Having self-awareness doesn’t mean that you have to sit on a mountaintop while having a come to Jesus meeting with yourself. Nowadays people ruin the whole idea of self-reflection and personal development, because of all the over-saturated self-help books and videos. Most truly don’t get it.
self-awareness: conscious knowledge of ones own character, feelings, motives, and desires.
Having self-awareness isn’t easy
The process of becoming self-aware is in my opinion a large undertaking if you have never been conscious of it. It will be a good journey though, one with lots of discoveries along the way. You will be able to uncover certain triggers in your life that can be negative or positive. The triggers will afford you the opportunity to reflect on how you act as a human being.
You will start to become aware of how you react to things, how you behave, and how you interact with the world around you. Will you let Sally Jo get you revved up because of her bad day? You don’t even know her. Don’t let the mood of others affect how you see the world around you. Unless of course, it is in the positive.
Self-awareness requires a good mindset
We then can see ourselves clearly and understand who we are inside. You may have to develop a new mindset, but the benefits of this are priceless. By reflecting on how we reflect we’ll have better interactions with ourselves and those around us over time. The idea is to not go through life trying to fix everything because once you become self-aware, the other trivial stuff will just work itself out naturally.
By no means am I saying that you let everything go, I mean that being in tune with who you are will give you more joy and less stress and worries. It is truly amazing to have the ability to be self-aware and become your own thermostat instead of being the fluctuating temperature of hot and cold. The thermostat sets the overall temperature.
Here are some pretty cool tips to help you get going in the right direction.
(Starting this process may work better if you begin by reflecting on impactful situations in your life and recalling how you reacted immediately following.)
No magical order
- Do a deep dive of most recent situations negative or positive to see how you handled yourself. Were you extremely sad, angry, or excited? Take notes to better align with yourself.
- Get feedback on how you compose yourself from your closest peers and family. You want to get feedback from the people that know you best and won’t sugar coat things just to spare feelings. When you get the feedback don’t criticize it.
- Understand that the purpose of being self-aware isn’t to try to fix everything, it’s about being in tune with yourself. Over time the benefits will reveal themselves.
- Start paying attention to things that bother you about those around you. This will help you reflect. “I don’t ever want to act like that!”
- Do your best to minimize bending truths about yourself to others. We usually over exaggerate things about ourselves to others. When you start being aware of it and begin the editing process it will lend a big hand in becoming self-aware.
- If something bothers you about how other people act try to think about if that character trait is also something within you. You would be surprised how many times things bother you about others that you yourself do. Hmmm
- Get a good meditation routine and stick with it. Along the way, you may have to tweak and implement different meditation styles that will suit you. The meditation practice will help you be aware of the present moment more.
BONUS
Benefits overtime include the following:
- You will become better at communicating with others.
- You will become more level headed when it comes to situations.
- Your ability to think clearly will improve.
- You will become more productive in life.
- Your relationships will be more fruitful.
- Your overall daily stresses and struggles will become less taxing on you.
Conclusion
By doing a deep dive within yourself for purposes of understanding who you are and how you act will go a long way for your overall health and well-being. Yes, I will say health. No, I am not a doctor, but I do understand that we as people tend to suffer when there are lots of worries and stresses in our lives. Your body reacts to the negative by tensing up. Over time it’s not good. Do your best to start now.
