Can We Know Ourselves?

Every individual is always at war within themselves in order to know who they really are. But with the constant changes of our environment, society, and acquaintances, it is quite difficult to find a reasonable answer to questions such as knowing yourself. The pressure that is put on every individual by their surroundings, forces them to make minor changes in their behaviour unconsciously, which leads to being a new person, depending on the conditions that the individual lives in.

The human being is the most complex creature of all, and gets influenced by almost anything around his environment. The living condition, atmosphere, weather… etc. are all factors that influence our personality. The most common example could be something as simple as the weather. Living in a warm country freshens up the mood and gets one eager to have different activities, and makes one a happy and energised person, while living in a cold country will have the exact opposite effect, and make one slightly depressed after a long period of time. Knowing that something as basic as a change of weather might create various moods, brings up the fact that humans are not who they really think they are, and can’t remain as they are when put in distinct situations.

The factors that affect our behaviour are not only the environmental situations a person ends up in, but also the society’s demands that encourage an individual to change in order to be accepted. As a human, more than half of the time we are not aware of the choices that are made in our brain. Being beautiful is one of the most important standards in today’s society, and almost every person on this earth is struggling in order to justify that demand. As much as it might sound wrong in the aware part of the brain, the unaware part is striving to accomplish the need of beauty. In shorter terms, there are two types of thinking in one brain, or in other words, living with another person. To be able to know oneself, an individual has to get to know the other half of himself as well; but as long as we are unaware of the other half’s thoughts and feelings, this would be a never ending chase for an invisible person.

There are, however, people that are not only visible, but that also play an important role in the structure of a person’s personality. It could be anyone among friends and family members, even stars and famous people. A parent's good relationship with his/her child might strengthen the child’s personality, or make them confident in their adult life; or one might love Bob Marley’s ideas about peace, and therefore build up a calm personality and peaceful behaviour. But a sad event such as a fight between a parent and child, or death of an idol can create the contradicting affects that a person has had on someone else’s life. Humans try to blend in in order to get comfortable with the people they have contact with, or get influenced by other personalities. The changes that an individual makes in their behavior by having a social life are both direct and indirect. Either way, the changes are so many that a person can’t manage to keep his/her knowledge updated of everything during so little time.

In the end, the war we all have within ourselves is to make sure the person we are is flawless and in order to do that, we go through so many changes to reach perfection. But the desire for perfection will last forever and so will the alternation of personality. Humans will make constant changes because of their environment, society, and acquaintances. There will never be a way to completely know ourselves because we don’t allow ourselves to be who we are. We are just a reflection of what and whom we have encountered in this world, and that is all there is to know about ourselves.