How much do you value people who make you learn something new about yourself?

Yourself. For each of us, our very own self is the most fascinating of explorations, the subject closest to us that often seems like new territory. We skate along on assumptions about ourselves because they are hard to test.

When you encounter someone who somehow makes you see more of yourself, what do you do? Some people run. Some people hide. Some people say thank you.

All three are fair responses. While knowledge is generally a good and useful thing, it is not always an easy gift to find out something about yourself that you didn't know. It's disorienting. It makes you wonder a little what else is waiting to be discovered.

There's bound to be a period of not being sure that you are happy to have the new information. Even if you like it, you know it means rethinking a lot of related parts of your life and that takes effort. If you make the effort, if you stick with awareness until it settles into knowing, you will be different. You will probably become better at predicting what will satisfy you, what you need, what you want. 

Some of us believe it is always worth the effort. That's why we stick with people while they are going through the confusing process of sorting out how the new information fits into their lives. It's not because it's easy. It's because yourself is the one person you absolutely have to learn to live with. You might as well build that relationship on your most complete perceptions of what you are.

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