becoming more self aware.

Nov 5

Written By S

Becoming more self aware is a practice that takes time. I feel as though I become increasingly more self aware through every situation or interaction that made me feel as though I should have acted differently, or I should have stood up for myself more. Or I think to myself that I never want to be in a certain position again.

Don’t expect to automatically know everything about yourself. Life is about going through experiences and deciding what you like and don’t like, and what you want to change and what you want to do more of and grow.

The importance of self awareness is that it teaches you to be more confident in your decision making, gives you leadership and control in your own life and allows you to move through life more freely, knowing exactly who you are.

A lack of self awareness makes you more influential to accepting whatever from whoever, gives other people control of your life, leads to confusion on who you are and what you stand for and creates a lack of identity and decisiveness.

Self awareness comes from within and it’s essential to growing as a person.

ways to improve self awareness

If I knew what I knew now about myself, my life would be completely different. But then again, isn’t that boring? Mistakes are how you grow. If you want to be more self aware, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Don’t self-destruct and make mistakes on purpose or for the plot (unless it’s a really good one.) But don’t be scared of them or beat yourself up for them.

don’t be afraid to make mistakes to grow.

I’ve fallen for a man that didn’t want me and continued to stay in a situationship even though I wanted more. A mistake! But now I know that I can never stay with someone who doesn’t want me.

I’m more self aware that I can’t handle those lingering feelings of rejection and know that I can’t deal with someone who doesn’t know how to communicate and gives false signs of hope. And I know the signs and know the buzz words that lead me to know that I might be going down that path. But I had to go through that mistake to understand this for myself. Self awareness :)

Though you can go through a mistake, that doesn’t always lead to self awareness. You have to reflect and learn from your mistakes. Think about what went wrong. Think about what you didn’t like. Really take the time to reflect and understand why you don’t want to make this mistake again.

You can continue to make mistakes over and over again. But self awareness really kicks in when you decide that you don’t want it to continue or you don’t want to make the same mistake again.

trusting your feelings is important for self awareness

Trust your feelings. Your feelings are valid. If you feel some type of way about someone saying something to you that you didn’t like or a situation that you’re not fond of. Trust your feelings. They’re not lying to you. If you felt an uncomfortable feeling, then there’s a reason it didn’t feel right, and it’s important not to ignore it.

Half the battle when it comes to becoming self aware is trusting yourself and your feelings. If you don’t trust how you feel, then how do you grow as a person? I’m honestly really bad about believing what I feel. Often, I’ll gaslight myself or say it’s not a big deal to something, which is honestly doing myself a disservice.

The more honest I am with how I’m feeling in the moment and what I do or don’t like, or my feelings in general, the easier it becomes for me to identify and make aware of things that are important for me to be self aware of.

seek your own validation.

One of the hardest parts (for me at least!) to the process of achieving self awareness is validation and where it comes from. Don’t rely on validation from others. This is the one I struggle with the most. It causes me the most trouble and the one I have to constantly work on.

Whether it’s getting my friends “approval” when choosing pictures to post on instagram or asking what I should say to respond to someone in a text. Whether it’s asking my bosses for feedback on every little thing at work or asking a boy for constant reassurance that he still likes me.

Validation from others is something that feels good but can lead to feelings of needing others to confirm things that you feel yourself.

Being self aware of your initial thoughts or opinions on something is key. And more than just knowing how you feel on a topic, you have to stand on your thoughts and trust them. It’s completely okay to have validation from others, but it’s important not to rely on it.

self awareness journal prompts

Give an example of a time you trusted your thoughts or feelings and that led to a positive outcome.
What do you wish you were more self aware about?
Reflect on your current life and list five things you’re loving about how things are going.
How well have you been tuning in to your thoughts and actions recently?
What’s stopping you today from living your dream life? And what’s a small step you can take to work toward it?
Name three qualities about yourself that make you unique from others.