All too often, many people, both men and women, sadly live their entire lives without ever really knowing or fully understanding who they truly are or knowing themselves entirely, and that is a sad and tragic thought on which to ponder because the reality is that knowing one’s true self is key to us as humans finding inner peace and serenity.

The famed author Shannon Alder has been quoted saying “One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself”, and all too often many of us do unknowingly and regrettably end up falling into the routine of living and behaving in a way that is for pleasing other people and not necessarily ourselves.

This is an unfortunate reality for millions of women in particular, as they are expected to play multiple roles as mothers, sisters, bosses, employees and everything in between.

The end result of donning these multiple “hats” so to speak is that the true self, the person that you need and want yourself to be, becomes lost in the maze of duty and responsibility that we feel we owe to other people.

The fact is, that even though you may go through your entire life thinking without ever even questioning that you are in touch with your true self when the reality is that you have merely and simply just become extremely good at being the multiple personas that the rest of the people in your life have required you to be.

Basically, you may not be being true to yourself for the longest time without ever even knowing it.

Living your life as the person that you want other people to perceive you as instead of embracing and accepting the person that you truly are is perilous to your ultimate happiness, and if you are constantly and consistently trying to impress others at the risk of endangering your own inner bliss is bound to be exhausting and will cause irreparable damage to your mental and emotional health.

Every person, and especially women, should regularly and routinely make it a point to take the time to thoroughly reflect upon their inner selves and determine whether or not they are being genuine to themselves or if they are merely honoring what they think other people need and want them to be.

This is not an easy undertaking and getting to know one’s true self can sometimes be unpleasant or painful. However, no matter how uncomfortable the process of exploring and discovering one’s true inner identity might be will always be worth it in the end, and the reward of really being comfortable in your own skin will be that you will feel safer and more peaceful because you will have rid yourself of the false identity’s that had been residing within your psyche.

Ridding yourself of the false personalities that have managed to invade your inner self will bring peace and happiness to the one identity that is yours and that is only one to which you need to nurture and pay attention to cultivating.

It certainly does take a fair amount of bravery and courage to take the plunge so to speak into revealing your true inner self to both yourself and to those around you in your life, and you may feel that you lack that strength, however, all people are ultimately capable of accomplishing this feat, and in doing so find that they are surprised by and proud of the valor that they probably never even knew existed within them.

Take the time to get to know yourself and you may be pleasantly surprised at how much you really like the real you.