If you’re going to defend your right to be yourself, be aware of which ‘self’ it is you are defending.
It’s not always as simple as saying ‘I’m just being myself’. To be able to say this with insight, one first has to be able to identify the levels of themselves.
Know that if you’re acting out of an avoidant or reactive place; defensive, angry, controlling, complaining, blaming etc, this is not ‘being yourself’. This is a part of you that’s taken the stage, and it’s in stepping back into our objective, observing level, the ‘true Awareness you’, that you can come to see and manage these parts, their thoughts, reactions and behaviours, and to make conscious choices around them, rather than being lost in them and acting from them.
With this we can also build a loving, integrated relationship with our parts, we can look after their fears and insecurities and help guide ourselves. Like a parent does for an unaware child.
