What can we do to better know ourselves? How do you stay in touch with your inner self?

Bolick writes, "It never ceases to astonish me how readily we presume to know ourselves, when in fact we know so little." What can we do to better know ourselves? How do you stay in touch with your inner self?

I think time alone and time spent thinking and journaling all help you know yourself. I think it also helps to stay in touch with what you prefer instead of pleasing others all the time by doing what they want. Example seeing movie you want to see or choosing restaurant you prefer. Taking a active role in choosing where you will live etc.

A walk on the beach, journaling, painting, meditating all help you to learn more about who we are. Maybe just stopping and asking yourself that question, Who Am I? might give you surprising answers. Our choice in friends, books and activities all help us to learn something about ourselves.

Taking time to rest, living mindfully in the present and maintaining a positive approach to achieving goals and outcomes helps me stay in touch with myself. I think it's important to recognize and know my own needs and to pursue the activities, behaviors and relationships that bring me peace, comfort and contentment.

To thine own self be true!! We have to love the person we are and to understand our selves.

I constantly have conversations with myself about the pros and cons of any decision I must make. I also believe that if there is not an element of fun in what I am doing, I don't do it. My philosophy is to be honest and complimentary to my friends and coworkers. In that way I keep my inner self very healthy.

Mindfulness meditation has been a powerful tool for me to stay in touch and be present to myself. By learning how to pay attention to my physical body, Ive become more able to be authentic.

Everyone has their own way of knowing themselves. I don't believe the trick is to do all the things suggested by the experts, those in the know, our peers, or anything else. We already know who we are. We've just stopped listening to ourselves because apparently "everyone else" seems to know better. It doesn't matter whether a person journals, or meditates or hangs upside down from a pine tree in the search to recovering who they are ... whatever works, works.

Spending time alone, exercising, meditating, reading are all things that help me center.

It is important to be self-aware and do things that make you happy as an individual as well as when you are with someone. If you lose sight of who you were before you became part of a couple, you lose your identity. While it is natural to develop new personality traits as you move forward, it is not necessary to completely let go of the things that made you who you were before your relationship. It is your responsibility to hold on to your uniqueness.

Knowing yourself is a state of balance/imbalance that is underscored by factors that signal personal consonance/dissonance. Figure out your life goals and what you want to achieve. Go forward. Figure out what is making you unhappy (the imbalance), assess it, and minimize/get rid of it. Nothing like tidying up your personal days!

Time. Time before coupling. Time to explore, time to fall, time to stand up again.
Once there is more than just you, a commitment to respect and preserve and continue to grow even as you respect and make room for others.