1 step towards being yourself
At least once in life, everybody has heard the advice “just be yourself”. But how can we be ourselves if we keep telling and hearing from others how we are supposed to be? Nowadays internet offers 7-steps manuals on what to eat, how to walk, where to go, how long to inspire and expire, as if at the end of those 7 steps followed by 5 minutes of mindful focused breathing, we would also find an ultimate answer for why to live. Which shall happen after subscribing the blog of the manual, or, the latest, once we bought the product of the company featuring the blog.
How can I be sure whether the quinoa from Andes will make me live longer for its rich amino acids as scientifically proven by British experts? Only two things are sure: that I have lived long without it; and that extraction of natural resources from foreign countries often shortens the lives of people living there, who did eat quinoa since their birth – and cannot afford it anymore. Okay, it’s not about being sure about anything, but about having an experience. Just try it out, so you can later tell others about your unique transcendental experience and write your own 7-steps manual. Perhaps Andeans will read it too, flee to Great-Britain and have the unique transcendental opportunity of eating their own quinoa from a collective start-up that distributes waste food from supermarkets and restaurants for free.
There are as many good and bad arguments for doing something as there are for not doing it. Are eggs healthy or bad for cholesterol? Is abortion a crime against life or is it a right of women for their own life? Is vegetarianism more beneficial to the environment than carnivorism or does it harm living beings as well?
We want to convince ourselves of something and to convince others of it. Con-vincere: we want to win. To win a better life, to win recognition, to win security, to win wealth, peace and love. We already possess it all, but constantly lose it by getting mislead through the convictions of others. A battle takes place between my ever-evolving identity and the roles I am supposed or wish to play in society. Society is huge, whereas I am just a little vulnerable fly. It is a conquest in itself to be able to fly freely without being smashed by that titan. It is a second conquest to meet high in the sky other birds who already conquered the freedom of authenticity. Several swallows together can make a summer.
Perhaps you would rather be yourself by eating your mom’s porridge. But don’t do it just because I wrote it. Please don’t do anything I say; please don’t follow me. If we meet in the sky one day, it will be because, after following thousand steps from people and paths you trust, you have grown your own wings. The first step to live a better life – after taking this screen off your face – is to move your own foot forward.
