isn’t so bad.
This is one of the main reasons why self-awareness is so important. If you can’t be with yourself, on your own, can you ever truly be with or among others? Not really.
All you need to do to get to know yourself – and who, what, why, how, and where you are – is practice active conscious awareness. Yes, this is mindfulness.
Mindfulness so that you get it
Mindfulness is another concept frequently grouped with all things hooky-spooky, new-agey, touchy-feeling, woke, and weird. However, mindfulness is simply active conscious awareness. Thus, self-awareness in practice.
To use it, all you need to do is ask yourself questions like:
What am I thinking?
What am I feeling?
How am I feeling?
What are my intentions?
Is my approach to things positive or negative?
What am I doing?
Each of these can only be answered in the here and now, at this present moment. Hence, each of these questions and their answers makes you self-aware, and that’s all there is to mindfulness.
If they don’t get it, your art, or you, self-awareness allows you to get it, your art, and yourself. When all is said and done that’s what matters the most. With this knowledge, you’re empowered. When you’re empowered, you can be a better creator, and you can write your stories, paint your pictures, sculpt your cups, or do whatever creative endeavor makes you feel most like yourself. Ultimately, you do what you do, create what you create, for you, whether they get it, your art, and you – or not.
Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you, I conclude with this: How are you inspired to be your own creator – whatever form that takes?
Please take a moment to check out the collection of my published works, which can be found here.
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