• From an early age, we have been taught that to be accepted by people out there, we had to meet certain standards
Our bodies are but vessels; they are shells for in each one of us there are two selves: the outer self (the shell) and the inner self, where all your treasures lie.
Our outer self is what we present to the world. It is concerned with the material: your hair, clothes, the cars you drive. It is here that you’ll also find the groups you belong to or the persona you portray.
The inner self, on the other hand, is what can’t be seen. It is a person’s true or internal mind, soul or nature. It is who you really are on the inside and it happens to be of immeasurable value.
Unfortunately, this is not how the world looks at itself. We see the shell, the outer self. We judge and are judged by how we look: Black, Asian, White, Brown, fat, handsome, ugly, beautiful, and so on. And we’re appraised and appraise others based on where they live and work, and how they dress and talk.
That’s just how the world is. We only see ourselves through the world’s eyes. This is with good reason. You see from an early age, we have been taught that to be accepted by people out there, we had to meet certain standards. This not only meant we had to follow their rules, but that gradually, we went on to take their worldview. As such, with the passage of years, we stopped judging ourselves for what we are on the inside and started judging ourselves according to the criteria set out there. We stopped enjoying the things we liked doing, to do the things that pleased others. And in doing so, we lost touch with our own selves, lost sight of our inner self.
All this time spent building the outer self has consequently led to our constantly looking outside of ourselves for validation, satisfaction, love, riches, beauty. It has led to our looking to extract whatever it is we seek from the outside, struggling and striving and always feeling that there’s something missing and yet what we seek is not out there.
You do not need to search outside yourself to find peace or to be “fixed”. The answers that you seek are all within you – Michelle Maros.
Do not see yourself through the world’s eyes. What others out there say or think about you just by looking at your shell is not who you are. To know who you really are, to know your inner self, is to know not what you have been told by others but rather what you have discovered for yourself; the values, vision, goals, motivations and beliefs you have found to be true to you. But to see this inner self, to see yourself through you own eyes, requires introspection.
‘…I have learned that the greatest journey a man can make is the journey inside his own head.’ – Bostar
And once you do take this journey, you will find that it is in the inner self that your treasure lies.
We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us – Rumi