How Well do You Know Yourself?
Nobody Perceives You the Way You Perceive Yourself
Frida Kahlo
Cover image from the book;
Frida Kahlo's Garden
I am the person I know best.
Quote from Frida Kahlo regarding her self portraits.
I have been fascinated by Frida Kahlo's expression of self for many years. Her use of light and shadow in her creativity depicts, closely, her awareness of shadow and brightness in herself. Light and shadow that each of us have. The quote above is preceded by deeper reflection: I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.
For me, alone time has always been paramount to me thriving in a noisy, busy world. Alone but not lonely, which I think is what tormented Frida somewhat. That opinion is my own based on the fact that she divorced her husband, Diego Rivera and ended her longtime affair with photographer Nickolas Muray in the same year. Anyway, this is not a study on Frida Kahlo, merely a reflection of how well she knew herself and how that led to her owning exactly who she was. (Incidentally she re-married Diego Rivera some time later).
~ Last snippet of information (sorry, I am just so fascinated with her perceptions): If you look closely at the image above, you will see that she has transformed both thistle and zinnia flowers into flying insects, closely resembling either dragonfly or butterfly - although I am not an artistic creative, I do love how she blends her love of nature and the natural, into her paintings.
Virginia Woolf
Image credit: https://www.radicalteatowel.com
Further research into our relationship with ourselves, led me to explore the work of Virginia Woolf.
Although I was surprised to discover that she, like Frida Kahlo, was also a painter of light and dark, it was her written work that drew me to reflect on her stance regarding self-knowledge and how that transferred into her relationships. She, like Frida Kahlo, experimented with bisexuality.
Woolf often employed the painterly technique of chiaroscuro, the use of strong contrasts between light and dark. Quoted from AnOther Magazine here: Virginia Woolf
It appears to me that those who delve deep into knowing themselves have greater freedom in expressing themselves and living their life on their terms.
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The longevity of Woolf's writing is as inspirational today as it was long ago. Her insight into our emotions, feelings and thought processes shows a complex understanding of human nature. - Gina Wisker.
In her book, To the Lighthouse, Woolf explores the ramifications of people influencing each other and attempting to understand each other. Again, in similarity to Frida, Woolf draws her conclusions from nature, describing the differences between the logical brain and the intuitive. She decides that, although the flowers are real, they are also symbolic - their colours represent the different ways in which Mr and Mrs Ramsay appreciate life itself. To him they are simply categorisable by colour, while she feels involved and warm towards them. - Adapted from Virginia Woolf A Beginner's Guide by Gina Wisker. This leads to her astute understanding that we make different assessments of self and others based on individual thoughts. So, once again, the deeper we know ourselves the greater our freedom of expression, confirming my belief that nobody perceives you the way you perceive yourself.
The Fifth Agreement
by Don Miguel Ruiz and Don Jose Ruiz
Image credit https://www.morefamousquotes.com
The book is way too full of wisdom for me to be able to paraphrase all of it, but here is the crux of self-study: Ruiz is imploring us to use our imagination and imagine we are seeing ourselves on a movie screen - Now you can see the way your beloved perceives you, and the character is completely different from the one who was in your movie. You can see the way your beloved wants to project him- or herself, and it's not the way you perceive your beloved at all.
The self-mastery in The Fifth Agreement is worth exploring further
I am not affiliated with any of these authors, books or publishers, in fact, they were recommended to me by friends who share the same curiosity as me.
So, my question is, how well do you know yourself? I mean deeply. Not just your likes and dislikes, but the way and the why of your reactions, triggers and self-embodiment?
Take a good hard look in the mirror
and let me know what you find.
It's time to go forwards and discover your true self.Elora Canne
Suggested further reading on the discovery of self:
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