How to understand yourself

How does one learn to understand oneself? I suppose, as a mature woman of a certain age, I can honestly say that it takes a lot of time and it surely starts with liking yourself. Did you ever dislike yourself or dislike your reactions to certain
situations?
When I look back over the many years of trials and tribulations and the road I have covered to be where I am today, I must admit that I am not the person I was even 5 years ago. Why is that ? I think it is all the experiences one has and interacton with many people of different backgrounds and ideas.
I am a female European married with no children. I think I would dare to say that we are reasonably happily married but there are difficult moments when the word COMPROMISE is really necessary between a man and a woman. We are both from very different backgrounds - I lived in Canada for many years, my father being Canadian and my mother, British. My husband comes from a Greek-Cypriot background and we met in London. We love each other to bits but as we have progressed along the "rocky" road of life, there have been times when I very nearly packed my bags and returned to Canada; the thought of leaving my nice house and my lovely friends fortunately stopped me, and of course, my feelings or EMOTIONS for the man who often drives me crazy with his lack of flexibility. That for sure is something we all need to develop. Flexibility - to admit when we are wrong, or to give even when we don't feel like it, or to accept invitations when all we feel like doing is staying at home.

What I can say is that life is truly a wonderful gift but of course there are good and bad days, highs and lows - a bit like the weather, so we need to be equipped in order to deal with what is thrown at us and the better we know ourselves I sincerely believe that we can deal with anything.

Perhaps the people reading this could contribute their ideas of what they believe to be important in everyday life. I would love to hear their comments.