We're all familiar with the general idea that in a moment of crisis a person ought to be able to remember what is right and true. We want to remember that there is an ideal aspect of our character within us that the circumstance we find ourselves going through has seemingly made disappear. We have all struggled the best that we know how to be the embodiment of that ideal, and there are definite reasons as to why we are seemingly unable to remember that noble character in the hour of need.
True character is not an act of imitation. It has nothing to do with anything anyone will ever teach you. True character is an individual's identity, but it is a forgotten one, which is why the term "remember yourself" is often used in a real spiritual work. To remember yourself does not mean thinking about yourself as someone who is trying to remember yourself.
In order to remember oneself, one must be aware of the spiritual fact that we all live in two worlds at once. One of the worlds in which we live is an exterior world of incoming impressions. The other world in which we live is the interior world of thoughts, feelings and energies. The world of interior life is always meeting the world of exterior impressions, and a person's life is the marriage of the incoming impressions and the part of the person that is capable of receiving those impressions consciously.
It is your awareness of both worlds at once that is remembering yourself. Thought remembering what it means to remember yourself is not the same as the actual work of remembering yourself. If you'll remember the whole of yourself in any given moment, working to be aware of everything taking place within you and outside of you, comes with it a natural presence in the present moment. The awareness of these two worlds meeting each other belongs to a higher, loving consciousness in which exists the character that we long to embody.