MY INITIAL THOUGHTS ON BLOGGING

At long last, I have also decided to jump on to the Bloggers' bandwagon. The idea of starting a blog of my own had come long back and I had immediately created a blog then but it was the subject for the first blog that had been eluding me until yesterday when a friend of mine said, “Just start it. Don’t think too much. Simply write on anything, on any subject,” and here I am.

I thought that the easiest thing in the world would be to write about one’s own self because prima facie it looks that you know everything about yourself and the only thing you require is a little time, a laptop and some inclination. Language is immaterial because it is only a man-made tool for expressing your innermost thoughts and feelings.

These were my initial thoughts and gave me some comfort to start writing. However, the mind immediately countered this thought. What do you really know about yourself? Did you not read about JOHARI window? There are four basic parts to our personality, our attitude, our behaviour and our interaction with others:

1.  Open Self, about which you know well and others also know equally well,

2.  Hidden Self, about which you know well but others do not have any inkling,

3.  Blind Self, about which others know, but you yourself do not know, and

4.  Dark Self, about which neither you know anything nor do others.

In our inter-personal relationship, while the Open Self and the Dark Self are important, I think we can contribute tremendously to strengthening our inter-personal relationships by addressing the Hidden Self and the Blind Self more actively. The more we tell others about ourselves, the better they will understand us, our views and our psychological processes. In the same vein, the more others tell me about myself and if I am capable of handling that feedback positively and respect their opinions and views, I will be able to improve my own behaviour towards others. Both these activities will help me to increase the first part of my personality and will help in strengthening my ties with others. Exploring the Dark Self will help me to discover my hidden true self and strengths which will make me a better human being, a path which I plan to tread.

Having shared these initial thoughts, I plan to write in future about my experiences in life, various incidents, some interesting, some boring, some exciting, some thrilling, some mystifying as they unfolded in my life and how they affected me, my personality and my life .

Some of you might find them interesting, others may find them boring. But in case you are reading my blog, I will be very happy to have your views, good, bad or indifferent. This way you will help me increase my understanding of self, not just AS I LOOK AT IT but also AS YOU LOOK AT IT.

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