In philosophical terms, self-awareness is the experience of one’s personality or individuality. Self-awareness is the way in which an individual consciously knows and understands her character, feelings, motives, and desires. It requires an ability to express one’s emotions. At the same time, it also means being able to recognize how others perceive you.
Most of our thoughts and actions are on autopilot. This is not a bad thing. The problem arises when we are on autopilot for so long that we forget we are on autopilot. When we are not aware of our habits, routines, impulses, and reactions, they control us, while we do not. But a self-aware person can exercise control.
There are two broad categories of self-awareness:
Internal self-awareness – It represents how we see our values, passions, aspirations that fit with our environment. It also represents our reactions which include thoughts, feelings, behaviors, strengths and weaknesses, and their impact on others.
External self-awareness – It is how others perceive us. It requires us to collect ideas from the world around us.
Self-awareness is one of the most important psychological traits we can develop in life. Its benefits extend to everything. It can help us manage our conflicting emotions or understand our weaknesses at work or know our ability to achieve something.
It’s interesting to know that the people who think they are the most self-aware are often the ones with the most room for improvement.
Tips on how to become self-aware –
Try to get out of the comfort zone
By stepping out of your comfort zone, you give yourself the opportunity to learn how you act, think, and feel in unfamiliar situations. You are on autopilot; you do things with predictable thoughts and emotions. This limits your perspective to only a part of who you are. When you choose to do things in unfamiliar situations, you become aware of the things you do and say, as well as how others perceive you. Sometimes an outside perspective is necessary to dispel negative thought patterns or reinforce positive ones.
Listen to the opinions and beliefs of others –
It increases your awareness of your thoughts, along with the biases and behaviors that stem from those thoughts. This does not mean that your opinions and beliefs are wrong. But you can acknowledge the possibility that your opinions and beliefs can be changed if necessary.
Identify the triggers of your negative emotions –
When you identify what triggers your negative emotions, you can become more selective about the people, places, and situations that are likely to trigger them. It also helps you become more aware of how you respond to your environment and the things you can’t control.
Recognize your strengths and weaknesses
Self-awareness can be improved by recognizing our strengths and weaknesses. So we can work on our weakness and seek help if necessary to make the necessary improvements.
Do self-reflection –
Daily self-reflection is a good way to improve self-awareness, as it allows us to deeply understand ourselves. Self-reflection will provide an opportunity to unlock thoughts and emotions that might otherwise be overlooked.
talk to yourself –
It can improve self-awareness as it makes our thoughts and emotions more apparent. Self-talk, when done repeatedly, will teach us to stop a train of thought and follow it with a more positive one.
Practice saying “No” –
The ability to say no to ourselves in order to postpone short-term gratification in favor of long-term gain is an important life skill. And its practice can improve self-awareness. The implications of being able to say ‘no’ are also far-reaching. The famous Marshmallow Experiment illustrates this very well.
do mindfulness meditation
It is the simple practice of sitting in a quiet place in a comfortable posture and keeping your attention focused on your thoughts. Let them pass without dwelling too much on them. This is mindfulness meditation. When you practice looking and observing our thoughts without thinking much about them, you begin to realize a powerful idea: you are not your thoughts. Rather, you can control them and change them from negativity to positivity.
Ask for feedback from people you trust:
One of the best ways to develop self-awareness is to learn about others’ perspectives on you and the impact you have on others. The easiest way is to ask for honest feedback from people you trust, who won’t criticize you unnecessarily. But don’t just rely on one person’s feedback, collect a variety of ideas and evaluate what you want to do with that information.
The bottom line –
Self-awareness is the ability to control your emotions and reactions. It lets you know your strengths, weaknesses, triggers, motivators, and other characteristics. In addition, such a person knows how to respect the points of view of others and how to respond to the emotions of others. This is a learned skill, but it comes more naturally to some than others. But with practice and persistence you can improve your self-awareness.
