Just be yourself is advice I see often given when telling people how to behave in new situations, but nobody ever talks about how to be yourself. Who you are an

Just be yourself is advice I see often given when telling people how to behave in new situations, but nobody ever talks about how to be yourself. Who you are and how you behave is a product of both past history and current situation. In other words it is easier to be yourself when you are in a comfortable and familiar situation. But when exposed to a brand new situation/experience "just be yourself" is terrible starting advice for many people because it is completely non-obvious how to do that. I've been given that advice many times and it took some deep introspection and many years to figure out what it meant and how to be myself. This might be self evident for many people, but for me discovering myself meant knowing what made me happy and unhappy. I've done that by being mindful of how I felt before/while/after doing something. This let me establish a core persona who is more influenced by past history and less by current situation. At this point just be myself is a good reminder, but starting with that advice was not helpful at all.