A few simple ways to bring the beautiful self awareness back to our lives!
Photo by Anna Sullivan on Unsplash
Self awareness is the antidote to the modern busy, internet connected, high pressure, in the moment life. While we are mostly on autopilot throughout the waking hours from the moment we get up till when we go to sleep, with some of us having the smartphones next to our pillows, it definitely pays to develop our self-awareness.
Self awareness is the opposite of what technology makes us do, which is to run outside of ourselves and be driven by external stimuli instead of being aware of and being familiar with and watching our own thoughts without judgements. It is about paying attention to our inner world without commentary, without judgement, with a beginner’s mind and an open heart. It recognises that we can develop our amazing potential by proactively nurturing our thoughts, emotions and behaviours with kindness and compassion first to ourselves and then to others.
A few simple but necessary ways to develop our self-awareness:
- Make time (create downtime) in our day to stop the busy doing and running around, running outside of ourselves, creating some space for ourselves. This could be at intervals during the day, or after wakeup or before going to sleep. Spend time reading, meditating, writing and connecting with yourself.
- Practice mindfulness by being present, and bringing the mind back to where the body is instead of running to far away places, and discarding the past and the future to be aware of the present. This could be practiced while walking, drinking tea, washing dishes, driving………..in fact you can practice mindfulness every minute of the day, and every moment becomes a mindful moment.
- Writing a journal (or a blog, like this blog): I am processing my thoughts, clarifying them and putting them on paper. This requires that I am paying close attention to my inner world and to what I am saying to myself and what stories I am telling myself. It changes my self-awareness!
- Listening deeply. First by listening deeply to another person, with empathy and understanding. Without interruption and judgement. Listening deeply also means being aware of someone else’s body language, emotions and language. This helps us become better listeners to our own inner speech and eventually levels up our self-awareness.
- Self awareness can also be increased by being open to feedback from others. When we are open for and allow others to give us another way to see ourselves (even if it’s not what we want to hear), and provides more ways to see our own blind spots and helps us to gain deeper awareness of ourselves.
Through self-awareness, we can become aware of our own infinite potential and be grateful that we are lucky enough to pause and unpack our own mind and see it’s beauty in full splendour.