posted January 27, 2005 09:02 AM         

Something for your consideration, that I've thought about from time to time. It takes me on a spiral that never ends, and I'd be very interested to hear the valuable, insightful opinions/thoughts/spirals of the Knowflakes.

What if being yourself is being a nasty-@ss B!tch?

Jeffrey Dahmer was being himself...

Pedophiles are being themselves.

Does being yourself include the ability to change yourself, to conform, to be what others want you to be in order to 'fit in?' Is that what we truly mean by 'being yourself?' That we want you to be yourself, so long as yourself is what we want you to be?

posted January 27, 2005 09:46 AM         

WS

by being true to yourself you don't lie to yourself about whom you truly are. this doesn't mean you have to 'let it all hang out.' you can present what you consider appropriate to your audience, without sharing all your intimate feelings.

i think this is where the idea of the golden rule...do unto others....applies. of course not everyone subscribes to this.

a secular way of looking at it would be in terms of the id, ego and superego. we have each sharing a place in our conscious. it depends, i would guess, on the balance we achieve and the leeway we ascribe to each of these. Freud took this concept from Plato, and i suppose it has to do with interaction with society.

of course, above all, to thine own self be true, is the most important thing..."knowing thyself". by not lying to yourself about who you are, you can invoke that balance of the id, ego and superego, without alienating those around you.

perhaps dahmer and co. lacked that balance. perhaps if one has such anger and bile churning inside, that renders one a nasty-@ss B!tch, something will come to the fore to correct this, such as an illness or disease.

not as punishment of course. as a balancing measure. louise hay's books address this issue.

well, i used lots of idioms and cliches...but ultimately, i think learning to be honest with oneself will allow a graceful and considerate interaction with others.

posted January 27, 2005 09:57 AM         

quote:

---

You are your own danger, and you are inviting that trouble by ignoring some part of yourself and imagining that you are only some side or aspect. You may believe that you have no desires because you are in a holy place, thinking holy things. It may look true, but it is not wholly true. When you leave the holy place, go to the railway station, the bus stand and the market, that which you have not taken into account at this present moment will come up and engage your attention adequately. It is better that you guard yourself about it now itself before you prepare yourself for meditation. We should not be having secrecies about our own selves. Are you going to hide something in yourself? You may not declare yourself to other people for certain reasons, but will you not declare yourself to yourself? Tell your own self honestly what you are. Will your heart say that you are a God-man, a spiritual seeker? If you are honest, you will realise that you are a dustbin filled with umpteen cravings, submerged longings, and disturbed emotions. If you are dishonest to yourself, you will not progress even by one inch.

... Do you know how many desires you have? They look like several things, like the many branches of a tree, but they are all capable of being boiled down to certain units, just as medical science tells us that all illness is threefold, known as vata, pitta, and kapha-windy, bilious, and phlegmatic. These are the three humours in the body. When these are maintaining a state of balance, we feel healthy. But if any one of them is out of balance, it will rise up and indicate an illness. Though diseases appear to be manifold, they arise from a threefold disturbance in the body.

---

Swami Krishnananda - The Divine Life Society

posted January 27, 2005 10:28 AM         

said popeye the sailorman

posted January 27, 2005 01:10 PM         

BE YOU
BE SOBER
FEEL FREELY
REFUSE FOUL, LOUSY ROLES
YES, REBEL
USE YOUR SOUL
FREE YOUR SOUL

posted January 27, 2005 01:14 PM         

Hi Librasparkle!!!
I am glad you are yours-elf
All of you.. no pretense of conceptualized version. I love your dimples and ferrocity.

posted January 27, 2005 02:30 PM         

Until you can fully love and accept yourself, people will continue to bother you when they are just "being themselves".

posted January 27, 2005 04:34 PM         

I'm sorry I don't have time to reply to each of you right now, but I will. Just give me a little time. I'm at work and winding down my day, but I wanted you to know that you have all impressed me with your spirals (as I knew you would).

That being said...Philly, you made perfect sense. But, did you think I was referring to myself as the nasty-@ss b!tch? I wasn't, but's ok, I can see why some people might think that's an accurate description of me. As a fictional Stephen King character once said, "Sometimes being a b!tch is the best friend a woman has."