“Know thyself.” That is what, according to the Greeks, could be read in the Oracle of Delphi, the temple of wisdom of Apollo. That was the great lesson that everyone, heroes, humans and gods, had to learn. Self-knowledge was the only path to true wisdom.

This same idea is rescued by Alex Rovira and Francesc Miralles in their latest book, Homo Solver. Because the first chapter, the first page, almost the first message that is obtained when reading this title, is the same one that the Greeks expressed in that oracle. Know yourself, it’s the only way.

The mystery of oneself

It’s funny, but many of us go through this life without knowing who we are. It is a risky move, Rovira and Miralles acknowledge in their book. Not being able to answer the question “who am I?” can cause us great difficulties. in life.

“If you don’t know who you are, you may not know the gifts that lie within you, nor what your priorities are. Being a stranger to ourselves can lead us to confuse ourselves with others.to adopt roles and responsibilities that do not correspond to us, to allow ourselves to be carried away by the vision and expectations that others have of us,” the authors explain.

In short, “you run the risk of defining yourself and behaving according to a label that others have given you.” And that is the same as condemning yourself to a life without identity, a life that is not yours, because you have not claimed it as such.

And, for Rovira and Miralles, “a life worth living is based on authenticity, and That necessarily implies making friends with yourself.recognize yourself as the unique and genuine being that you are.”

This is you

Getting to know yourself can be a complex experience. Maybe when you look closer, you will discover certain shadows that you didn’t imagine. May you even realize that you have directed many of your life decisions in the wrong direction. Looking at yourself is not easy, and it can cause real terror.

But only by doing so can we access certain knowledge that remained beneath the surface, that was not within our reach until we dared to throw it headlong into that abyss that can be self-knowledge.

Because only when you know yourself do you know who you are. And only then do you stop making decisions that benefit others, rather than yourself.. Only then do you know your priorities. Only then do you connect with your passions. Only then do you know if the steps you are taking are bringing you closer or further away from who you are.

The problem is that, beyond fear, We live in a society that does not facilitate this task of self-knowledge..

With filters, trends and thousands of distractions, looking at yourself seems like an odyssey, a daring thing. That is why Francesc Miralles and Álex Rovira have left us within the pages of their book a guide, some first steps and advice, that we can apply to start getting to know each other.

Self-knowledge

The journey of self-knowledge begins the moment we become aware of our own identity, but it never ends. It is, as Rovira and Miralles say, a “journey to the center of oneself.”. To get started, the first advice from this couple of personal growth experts is to start practicing mindfulness or meditation. Because this is the art of self-awareness. Only through meditation we observe ourselves and learn how our mind works.

But in addition to practicing mindfulnessAccording to experts, “art, in all its variants, is an excellent way to get to know ourselves, without excluding what remains in the submerged part of the iceberg of consciousness.” We can explore ourselves by painting, composing music, singing, dancing or writing.connecting with the art form that inspires us the most.

Take the first step

Although in particular and in everything related to creativity, experts recommend four essential techniques:

• Write episodes of your life. It is essential “to understand each other better,” Miralles and Rovira say in the book. Because human beings, since we developed the capacity for language, tell our own story to understand ourselves. It is also useful, they point out, to “keep a diary of emotions to better recognize and modulate what we feel on a daily basis.”
• line of life. “If you don’t like writing very much, you can do what is known in coaching like the ‘line of life,’» the authors add. «To do this, we will begin by drawing a horizontal line with a cross in the middle, which corresponds to our ‘here and now.’» On the left, dot, place the important events of your past. On the right, what you would like to happen in your future, putting immediate projects closer and then medium and long-term plans.

• tree technique. If your mind is more visual, you can draw the tree of life. Draw a tree on a piece of paper and place on the roots “the main events of the past, on the trunk what defines our present, and on the branches we would represent the future fruits,” the experts explain.
• Dig into your dreams. Finally, Miralles and Rovira recommend keeping a dream diary in which we can write down our dreams, since these can help us «rescue reminiscences of the past and unconscious desires.» It can also help us “check which themes and symbols are repeated”, thus increasing your degree of self-knowledge.