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Know Thyself

Updated: Jan 27

At the Temple of Apollo in Delphi the inscription above the entrance is "Know Thyself." As Lao Tzu wrote in the Tao Te Ching “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”As the metaphysician, spiritual Master, and number one author of all time, William Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet “This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”


As Aristotle wrote "Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” Meister Eckhart, the German scholar and philosopher, wrote "A human being has so many skins inside (and outside), covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we don't know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox's or bear's, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there."


Pythagoras said "Man know thyself; then thou shalt know the Universe and God"


It's hard to disagree with these greats, especially when one feels it to be True. Do you? Yet? Transformative Life Coaching (TLC) is the fast track to knowing your Self. Otherwise it may take many lifetimes (if you believe in that) and many, many mistakes in all areas of your life. Einstein said “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”


Once we move beyond words and thoughts, creativity is the highest form of intelligence as it is like communing with the divine. Einstein wrote “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” Creativity is communing with one's higher Self and with the Universal Intelligence that underlies the Truth. Creativity is the key to knowing your Self through experiencing life. This is why I write. It is in the act of creating that you become Self-aware. As Immanuel Kant wrote "To be is to do." When you are BEing your higher Self, the doing follows like a river flows from its source. The sequence is 'BE, do, have'. Never 'have, do, be'. That is the road to disaster.


The one Truth is that you have forgotten who you are. It's not your fault. It's the human condition and we all have it. The fact that you have forgotten this is creating all the limiting beliefs in your life and is the only thing holding you back from your life being glorious and full of limitless possibility. My purpose as a Transformative Life Coach (TLC) is to help you to remember who you truly are. The way that I do this is that I will see you, hear you, value you, not judge you in any way, and will create spce for you to remember your true Personal Power. You are a limitless being who is being limited by your limiting beliefs, which are the same as your fears! Who would you be and what would you do if you deeply remembered this?


As Khalil Gibran wrote "The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind." It's your choice whether you go in. 


In TLC I will guide you to finding your wisdom and Truth, not mine. You will find that they are the same, in your own time. To find Truth do we need a soul? John Keats wrote “Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said "We are not human BEings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual BEings having a human experience." Speaking the Truth may be hard but it's always worth doing: As Mahatma Gandhi said "Even if you are a minority of one, the Truth is the Truth." Why must we know the Truth? Thomas Huxley puts this best "Learn what is true in order to do what is right." The Truth, as described here, guides every decision that we will ever make.


A holistic view to Truth is required. A move from learning to experiencing: From thinking to feeling. A journey from the mind to the heart, the seat of your soul. This journey taught me the importance of being a 'wounded healing healer': An Enlightened Witness. You can't guide someone on their journey unless you have taken 'The Journey' your Self. I have walked your path. I know it very, very well. You can't read wisdom in books.


We always want to create something that is more powerful and all knowing than us to solve all our problems. This is why we invented God, religion and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The one thing that will save your job from being taken over by AI is that AI can't have wisdom, whereas you can. AI can have knowledge, but it can't have wisdom. Einstein wrote "Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of Truth." Our problems are just due to our way of thinking: Thinking from fear. We are standing in our own way. The good news is that we don’t need anyone or anything to fix us and we have all the answers already. We have simply forgotten them as well as who we are. We need to let go of who we think we are - the ego. And get in touch with who we truly are - a soul. Our ego wants solutions, answers, and coping mechanisms - 'imitation love'. Our soul is love. It needs no solution or answer. Truth is our ladder to the next stage of our Transformative Journey. Some of use the word God, which is the Universal Intelligence described above by Einstein. Call it what you will: Once you feel it you will know the Truth. You may get glimpses of it in Nature: The beauty and power of a panorama. This is you: Jesus said "For, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you."


Einstein wrote "The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavours, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts - possessions, outward success, luxury - have always seemed to me contemptible." These are all 'imitation love.' Real love will give you all the wisdom and Truth that you seek. We cannot find Truth through fear. As Einstein said “Problems cannot be solved with the same mind set that created them.” He also said “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” A miracle is simply a shift in perception from fear to love. The only thing that you are looking for is your higher Self. It never left you. You simply forgot who you really are as you were asleep. That is the Truth.

 

The other key aspect of knowing your Self is to step into your authenticity. You are afraid of not being loved for who you truly are. That is the tragedy of our times. We are afraid of showing our true Selves. We are invisble. Or we wear a 'social mask' (our ego). 'We don't think that we will be loved for who we really are.


Arthur Schopenhauer, the brilliant German philosopher wrote "We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people."The Truth is that when you show who you really are, that is when you will be loved. People are dying because our current culture has a 'crisis of inauthenticity.' All we want as humans is to be accepted and loved. Most of us are not aware that this drives all of our behaviour. We all go different ways about achieving the outcome of feeling loved. The problem is that we think we have to put on a mask - we lose our authenticity in favour of survival. The distance between who we are and who we think we are - ego and our higher Self is proportional to the pain that we feel from not being unconditionally loved. We belong to a sinking, stinking, dying, unconscious, sick, civilisation that rewards imitation love then seeks to destroy those who achieve it. It expects an invitation to your funeral and then to issue a press release. Deny them. Paracelsus wrote "In every human being there is a special Heaven, whole and unbroken." You are not broken, and don't let anyone tell you that you are, ever. It is they who are full of fear for their own survival: Nothing more. Just remember who you are. And if you forget, call me: I will remind you. They will topple under the weight of their ignorant judgement.


Carl Rogers, the American psychologist who was one of the founders of humanistic psychology and was known especially for his person-centred psychotherapy, who was widely considered one of the founding fathers of psychotherapy research and modern coaching, said that "If I were to search for the central core of difficulty in people as I have come to know them, it is that in the great majority of cases they despise themselves, regarding themselves as worthless and unlovable." We need to learn to love our Selves.


You are worthy because you are you. You are your worth. You were born worthy, the same as everyone else. You are unique. You don't need to change, buy, do, or achieve anything to be worthy. As Dr Wayne Dyer wrote "Accept that you are enough. You don't need to be anything that you are not". You are a unique and uniquely talented human being who is allowed to take your place in this Universe. We are allowed to be flawed: We all are. We need to stop pretending that it's 'us and them.' Good or evil don't exist. Accolades and achievements don't give us Self-worth. Alyssa Moon wrote "The more titles you carry with you, the more masks you find yourself hiding behind."


We all wear a 'mask' instead of being authentic. The mask has a dual function - it is an invulnerable armour to protect our ego (our terrified 7-year old self) and it is a fake self that we have created that we feel that we can show to the world. For that to happen we have to abandon the parts of our Selves that we believe are unlovable: We abandon our true Selves, allow our psyche to 'fracture', and banish the parts that our parents or society deemed unlovable to the shadows.


Albert Einstein wrote "A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be." Masks are our 'should be'. The tragedy is that "No one reveals himself as he is; we all wear a mask and play a role" (Arthur Schopenhauer). Once we begin to see other as souls then perhaps we can truly call each other friends. Souls cannot help but love one another.


What is love? It is the absence of judgement and unconditionally loving people for who they are, not the mask that they wear. If you practice being open, vulnerable, authentic and whole in all your human connections, you will heal, and so will all those around you. Hurt people hurt people. Healed people heal people.


Cate Blanchett said "For 'Blue Jasmine,' I made a decision not to wear any make up in the last shot of the film, as I felt like she had such a mask on - I thought it would be a good idea to leave her with nothing and become completely transparent." What bliss that must have felt for her and what joy for all those around her. Monica Bellucci said "Because I'm pretty, everybody thinks I'm stupid. But it is like a mask, and you have to break the mask to show that there is something else behind it. You have to show who you are to make the others come to discover you." It is only in authentic human connection that we feel real love, that we are not alone, and that we are invited to connect.


Annette Bening said "I remember hearing someone say that good acting is more about taking off a mask than putting one on, and in movie acting, certainly that's true. With the camera so close, you can see right down into your soul, hopefully. So being able to do that in a way is terrifying, and in another way, truly liberating. And I like that about it."


Once you show up in your authenticity people will buy into you. No one likes your fake self, your ego, not even you. You cannot hide behind a mask forever - there is nothing to fear about taking it off.


Søren Kierkegaard the Danish philosopher wrote "Don't you know that a midnight hour comes when everyone has to take off his mask? Do you think life always lets itself be trifled with? Do you think you can sneak off a little before midnight to escape this?" Jane Monica-Jones write in 'The Billionaire Buddha' "Ironically, when we own the shadow aspects of our Self and put down our masks - this is when we become truly lovable." Is it becoming clear now? As Charles Glassman wrote "As the masks come off, what I look forward to most are all your smiling faces." That sounds good to me!


Vulnerability and openness are your strengths - be open! Honestly! “Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change” (Brené Brown). I would also add connection to that list. Please do join my vulnerability group for men if you feel called to.


Coco Chanel wrote "Hard times arouse an instinctive desire for authenticity." This is my lived experience. “It takes a brave person to be open. To speak your Truth even when your voice shakes and to feel safe to show up as who you truly are is how warriors roll. Anyone can put on a mask. It’s easy to wear a suit of armour as you navigate this dangerous world. Yet to be raw and real and decent and good. Oh - that takes strength. And true leadership” (Robin Sharma).


River Phoenix, who died at the age of 23 from an overdose, said "Acting is like a Halloween mask that you put on." It's so sad that he felt that a mask was required over BEing. Jim Morrison, the lead singer of 'The Doors', who died at age 27, perhaps puts it best "The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask." Isn't it time that you set your Self and others free? You can't imprison them anyway.


Carl Rogers said "People only seriously consider change when they feel accepted for exactly who they are... When someone really hears you without passing judgment on you, without trying to take responsibility for you, without trying to mold you, it feels damn good... When a person realises he has been deeply heard, his eyes moisten. I think in some real sense he is weeping for joy. It is as though he were saying, 'Thank God, somebody heard me. Someone knows what it's like to be me.'" Once you step into your authenticity, accept all your inner parts: Inner child; higher Self; Your shadow: Then you can come from a place of integrity and authenticity. You are truly whole. You don't need a mask as people will love you more for the authentic connection. You have nothing to fear. You then feel the joyful bliss of BEing your Truth. There is no striving to get to Heaven as you are already here. Hell is trying to be elsewhere. Enlightenment is realising that there is nothing to do, nothing to strive for and nowhere to go and that you don’t need to be anyone other than exactly who you are being right now. Knowing opens the door to experience. So now you know. The door is wide open.


You can only work on your Self. Stop trying to judge or change others. You are being distracted from the inner work that you have to do. Rumi said “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today, I am wise so I am changing myself.”


When you trust in who you are, a soul, which is timeless, you will realise that all your worries are based on illusion and are temporary. This brings us to our third gift "This too shall pass."


Speak in such a way that others love to listen to you: Listen in such a way that others love to speak to you.


George Bernard Shaw wrote that “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” Are you ready to change your mind?


Namaste.


Sending you love, light, and blessings brothers.


Olly



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Hello,

I am delighted and enchanted to meet you. I coach men with 'Deep Coaching', 'Supercoaching', and Transformative Life Coaching (TLC). Thank you for reading this far. I very much look forward to connecting with the highest version of you, to seeing your highest possibility, and to our conversations. Please do contact me via my email for a free connection call and a free experience of coaching on Zoom or in person. 


“Transformative life coaching uniquely creates and holds the space for you to see your self afresh, with clarity, and step into new ways of BEing, which will transform how you perceive and intuitively create your world. My work is to guide you to raise your own conscious awareness to the level that you want to achieve.”







Click here for the books that I know will help you along your journey of recovering your Self:









I have a Bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences from Trinity College, Cambridge; a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Trinity College, Cambridge; a PhD Doctorate in Scientific Research from University College London (UCL); a Medical Degree (MD/MBBS) from The Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London and have been a doctor and reconstructive trauma and cancer surgeon in London for 20 years. I have a number of other higher qualifications in science and surgery. I have published over 50 peer reviewed PubMed cited scientific journal articles, have been an associate editor and frequent scientific faculty member, and am the author of several scientific books. I have been awarded my Diploma in Transformative Life Coaching in London, which has International Coaching Federation (ICF) Accreditation, as well as the UK Association for Coaching (AC), and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). I have been on my own transformative journey full time for over five years and I am ready to be your guide to you finding out who you really are and how the world works.




Please let me know if you would like to join our 'VOICE for men' VIP community: 'Vulnerability & Openness Is a Choice Ensemble', 'Visibility Is Power', where men can find their strength, courage, and authenticity, by dropping their egocentric fears and instead communicate openly with vulnerability. We are co-creating this space. It will change your life. It will empower you. This community is a safe space for men to connect and discuss philosophy, spirituality, positive psychology, awakening to Self-realisation, wisdom and timeless Truths, to share our experience, strength and hope, and to find solutions to our pain and fears. Our meeting is free to join. There is no script, just sharing.

 
 
 

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