Self-awareness is the vital ability to turn your focus on yourself and how your emotions, actions or thoughts align – or don’t align – with your personal internal standards.
When your self-awareness is high, it becomes easier to manage emotions, evaluate yourself objectively, understand the ways other people perceive you and align your personal behavior with your innermost values.
Here are five tools and exercises that will help you understand yourself better:
1. Use a thought diary.
Thought diaries build foundations for increasing your self-awareness. They also:
· Track thoughts that are automatic for you.
· Track what occurs that brings on the thoughts.
· Track how you react emotionally to stimuli.
If you have the time, thought diaries help you to analyze why you experience the emotions you feel.
2. Do something that is new to you.
Placing yourself deliberately outside your comfort zone reveals a great deal to you, helping you to determine:
· What you’re comfortable with
· What you do and don’t enjoy
· Where your fear boundary is
New activities for you could include learning about new topics. Ask yourself “why” you feel the way you do, to discover the root reason why you wish to do something.
3. Use coaching or therapy.
With coaching, you’ll be tapping into your innermost motivations. This helps you to create a plan for making changes. You can set goals for self-awareness in the future and outline the clearest path to self-improvement.
Therapy allows you to learn a great deal about yourself. Trained professionals are helpful in learning to unpack experiences from your past and to better understand your own behaviors.
4. Listen to your inner voice.
The words you use daily have profound impacts, helping to shape your relationship with others, things and ultimately yourself.
Many people talk to themselves, and it’s a natural but undervalued skill. It will:
· Stimulate useful self-reflection
· Increase your motivation
· Connect you more fully with your emotions
There is a correlation between talking to yourself frequently and attaining a higher level of self-evaluation and self-awareness. Using positive words is more helpful. Pay close attention to your own voice – do you speak to yourself in ways you might not let others speak to you?
Also be attentive to the ways in which you respond to success and failure. Your inner voice subconsciously creates valuable feedback loops, which can be turned into positive or negative experiences.
Using phrases like “I have to,” “I can’t” or “I shouldn’t” may limit your potential, as they create a more negative attitude.
5. Practice yoga.
Yoga is a physical and a mental practice. When you stretch, bend and flex your body, your mind learns self-acceptance, discipline and self-awareness. You’ll become more fully aware of your own body and the feelings you manifest. You’ll also become aware of the workings of your mind and the thoughts that are generated subconsciously.
You can also pair your yoga with meditation of mindfulness in order to more fully boost your self-awareness.
Self-awareness is a vital aspect of your personal growth and subsequent development. It basically refers to your ability to recognize your own behaviors, thoughts and emotions.
This self-awareness will allow you to more fully understand yourself, including your values, beliefs, strengths and weaknesses.
If you seek professional or personal growth, it’s important to develop a keen sense of self-awareness. It will serve as a strong foundation for effectively managing emotions, making well-informed decisions, building stronger relationships and achieving fulfilment on a personal level.
If you are keenly self-aware, you will better understand your aspirations, goals and motivations, which will enable you to align your actions accordingly. Reach out to Core3 today and schedule a complimentary consultation to learn about how we can help you build greater self-awareness.
References
https://positivepsychology.com/building-self-awareness-activities/
https://www.betterup.com/blog/self-awareness-activities
https://positivepsychology.com/self-awareness-matters-how-you-can-be-more-self-aware/