How To Be Yourself And Still Be Happy?

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken” – by Oscar Wilde is a simple reminder of how unique each of us are. But this is not about getting to know what your strengths are or about that hidden talent you were scared to pursue. It is about realising your worth. Answering to the big question – Are you happy being YOU? A walk down your memory lane when you believed so, may help a little.

Innocence feared none

As a child, you were never afraid to speak your thoughts, no matter how hard, unapologetic, blunt the truth was. You were simply being yourself. But as we grow, we somehow restricted our thoughts and thereby held our words.

In an effort to adhere to the corporate world moral, that preaches to please others, we simply lost ourselves a bit. The worst thing is that we got comfortable with it.

Then came schooling…

To date, your school friends are your best buddies and most of your happy memories are from your school days. You were hanging out with unadulterated, like-minded, free spirited human beings called Friends.

Their comments, criticism neither hurt you nor measured you. And you were again simply being yourself then and were accepted for that. Does that ring a bell yet?

When you had a hobby

Stamp collecting, the most told hobby, a decade back, is no more a thing perhaps! Don’t be surprised if we didn’t even have a concept of “hobby” a decade later. We are all so engrossed in our busy life we somehow down the line forgot to LIVE them. We are just surviving. But how does that define ME you may ask?

Hobbies defined your interest aside from a career you wanted to pursue. It kept your inner child alive. When you gave up that habit, you let your inner child starve and became more NOT YOU. To provoke you more to travel down that memory lane like I promised to take you, I’m listing few of the most celebrated hobbies.

• Stamp Collecting
• Diary Writing
• Coins Collecting
• Sketching / Painting
• Leaves Collecting
• Clay Modeling
• Sea Shells Collecting

The self-motivation you had for your hobby is all you seek for your daily routine these days don’t you think?

Being yourself is being your own judge

Like we read earlier, we restrict our thoughts fearing judgment from others. Slowly we restricted our actions and became a stranger to ourselves. A little time each day for ourselves would have helped us get over it. Precisely, be yourself.

You would be surprised by the results of merely spending 5 to 10 minutes with / for yourselves everyday would fetch you. Move to a quiet place and assess your day and jot down points that you need to work on and situations that could have been handled better.

Forgive yourselves and move on…

Now that you have had a date with yourselves and have a list of “Things to do” with you, It’s time to take some action. But first things first. Remember, we took note of situations that could have been handled better. Before you could take any action, you need to understand that it is not going to change the past, but may reduce the consequences and future recurrence. So you need to take it as a lesson, pick up insights to learn and move on.

Even if the mistake is on you, don’t be to hard on yourselves, apologize wherever possible and move on. When you do so, you let your inner child jump in joy and don’t starve anymore.

Be yourself Be Happy!

Now as a perk to what you did, gift yourselves some YOU TIME. Read a book, or listen to your favourite music or simply have a long walk preferably on a park, breathing in all the oxygen you could fill your lungs with. Feel refreshed and get ready to face the world again. But this time you will be yourself and will be HAPPY.

And that’s how you make phew changes….