Self and Self-Awareness Archives – The Self-Awareness Guy

What Is Self Awareness and Why Is It Important?

January 20, 2025 - The Self-Awareness Guy - Leave a Comment

People often ask me what is self-awareness and why is it important? In a nutshell, self-awareness is the ability to understand who you are and why you feel, think, and behave the way you do. It’s important because it means the difference between living with your eyes closed or open, being unconscious or conscious.

Think of someone you know who never seems to have a clue about what they’re doing or why things are happening in their lives; that’s a person without self-awareness. People who know themselves well are able to live much deeper, more fulfilling and balanced lives as opposed to just stumbling from one accident to another. Here are some of the characteristics of people who possesses a high level of self-awareness:

They heal the hurts from their past.
They know who they are deep inside and what they really want to do in life.
They understand why they feel, think, and act the way they do.
They are able to step outside themselves and empathize with others.
They enjoy more meaningful interpersonal relationships.
They get along with others.
They don’t need to control everything.
They don’t have to win all the time.
They constantly learn and grow.
They understand how their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors affect not only them, but others, as well as society in general.
They care about reality.
They’re comfortable with themselves.
They’re generally happier.
They make the world a better place.

The reason why self-awareness is so important is that it gives you the opportunity to live consciously and actually affect your destiny. People who are self-aware are able to enjoy living at a more meaningful level.

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Helps Increase Clarity in Relationships

January 10, 2025 - The Self-Awareness Guy - Leave a Comment

Self-awareness helps increase clarity in relationships because, when people understand their own emotions, thoughts, and actions, they are able to resolve issues and empathize with each other.

People in relationships often move in different directions without even knowing it. Even some of the most well-intentioned people who really care for each other experience conflict and challenges because they are not on the same page.

I’m a big supporter of clarity in relationships. Clarity is when everyone involved understands what’s going on in the relationship. It does away with assumptions, secrets, guesses, misunderstandings and frustration because we actually get to figure out what’s going on.

How to gain clarity? Practice self-awareness and use the following steps to help you get to the core of what’s happening in your relationship:

1. Each person talks uninterrupted about how they see the situation?
2. Each person listens carefully without judging, rebutting or giving advice.
3. Each person asks open ended questions to clarify what is going on.
4. The people agree on a way to proceed.

Dialogue is very important to achieving clarity. Make sure to practice listening skills and asking questions. Open-ended questions are questions that don’t lead to a yes or no answer and allow the other person to meaningfully explain where they are coming from.

This is a style of talking about relationship issues that doesn’t require confrontation; it’s just about people listening to each other and sharing their points of view. Try it sometime to gain clarity on what’s going on in your relationship.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and increase the clarity in your relationships?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Means Possessing Emotional Intelligence

December 21, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

When you’re self-aware, you’re in touch with and can manage your emotions, which means you possess emotional intelligence. People are often scared or don’t understand the concept of emotional intelligence, but it’s really just a helpful skill that can help anyone live a better life.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to deal with or manage your emotions and welcome the emotions of others. If you’re an emotionally intelligent individual, you’re comfortable with any feeling that occurs inside you, you’re able to handle it and keep your life moving in a positive direction, and you do the same when others are feeling things.

A lot of people are deeply uncomfortable with experiencing their emotions, they’ve been taught that it somehow makes them weak or vulnerable – they’re basically afraid of what will happen if they look at the things that are troubling them. The irony is that self-aware people who openly experience their emotions are happier and more courageous.

Over the years, I’ve found that people actually feel better when they learn how to deal with and manage their emotions. It’s like a weight lifts off their shoulders and they’re able to enjoy life to it’s fullest.

Emotions are a natural part of life and you can either use them to become a healthier person or let them bring you down. What will you do to develop self-awareness and emotional intelligence?

Cheers,

Guy

Rigid Thinking Means Lack of Self-Awareness

December 11, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Rigid thinking reflects a lack of self-awareness and often leads to unhappiness and imbalance, yet many people hang on to one set of thoughts and behaviors throughout their entire lives. They do this because they’re unwilling or unable to consider any other point of view other than their own, usually because they feel that something negative will happen if they consider other options. Some people genuinely believe that they’ll look weak if they change their minds, others are afraid that their carefully constructed world will come tumbling down.

It can be daunting when you realize that your former views don’t fit the situation you’re facing or that you don’t have the tools to deal with new circumstances. Thankfully, human beings are able to raise their self-awareness, change their thinking patterns and acquire new information. Here are some ideas to help you expand your thinking:

Actively research and read from many sources.
Learn about other points of view.
Challenge yourself to look at a situation from a different perspective.
Tell yourself the world won’t end if you change your thoughts.
Become stronger by learning new things.
Listen to what others say and consider their views.
Be optimistic that new views can be beneficial.
Welcome change into your life.
Consider thinking in a way that brings you joy.
Think in ways that add to your self-awareness and help you grow.
Identify ways to build bridges.
Think compassionately.

When you think openly, it helps you find a point of view that brings you genuine, deep happiness and fulfillment rather than covering up your warts or enabling you to barely make it through the day. New ideas and information can help you thrive and succeed in ways you might have not even imagined before. What will you do to improve your self-awareness and think optimistically and openly?

Cheers,

Guy

Making Sense of the World around You with Self-Awareness

December 1, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Making sense of the world around you can be a scary endeavor but self-awareness can help you do it because, when you are in touch with why you feel, think, and behave the way you do, you understand yourself, others, and the world around you better.

A lot of people look to external sources without realizing that they have all the answers they need inside. Right this moment, you possess within you the capacity to build your self-awareness and find the answers you need. If you’re trying to make sense of an often chaotic, difficult, tragic, and arbitrary world, you have the ability to do things to soothe yourself and find meaning and purpose. Try these ideas to get you on your true path:

Do things that build you up inside.
Learn how to love yourself.
Find answers to the difficult questions in life inside you.
Look internally rather than externally for answers.
Realize that the world doesn’t always make sense and often is chaotic and random but that you can find inner peace regardless of the situation.
Find your true path in life and follow it.
Realize that making sense of the world is a process that begins with first knowing yourself well and then applying your wisdom to everything else.
Turn negative situations into opportunities to learn and grow.

Trying doing one of these things and then check in with yourself, then do another. As you keep working on yourself, you’ll be building self-awareness and learn how to overcome any obstacle that comes your way. What will you do to develop your self-awareness and make sense of the world around you?

Cheers,

Guy

Using Self-Awareness to Take Care of Yourself at Work

November 21, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Self-awareness can help you take care of yourself at work. We’re not always taught how to look after ourselves at work. We pack our work lives full of activities and tasks but we don’t take the time to nurture ourselves. Building your self-awareness and taking care of yourself is important because it makes you more effective in all areas of your work experience and helps you recharge your batteries.

Try these ideas to bring some balance into your work life and smooth out some of the bumps.

Stop. Take a moment during your day to do nothing and just relax. Lie down, take a nap, go for a walk or just look outside. The idea is to just stop and enjoy a slower pace.
Breathe. Take deep breaths, slow and controlled. Inhale fully and exhale. Think of yourself inhaling serenity and exhaling stress.
Think of something joyful and fun. Sweep aside all the garbled noise that clutters your brain and focus on thinking of something that makes you feel great.
Find a way to vent. Find someone who will listen to you without interrupting and who will simply be there for you to talk about whatever you want.
Celebrate yourself. Do nice things for yourself that don’t cost money. Give yourself a pat on the back and give yourself kudos for the things you’ve accomplished.

The key to taking care of yourself at work is to forget about others and focus on you. Try the ideas we’ve discussed here to introduce some calm into your work life and heal yourself. You deserve it.

What will you do to increase your self-awareness and take care of yourself at work?

Cheers,

Guy

What Are the Benefits of Self-Awareness?

November 1, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

A lot of people ask me, “What are the benefits of self-awareness?” Here are some examples:

You know yourself better, you understand your strengths and areas for improvement.
You live as the real you, not someone else.
You heal the hurts from your past.
You live consciously, following your true path in life instead of just letting things randomly happen to you.
You learn how to emphasize the positive aspects of your personality.
Your thoughts match your actions and move in a positive direction.
You live courageously instead of fearfully.
You avoid making the same mistakes over and over.
You get along well with other people and enjoy more fulfilling relationships.
You do nice things for others.
You’re open to a wide range of ideas and experiences.
You make the world a better place.
You shine.

If you think about it, self-awareness just means that you know yourself so well that you become amazingly happy and balanced, which in turn allows you to live a wonderful life.

Cheers,

Guy