Self-Awareness Archives – The Self-Awareness Guy

Self-Awareness and Thinking about Others

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

Perhaps you’ve met individuals who assure you they possess self-awareness and then trample all over other people. It’s like the boss who says she’s wonderful and caring and shouts at her employees or the husband who says he’s a great guy but does things that deeply hurt his spouse.

When you have a high level of self-awareness you naturally think about others. The more comfortable and knowledgeable you are about what drives your thoughts, feelings and behaviors, the more likely you will be to feel happy and balanced and treat other people in a caring, compassionate way. If you solely care about your money, your power, your own success, your immediate needs, your safety, or your own point of view, you’re less likely to think about other people.

The key to living a genuinely fulfilling, happy life is to realize that you can take care of yourself and others, not just one or the other. As you become healthier and more tuned in to who you are deep inside, you’re much more likely to help others do the same. What will you do to keep building your self-awareness and thinking about others?

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 and Moving Past Hurt

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

When you possess self-awareness, you’re much more likely to enjoy life rather than feeling miserable. Living in hurt is something that countless numbers of people know all too well. They may not consciously understand what they’re doing, but they experience the results of their subconscious minds compelling them to behave in negative, unproductive, and counterintuitive ways.

The legacy of hurt is powerful. It can travel over generations and influence people in its proximity. Hurt people routinely destroy themselves, others, their nations, and the planet. Throughout many years of helping individuals and groups build self-awareness, I’ve noticed that the most genuinely happy people are those who have dealt directly with their hurts. This means they’ve done the hard work necessary to examine themselves and heal the wounds of the past.

Moving beyond pain or trauma is difficult. It requires a higher level of self-awareness and a commitment to improving oneself. Very few people do it, but those who embark on the journey are rewarded with a richer, multifaceted, healthy, expansive life.

What will you do to increase self-awareness and reduce the hurt in your life?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Negative Beliefs

December 11, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

When you possess a high degree of self-awareness you tend to bypass negative beliefs because you have a more complete understanding of what’s really going on inside and around you and how you can move things in a positive direction rather than staying stuck in fear, superstition, inaction or inauthenticity. Here are some ideas to help you reduce the negativity:

Realize that you can’t possibly control everything around you.
Work actively on understanding yourself on a deeper level.
Take action each day to do things that are meaningful to you.
Believe that your perception of the world doesn’t have to be negative.
See the big picture rather than getting mired in endless detail.
Focus on what’s going well.
Learn to redirect negative feelings and replace them with positive alternatives.

Negative people and events can’t hold you back if you don’t let them. You have many options available to you rather than despairing or giving up, what will you do to increase your self-awareness and get rid of negative beliefs?

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

Self-Awareness and Being Creative

December 1, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

When you possess self-awareness you’re able to explore your creativity. Being creative requires courage because you have to put yourself out there and expose your ideas to scrutiny and criticism.

Creativity simply means coming up with something that didn’t exist before, it requires a sense of optimism and daring, a willingness to challenge the status quo or prevailing wisdom.

We all have the ability to be creative but some people have been programmed to believe that it’s difficult or even dangerous, some even go as far as holding on to the same way of doing things no matter what the results are.

The great thing about human beings is that we have the ability to generate new ideas and bring them to fruition. We don’t have to stay stuck and we can forge a world based on kindness and compassion instead of fear and suspicion.

People who value self-awareness and being creative are able to pioneer bold movements and envision new solutions to the issues we all face.

What will you do to increase your self-awareness and explore your creativity?

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