Self-Awareness Archives – Page 4 of 54

People with Self-Awareness Understand That Feelings Are Normal

June 4, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

A big part of self-awareness is realizing that feelings are a natural part of being human. It’s normal to have feelings, although countless numbers of people do everything possible to avoid them. This leads to individuals who only allow themselves to feel certain things and try to ignore the remainder.

I knew a person years ago who had a really tough time admitting any vulnerability or fear. He lived a life where he seemed invincible but was falling apart inside, and it eventually began to show. He gradually fell apart, behaving erratically and distancing himself from others. He thought he was protecting himself but he was really isolating himself from meaningful human interaction, all because he was avoiding feeling fear.

Feelings are a normal part of life, no matter how difficult they may appear to be. They are signals from out minds and bodies that something needs attention. They tell us how we’re doing. When I have uncomfortable feelings of any kind, I try to acknowledge them and feel them fully. I honor what my body is telling me and experience it as much as possible so I can heal and move forward positively.

We can only be truly happy in life when we have the self-awareness necessary to be at peace with all our emotions. What will you do to increase your self-awareness and get in touch with your feelings?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Experiencing Kindness

May 25, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Self-awareness plays a big part in how we treat ourselves and others. People who are self-aware tend to be mentally healthier and able to treat themselves and other people with kindness. The more whole you are, the more likely you are to be able to empathize and care for other human beings.

Experiencing kindness as a child is a major part of being able to practice compassion as an adult. People who have not had families where kindness was the norm tend to be skeptical that it exists because they didn’t experience it in their formative years.

Kindness is really just another way of saying that you’re self-aware and mentally healthy enough to treat people with love, you care for them as if they are precious and deserve great tenderness and respect. It’s the only way to live a truly fulfilling life because, when you treat others well, it tends to create positive vibes in the universe.

People who value self-awareness often think in terms of how to increase the kindness in the world, whether it is by writing about love or challenging injustice. How will you develop your self-awareness and spread kindness in the world?

Cheers,

Guy

How to Use Self-Awareness to Fix a Relationship Problem

May 15, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Self-awareness can help you fix your relationship problems because, when the people involved understand and can manage their emotions, thoughts, and actions, they are in a good position to resolve the situation.

Many people experience difficulties in their relationships and don’t know what to do about them. They repeat an endless cycle of getting hurt, hurting back and perpetuating the hurt through their actions. It even happens in dating situations and marriages where both people are kind, intelligent and caring. So what is it that causes this conflict and what can we do to increase our self-awareness and do something about the issue? It helps to first examine why conflict occurs. Here are some of the causes:

Neither person understands the other person’s point of view.
There is not a meeting of the minds on issues.
Neither side backs down.
Each side tries to win.
Neither side has the skills or knowledge to fix the problem.
The people involved are hurt, angry, frustrated or sad.

The good news is that you can help your situation by being self-aware and thinking about new ways of doing things. The key point is to start a process where nobody wins and both of you collaborate to find a solution that works for everyone involved. Consider using the following ideas to begin increasing your self-awareness and connecting with your significant other in ways that will benefit both of you.

You both agree to talk.
Set up an interruption-free time to talk.
Agree on one thing to talk about.
Brainstorm possible ideas to fix the problem.
Evaluate each option.
Agree together on the resolution that works best for both of you.
Work together to take action on the resolution.
Move to the next problem.
Think about getting a neutral person involved to mediate.

I also encourage my clients to do away with the word “problem” and look at the challenges in life as opportunities for personal growth and movement in a more positive direction. Looking at challenging situations in a positive light gives you the opportunity to actually fix things rather than repeating the same patterns.

So the next time you are in the middle of a fight, redirect your thoughts to the possibility that both of you can work together and purposefully resolve the matter. What will you do to increase your self-awareness and fix your relationship problems?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Doing Things Now

May 5, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

Did you know that you can use self-awareness to start doing things right now to improve your life. When you understand yourself deep inside, you’re better able to take action to transform your situation.

We spend so much time thinking about the things we could have done that we forget the power we have to change things in the present. It’s easy to get stuck in a mode where we replay past events or make up future possibilities but that never seems to affect the present.

Spending more time consciously working on the present is the only way to change your destiny. If you start today by telling yourself that you will work on something occurring in the present you will suddenly have command of your destiny and power to change whatever you want.

Try doing that today; find something that you keep hoping would happen in the past or future and re-focus it in the present. Ask yourself what you can do right now to affect something in your life right now. Doing stuff in the present helps us take our minds off all the things we have no control of and focuses our energy on the things we can change.

What will you do to increase your self-awareness and make things happen right now?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and the Common Good

April 15, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

When you’re actively building self-awareness you understand how important your mental health and well-being are to promoting the common good. The more balanced you are, the more you empathize with others and treat them with kindness and compassion. Healthy, happy people tend to relate to others well because they don’t have the garbage that gets in the way of positive interactions, such as:

The need to control others.
The need to dominate.
The need to win.
The need to be better than others.
The need to get the last word in.
The need for power.
The need to be right.

These types of behaviors create divisions and adversarial relationships rather than mutual caring and collaboration. The key to building a kind community is for its members to be happy, balanced, fulfilled individuals who are able to treat others well. What will you do to be part of the common good?

Cheers,

Guy

Moving Past Criticism with Self-Awareness

April 5, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

When you’re actively developing and practicing self-awareness, you’re able to accurately assess your strengths and areas for improvement, which helps you worry less about what other people say, including if they criticize you.

We’ve all been on the receiving end of criticism and, for some people, it can be debilitating and even paralyzing. The good news is you can be self-aware and learn how to listen to the criticism, focus it in a different way, and use it to become a stronger person. Here is what some smart people have to say about the subject.

David Brinkley:

A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her.

Elbert Hubbard:

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.

Franklin P. Jones:

Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.

Henri Frederic Amiel:

We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves.

A significant part of self-awareness is the ability to think and behave positively regardless of what people say. What will you do to move past criticism?

Cheers,

Guy

Being Happy and Self-Awareness

March 26, 2024 - The Self-Awareness Guy

There’s a big difference between saying you’re happy and behaving in ways that reflect genuine joy, fulfillment and balance. If you’re actively developing and practicing self-awareness, you know that finding happiness is an ongoing learning and growth process. You can’t just wake up one day and declare that you’re happy, it requires gradual, deliberate and conscious work. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to see if you’re genuinely happy:

In what ways does my current career reflect my dreams?
In what ways do I feel long-term happiness?
In what ways am I actively healing my unresolved issues?
In what ways can I like myself more?
In what ways can I improve how I treat myself?
In what ways am I learning and growing each day?
In what ways am I building self-awareness each day?
In what ways am I becoming emotionally healthy each day?
In what ways can I improve how I interact with others?

Each day is an opportunity to become a more well-rounded individual in your personal or professional life. The key to being authentically happy is to move beyond temporary or superficial contentment to feeling fulfilled on a deeper level. You’ll know you’re genuinely happy when you think and function in a way that reflects who you really are deep inside. What will you do to be more self-aware and truly happy?

Cheers,

Guy