Know yourself.
Know your strengths and your limitations.
Accept the truth of who you are with no shame and no excuses.
Respect yourself.
If you don’t, who will?
Be yourself.
You will be happy you did.
Tag: individuality
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Be Yourself Unapologetically
There is no reason to make yourself unhappy simply so that someone else can feel more comfortable.
Without being cruel, insensitive, or mean-spirited, be yourself.
Do not grovel, crawl, or shy away from being who you are.
Be yourself unapologetically.
Others will adapt.
They may even thank you for it.
The world is full of people who are not you.
One more not you is not needed.
We need you to be yourself boldly and bravely.
Listen to your heart’s calling, follow it wherever it leads, and allow your life to be an expression of whatever truth you find along the way.
Live your life as yourself, even if it means going against the flow and disappointing others along the way.
The ones who matter will understand and the ones who do not understand do not matter.
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Make Up Your Own Mind
Do not allow other people’s prejudices, resentments, and fears to dictate your attitude.
The more you participate in the world, the more you will be bombarded with different opinions, attitudes, and perspectives.
You cannot avoid outside influences, but you can make up your own mind.
Also, you can and should form your own opinions based on your own experiences and values.
In the end, your attitude will largely dictate the quality of your life.
As such, make sure that your attitude is actually yours and not something you have simply picked up along the way.
You need to live with yourself.
It is best, therefore, to be yourself.
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Our Inner Voice Is Ours Alone
We should not be jealous of others for behaviors our consciences will not abide.
A conscience is a funny thing. It is both very personal and very specific. Attitudes and behaviors that do not appear to bother one person’s conscience may make another’s flail and scream in protest.
Some people, it seems, have much stronger consciences than others, not necessarily better, just more pronounced, obvious, and restrictive. These people are highly sensitive to their actions and the consequences of these actions with regards to others They experience deep remorse and regret from even the slightest of moral infractions.
Other people, the attitudes and behavior of whom would suggest, have very little in the form of a conscience. Their actions seem unbound by any kind of quiet inner-voice or moral compass. Perhaps their consciences are merely quieter than the former type, maybe they are drowned out by other, much louder influences, or, it could be that their consciences just guide them differently.
The simple fact is, however, that none of this really matters. We each experience conscience differently. The attitudes and behavior of others should have little to no influence on the way that our own inner morality manifests. In fact, nothing good will come from trying to live in a way that aligns with a conscience not our own.
Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.
Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Photo by Robert Van Valkenburgh. Artwork by Ana.
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Aligning Consciences (The Group And The Individual)
Every group has a conscience, but we must ask ourselves whether that conscience aligns with our own.
Some extreme examples notwithstanding, each of us has a conscience, an inner compass if you will, that, if we allow it to, guides our attitudes, outlooks, and decisions. Whenever two or more people gather together for any purpose, a new conscience begins to develop between them. Each person brings his or her own experience, ideas, values, and morals to the group and, as these begin to commingle, something new emerges: a group conscience.
This new group conscience is not necessarily greater or lesser than its individual parts, but it is always different. When the group agrees on core principles, values, and codes of behavior, the group’s conscience becomes a powerful voice that guides the group’s decisions and actions, amplifying the power of the individual members. On the other hand, if the group is divided with regards to the fundamental beliefs that brought and keep it together, the group’s conscience will be confused, conflicted, and muddled, diminishing the collective voice of the group and the individual voices that make it up.
Whether consciously or subconsciously, when we join or start a group, we do so with the hope that there will be an exchange of influence. We hope to have some positive input over the direction of the group’s conscience, that the group will give our values, beliefs, and morality a louder, more powerful voice, but also that the group will give positive guidance and direction to our lives lives as well. When it becomes clear that a group we are a part of has a vastly different conscience than our own, however, when our conscience and the group’s conscience are so out of alignment that there is constant, unhealthy tension, we owe it to ourselves and to the group to go our own way.
Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.
Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh unless otherwise noted.
Follow Robert Van Valkenburgh and Holistic Budo on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.
If you found this post helpful or meaningful in some way, please feel free to Share, Comment, and Subscribe below.
Meditations on God 