How often have we heard it said, "He's gone in search of himself"? It never ceases to amaze me how much time is wasted and lost in search of ones self.
Stop searching, I have the answer, you are right where you have always been! You are right here, right now! Always! What can you possibly hope to find by traveling the world, that you can't find at home? I'm not talking about external things here, I'm talking about you...
No matter where you go, when you stop and ask yourself, "Where am I?", the only possible answer has to be, "Right Here, Right Now!" It reminds me of the old one liner, "I traveled the world in search of myself, and no matter where I went, there I was!" When we rely on the external to help us find the "truth" all we can ever hope to find is that which we want to be the truth, but because it is external, can never be our truth.
Truth comes from within, and can easily be identified by how it makes us feel.
When we come in to congruency with who we really are, it feels good.
If we are not congruent with who we really are, it doesn't feel so good.
That's it! That's how easy it is to identify who we are and where we are.
Life is not meant to be a struggle, but we often make it that way because we don't understand the difference between conflict and contrast.
Contrast is good, it makes us question ourselves in search of the deeper truth, whilst conflict causes us to rise up and try to force our wills upon what ever circumstance is at hand.
The only thing in our entire existence that we have control over is our thoughts.
It doesn't matter, right or wrong how we feel about how others are faring or what they are doing.
We can't control others anymore than we can change the seasons, especially when the others in question are set about doing things that we don't like.
As Gandhi said, "Become the change that you wish to see in the world!" I did this, it works...
If we find some contrast and we wish to change things in order to remove the contrast, then we have to grow from the inside.
I'm sure we have all read the stories of the butterfly being set free from the cocoon by some well meaning individual who watched the animal almost collapse from exhaustion as it was trying to free itself.
The creature that emerged had the body of a butterfly, but it's wings never 'became' any more than two stumpy looking appendages and the creature never took flight, and so died, never having reached it's potential.
It's the struggle that creates the butterfly.
If you keep tadpoles in a fish tank and there is no rock or dry land, the tadpoles will never transform into frogs.
They have no reason to grow or become bigger than their current position.
As Jim Rohn used to say, "Don't ask for things to be easier, ask for more skills so you can do more.
" Truthfully, the search for yourself is as easy as closing your eyes and quieting your mind.
There is no point looking in a mirror, as what you see is not you, but a reflection of you.
Close your eyes and look inside.
Become congruent with who you really are, because that is where you will find you.
That's the only place you will find you.
The beauty of that is, like any search, when you have found what you are looking for, you can stop looking.
Who ever you are, and where ever you are, I wish you peace, love and happiness.