How do I find out who I am?

Aishling Ennis
Nov 3, 2020
2 min read

Updated: Nov 8, 2020

Do you find you sail through life with no clear direction or purpose or often feel 'stuck'? This is something that a lot of my clients experience and worry that they are the 'only ones'. Why is this? Well if you think about it a lot of us never really spend quality time with ourselves. Do you ever ask yourselves the questions you ask your friends or people you love and care about?

- How was work this week?

- Did you have a nice weekend?

- How are you feeling after dinner?

- Did you switch off this evening?

- Are you taking time for yourself?

- What's going on for you right now?

- Are you sleeping ok?

Do you reflect on how things are going or is it only when it gets too much that you think 'when did this happen'. The most important relationship we have is the one we have with ourselves, yet often, we glide through life not knowing much about who we really are...what makes us tick, what lights us up💡

A really positive exercise that I encourage a lot of my clients to work through is figuring out what makes them happy? What brings them joy? What triggers them?

We often prepare 'fake' answers for our CVs, interviews, dating sites: ' I enjoy long strolls on the beach' but what is it that is unique to you? When you do it you instantly feel better? The classic prevention over cure mentality to building your toolkit.

There are no hard and fast rules to this exercise, be as free as you like - I'll share some of mine to give you inspiration. Once I built this out, it was quick to pick myself back up when I was in a funk because I had one stop shop of instant mood lifters. Often it was simple things that I could easily do, get, go to make me feel better. It can be as trivial and small or as big and audacious as you like. Here's a glimpse of mine:

- Skinny Vanilla Lattes from Starbucks

- Strolls in Dun Laoghaire

- A good podcast such as ' The High Low', ' The Good Glow'

- A good book

- Calling my mom

- Spending time with my family

- Catching up with my other half

- Hanging out with the girls

- Planning an adventure, evening, weekend

- Bringing my dog for a walk

- Going on holidays

- Exploring new cities