to thine own self be true (essay)

8/9/2019 To Thine Own Self Be True (Essay)

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This above all: To thine own self

be true.

It’s been a customary tendency of people, to be different from others. Today the

world has reached a stage where, all you have to be to be different is to be true

to yourself. Sham and hypocrisy in society are chewing the minds of people,

diverting them from making honest wishes, taking honest efforts, which resulted

in the qualitative declination of human personalities. Ethical values and sense of

balanced udgement gets affected, as a result, instantaneous ideas are driving the

human minds instead of long!thought decisions.

The line "This above all# To thine own self be true.$ was said by %olonius

in &illiam Shakespeare's (amlet. It means to know yourself and be true to

yourself. The question arises, how can one be true to himself)

The answer to this very simple question does not rest in the pages of

encyclopaedia nor inside the minds of prophets and wi*ards. It lies in your

heart. To discover it, all we need to do is to follow it, without thinking about

what others think. The root problem in human personalities is the fear of

impression on others’ eyes. That fear drives us to a tendency of hiding things,

rather hiding the true self and showing off the false self. The false self has many

faces. +ost forms of stress, procrastination, aniety, fear, indecision, lack of

purpose or meaning, avoidance, denial, victim mentality and general malaise

can be traced to the false self. The false self embodies the challenges we need to

overcome in order to grow and evolve.

The false self that we put upon as our mask, to hide what we really are, is

not inherited. &e were not born with it. It is acquired, and we can alwaysdispose it. &e can always unlearn what we learnt. -eing true to ourselves can

bring us peace and happiness. -eing honest with ourselves will lead us to

become more honest with others ust like, to love others we have to love

ourselves first/, allowing us to be more accountable to us, and responsible

enough take our own decisions, integrating peace and harmony from the given

situations. -eing ourselves and not trying to imitate someone else's personality

not only help us to find our own identity but allows us to live our life eactly

the way that we want to live it. Self!decision making is a growing problem intoday’s world. &e are confused, because we are concerned about what others



will feel or think, instead of what we think is right. The moment we begin to

understand what is right for us, the very net moment we learn to realise what is

good for others. -eing true to ourselves make us independent and more capable

of making our own decisions. Today most people live the lives of other people,

they don’t have much thoughts of their own, as they are busy imitating some

original masterpiece, which no doubt, they can never successfully imitate, for

one simple reason. That is not theirs. It’s nothing more than a mimicry.

&e do not need to follow in someone else's footsteps to be successful in life.

Success has its different flavours and it can be tasted, in any way we want it, but

the taste should match our choice, and fit our appetite. -ut imitating others, we

actually disrupt our very own taste, and end up with a lump of sugar in our

mouth, which we can neither eat, not spit. &hile we cannot control our

environments or the actions of other people, we can always control ourselves. 0

man can be well known, not by his actions but by his reactions. Instead of

following the footsteps of others, we can leave trails of our own, which

ultimately would lead us to a new state. 0 state of satisfaction, wisdom and true

happiness.

To become aware of what is true, we need to become aware of what is

false as well. Truth and falsehood are relative terms and their coeistence is

inseparable. -ecoming aware of a falsehood, we awaken to a correspondingtruth. 1emaining ignorant of a falsehood, we remain ignorant of its

corresponding truth. Truth and falsehood reveal each other. 0ll of us want to

live the best quality of life possible, and most of us want to be "good$ and

"authentic$ in the eyes of others. -ut, this does not get us anywhere. It is simply

misleading. To be really happy in life one should stop trying to please others.

Instead he can use the same effort in doing something more positive, which

might please him.

To eplore the gold mine of the phrase "To thine own self be true.$, we

first need to step out of our mind, distance ourselves from our false self, and

then think upon it. Stepping out!of!the!mind gives us the opportunity to re!

eamine our doubts, hesitations and fears. It distinguishes our own thoughts and

feelings from the ones planted in our mind by others.

It enables us to see the

line of difference between what we truly need or want/ to what we have been

chasing. It allows us to re!visit our values, beliefs and standards and to choose

them consciously this time



'To thine own self be true' remains nothing more than an inspiring slogan

without cultivating the self!awareness that actually makes it possible. &e must

at first empower our mind to see the eistence of our false self! which is nothing

more than a shadow of the reality lived by others in light. &e must

align

ourselves with our true purpose and intentions, leaving confusions behind.

2nly then, we’ll be able to create something by our own, for our own, and

summing up those little creations of ours, will finally give us a huge creative

masterpiece! a life that no other fellow lived, a life of our own. 2ur own true

voice will guide us through all adversities, making each eperience make us

better than what we were.

Submitted by#

3oydeep 4askar

5lass! 6I! Science

7endriya 8idyalaya, II+ 3oka

to thine own self be true (essay)

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