“Look outside and you will see yourself. Look inside and you will find yourself. — Drew GeraldThis simple quote explains the importance of self-introspection. Finding yourself is the basis for any improvement. You need to know where you are. Who you are. What you are. How you are.
SELF AWARENESS
Self Awareness is the ability to see yourself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection.
The term “self-awareness” seems pretty self-explanatory—it’s an awareness of the self.
Simply put, self-awareness is the conscious knowledge of one’s own character and feelings. That sounds pretty simple. But the truth is, many of us float through our days with little awareness of what we’re doing or why we’re doing it. Our minds are pretty good at forming blueprints of emotional responses, so it doesn’t take long before certain responses become habits.
DISCOVER YOUR TRUE SELF
Go deeper into yourself and peel away the layers until you can see who you truly are. This is the sort of analysis and probing that will help you answer the question that great minds have asked across the centuries: “Who am I?”
You may be an artist, but that’s only the face you show to the world. Identification as an artist can create limitations, too. By defining who you are, you may categorize yourself and put yourself in a “box.”
WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHILE DEVELOPING SELF-AWARENESS
To be self-aware means you’re conscious of the following:
✓ Your goals
✓ The events, thoughts, and beliefs that make you happy and sad
✓ Your strengths and weaknesses
✓ Your values and beliefs
✓ Your philosophy in life
✓ Your achievements
WAYS TO INCREASE SELF AWARENESS
The time to increase self-awareness in one respect or the other will be different. Here are some techniques and strategies for becoming more self-aware.
Pay attention to what bothers you about other people : Often the things that irritate us the most in other people are a reflection of some quality we dislike in ourselves. So, whenever someone does something that seems to particularly annoy or irritate you, ask yourself: Could this be a reflection of something in me that I dislike? Do I do some version of that?
Meditate on your mind: While mindfulness meditation has been shown to be beneficial for everything from weight loss to depression relief, it can actually be a powerful way to increase your level of self-awareness. A regular mindfulness practice will open your eyes to how the thinking mind works and how much more there is to you than the mere content of your thoughts.
Identify your emotional Feelings: Nobody likes to feel sad, anxious, ashamed, or any other variety of painful emotion. Which is understandable since they feel bad, sometimes painfully so. Learning to tolerate the discomfort of our emotional feelings can unlock a wealth of insight about ourselves and our world if we’re willing to listen.
Do some micro-travel: New places and strange environments get us out of our routines and force us to be more self-aware. ->It Improves communication with different people/ country / culture & in company work environment too Learn a new skill
CONCLUSION
Self awareness is about being conscious of our thoughts and behaviour and it is emotional Intelligence skill, we all need to learn to live our lives happily.
" You can't be a good leader , if you are not self aware"