Five Ways To Cultivate Self Awareness
Even if you spend a lot of time pondering your identity and how you became the person you are today, that does not necessarily make you self-aware.
How you see yourself and self awareness are not the same things.
Self awareness is more than understanding who you are. It is the ability to see your emotions and understand their influence on your thoughts and behaviors.
It entails, as Katie Krimer, a licensed clinical social worker describes it, “meta-cognition: the ability to think about thinking [and] implies the ability to recognize ourselves as we see ourselves, but also to understand how others may see us based on what we know about human behavior.”
As complex as that may sound, there are simple practices to help you strengthen the muscle that is self awareness, an incredibly useful tool in navigating challenging encounters and living a more fulfilled life.
Five ways to deepen your self awareness
Listen to your thoughts
Many mindfulness practices (like meditation) can help you to see your thoughts as a separate voice from how you would speak out loud. How are you talking to yourself inside your mind? What are you saying and what is your tone?
keep a journal
Writing down how you honestly feel, questions you have, or things that happened during the day can help you to process and see objectively how you respond to different situations. Regularly doing so will help you to eventually identify patterns.
Challenge your first reaction
Slowing down when responding to a situation allows time to see how our reaction unfolds. If you are angry or defensive, step back and ask yourself why?
ask trusted friends for feedback
In order to understand how others see you, you will need to hear from people who know you best. Using the perspective and honest observations from those we trust can provide an opportunity to see ourselves in a new light.
find a counselor or coach
Therapy or other guided self-discovery practice can help you discover thought patterns that affect your mood. Some practitioners specifically use thought work tools to reflect back to you how you are reacting or responding to specific situations.
