Know what is Self-awareness and its 4 stages

What is self-awareness?

Self-awareness is paying attention to the details of inside out.

• It means to be aware of our surroundings in the present moment and significantly the psychology of our own.
• Awareness is being known to the thinking patterns, the way we feel in a particular situation, the way we perceive any circumstances. It is focusing on our emotions and how they create an impact on us.
• It is to observe our mood swings rather than distracting ourselves from that discomfort feeling.
• It doesn’t mean you have to change something inside you purposely, instead you need to be familiar with your viewpoints, values, beliefs, and also your flaws.

Why self-awareness is important?

1. To accept things- Do you feel stressed all the time? Ever observed that you can’t spend time with yourself and try to keep yourself busy to avoid the weird feeling? This is the major cause of your mood swings. You don’t try to accept the reality and ways of dealing with them, you will try to find ways to get out of it. But that won’t help you in the long run. Being aware of such feelings and emotions when it is taking place is important to accept things and respond to a situation.
2. Develops Emotional Intelligence- Studying your emotions is important for you to keep you going in life. Because you can’t always express your emotions and handle them. There are times when you are feeling distressed about a situation and you can’t help with it. Consulting people is one way to relieve yourself, but how long will you continue to do that? You need to be in control of your emotions by analyzing them and finding a way to deal with it. Self-awareness helps you in strengthening your Emotional Intelligence that can mold your way of thinking and responding.
3. Identifies strengths and weaknesses- You might know your strength or weakness till now based on your good and bad experiences, but knowing it prior will help you to not let anyone take advantage of your weakness. Everyone has some flaws but it doesn’t mean you have to change it all the time, some people might not accept it while some don’t mind. But being aware of your flaws and strength can help you to improve on it and will make you a better person. If you have some flaws that are generally not accepted, for instance, having a short temper, which is not good for your health and people around you, you should work on such weakness and build yourself.
4. Healthy relationships- Nowadays, relationships are the crux of life, with each growing day we meet new people and make new friends, but maintaining those relationships is challenging. Sometimes we can’t maintain our family relations. The key to all these problems is a lack of self-awareness. We don’t realize when our expectations escalate the heights of our limits. Whenever you are concerning other people, you need to be aware of what kind of relationship you want from that person or how many boundaries you have to set with them. Having a clear idea will help you in better interaction with people and avoiding any kind of dispute.

4 Ways to Develop self-awareness-

1. Meditate and Practice Mindfulness

   There’s no controversy when talking about meditation. “Working from your mind” is equally important to “working on your mind”. Meditation is a practice of maintaining your focus on your breath or body. This is a spiritual statement, but it’s not possible for people who are always surrounded by other people.

   Practicing mindfulness requires a calm place. But most people just start practicing for 10 to 20 mins a day or maybe an hour and they call it meditation. While it’s not true, meditation is a constant process that should take place 24/7 in your life. How is it possible?

   Well, you don’t have to sit in one place and close your eyes and focus on yourself for 20 mins, which would lead you nowhere. You need to be aware of yourself all the time while you’re working, enjoying, or spending time with others. Do you think of your work when you’re out on a vacation? No right! Some people don’t even enjoy to the fullest, they will be busy making plans for the next day, but the truth of self-awareness is to be present in every moment of your life. If you are doing work just concentrate on that and nothing else, if you’re spending time with your people, don’t be distracted with your phone, listen to them and make the conversation meaningful, this is self-awareness, being with yourself and aware of your surroundings.

2. Write down your thoughts

   Sometimes your mind would be running a race full of thoughts, and you can’t keep approaching people to calm yourself. Writing your thoughts can help you come out of your mindful race. You don’t have to take your thoughts seriously, they are just words which you repeat in your mind and memories which you have experienced or you want to. Make a note of your thoughts and ideas that provoke your mind. Start asking questions when you write down.

   For instance,

   • Why this thought came to your mind?
   • Is there any connection to what you were previously doing?
   • Exactly when you got distracted with your thoughts?
   • Do you feel happy or sad about those ideas?
   • Is there any emotion or experience related to it?

   When you answer such questions, next time those thoughts won’t be effective on you, this will make your mind aware of your thinking patterns, you need to realize that thoughts are just in your memory and it is not happening or going to happen. You are different from them and can have full control over it. This practice will make you self-aware of inner-being and you can plan your goals effectively with a clear mindset.

3. Read Different Books

   Reading has always been proven to be beneficial to expand your knowledge but it also increases your ability to adopt change. Reading different types of books makes you aware of different phenomena, cultures, peoples, and fields. This will help you to self-reflect and develop an awareness of the variety in this world.

   You can try reading fiction books, as it emphasis on details about humans and recreating another world which is different from reality, when you read such books you are more familiar with the consequences and behavior of nature in reality and also about your emotions related to it.

   Read books on self-help genre or mindfulness from famous authors, listen to their story, and how they develop the understanding within them. You don’t need to follow them to improve your self-awareness, just record their behavior and learn what different they practice.

4. Trying new things

   Taking a step out of your comfort zone helps you nurture your inner-being. Learning new things leads to new experiences that you can distinguish from your past and study your behavior and emotions. Maybe learn a new skill such as craftwork, play an instrument, Photoshop, or explore your hobbies. When our body and mind are not familiar with a particular thing, it responds differently and helps us identify ourselves.

   Consequences can be either good or bad but that will effectively help you to identify your weakness and strengths. Even Traveling is proven to develop mindfulness, exploring new places helps our mind to develop new feelings and vibes which creates an impact on our emotional-being. This is a good practice in auditing oneself to raise self-awareness.

"Self-awareness gives you the capacity to learn from your mistakes as well as your successes. It enables you to keep growing." – Lawrence Bossidy