Self-Consciousness

Self-Awareness Helps You Stop Reacting to Everything - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Helps You Stop Reacting to Everything

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Many people who lack self-awareness spend their lives reacting to perceived slights and conflicts. They have learned somewhere that the way you deal with anything is to jump into reactive mode and get mad at people. You’ve probably met someone like this: They see someone across the room and immediately assume that that person is talking about them, so they jump into a rage, get sad or shut down.

Reacting based on assumptions or our inner dialogue is one of the major behaviors that keeps people from connecting with one another. If we spend our time assuming that someone is trying to hurt us we live a very specific kind of life that is based on ongoing hurt and conflict. People live this way for a variety of reasons but mainly because they learned it at a young age and don’t know any other way of doing things, that and a lack of self-awareness. The good news is that you get to choose what kind of life you live starting right now. Here are some tips so that you can move from reactive to calm:

1. Assume people aren’t talking about you.
2. Assume that people aren’t trying to hurt you.
3. Live a life that helps you bring joy to others.
4. Seek professional help to work through why you react to others.
5. Learn to identify the feelings that come up inside you and calm them down.
6. Try not to pre-judge people’s motivations.
7. Have an alternate plan for how you will react positively.
8. Listen to people until they are finished talking; then act.
9. Practice patience.
10. Focus first on building your self-awareness and growing as a person.

There’s nothing wrong with experiencing emotions unless they limit our ability to interact positively with others. Try working on the steps we’ve mentioned and you’ll be on your way to seeing the world in a different light. What will you do to develop self-awareness and stop reacting to everything?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Means You Can Make Adjustments - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Means You Can Make Adjustments

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People who are self-aware understand that not everything goes as planned all the time. A crucial part of self-awareness is the ability to make adjustments. Take the time to consider what’s working and what needs to change in your life so you can get the results you want. Don’t be afraid to make changes to your routine that will help you move forward. Here are some examples of the kind of adjustments you might make:

  • Let go of what doesn’t work.
  • Heal the hurts from your past.
  • Invite people into your life who build you up.
  • Do things that help you learn more about yourself.
  • See a therapist or coach.
  • Do something different than what you do now.
  • Pursue your dreams.
  • Take the time to figure out who you are deep inside.
  • Live with courage.
  • Welcome change into your life.

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Saying No - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Saying No

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An important part of self-awareness is allowing yourself not to do everything that people ask you to do. A lot of well-meaning individuals expend a great deal of energy doing things for others rather than remaining focused on their own goals. You get to decide whether you live your own life or someone else’s. Saying no doesn’t mean being rude, it’s just letting people know what your limits and boundaries are.

When you learn how to say no, you allow yourself to focus your energy on doing what you want to do. You can take action to make your own dreams come true. You also get rid of the inner discomfort that comes from doing things you really don’t want to do.

You’re a valuable person who deserves to follow your own path in life. Your needs matter. When you say no, you are putting yourself first and creating the space for you to do things that bring you joy. What will you do to develop self-awareness and say no more often?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Aware People Avoid Tough Love - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Aware People Avoid Tough Love

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“Tough love” is a horrible concept because it contaminates and corrupts the whole idea of love. A huge part of self-awareness is self-love and the ability to love others. When you are self-aware, you have the courage to work through your toughest issues and you eventually arrive at a place of peace, calm, hope, and love, not some awful scenario of violence and harshness.

The term “tough love” completely destroys the empathy, kindness, healing, softness, and caring that comes with real love. I wish that the people who use the term “tough love” would switch to some more accurate definition such as, “Trying to help someone by imposing punitive and harsh measures for what we say is there own good.”

The problem with “tough love” is that it perpetuates the same hurt and pain that likely created the issue in the first place. Let’s take a teenager acting out as an example: The teen is behaving a certain way (barring medical or psychological issues) because of their experiences in life. I have yet to meet a person who is acting negatively who comes from a wonderfully functional home. When we impose harsh measures on that person to try to correct their behavior, we’re not loving them, we’re hurting them more, which usually leads to more negative behaviors whether internal or external.

What if we decided to build self-awareness and actually love people instead of getting tough with them? I don’t know about you, but I’ve consistently noticed that people prefer to be treated kindly rather than punitively. So many teen (and adult) problems would go away if people would take time each day to simply listen to the person without interruptions or judgments, and commit to doing it long-term.

Punishment only adds hurt to hurt. I firmly believe we should get rid of this whole toughness thing and replace it with self-awareness, empathy, and real love. People often fight me when I suggest that we can care for people, hug them, listen to them, show them they really matter, and let go of the need to control and dominate them. That’s how far we’ve sunk, we can’t even imagine a world where we treat each other with love.

I propose we establish a new pattern of love and unconditional regard instead of inflicting more pain. The only way we’ll ever heal one person, or the world, is to believe and act from a place of true love. Yes, it will take considerable time and effort to make the change, but everything worthwhile requires commitment.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and get away from tough love?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and What Kind of Person You Are - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and What Kind of Person You Are

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If you consistently work on increasing your self-awareness, you become a certain kind of person, usually someone who possesses the following qualities:

  • You’re comfortable with yourself because you’ve worked on healing your inner hurts and resolving the challenging issues in your life.
  • You don’t have to boast about how great you are or be superior to others. Your confidence comes from knowing yourself so well that you just live life as yourself and celebrate others who are doing the same.
  • You tend to build positive relationships.
  • Your thoughts and beliefs are integrated with your behaviors. For example: You’re consistently kind to people in all areas of your life.
  • You’re comfortable with your entire range of feelings.
  • You function based on hope and compassion rather than fear and competition.
  • Your public life matches your private life.
  • You don’t worry about what others think but you also make sure you’re compassionate and work to promote as much good for as many people as possible.
  • Your life has meaning and purpose.
  • You genuinely like yourself deep inside.
  • You live life as the real you.

The great thing about being a human being is that you can choose how you think, feel and behave, which determines what kind of person you are. What will you do to keep building your self-awareness and moving in a positive direction?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Aware People Decide How to Live Their Lives - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Aware People Decide How to Live Their Lives

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If you possess self-awareness, you decide how to live your life, not anyone else. I wish I had known this a long time ago.

For too many years, I followed everyone else’s lead instead of my own. I would let other people tell me what I should do with my life, what kind of relationships I should have, and how I should think and behave. It made me feel horrible about myself, to the point where I was self-destructing.

People are amazingly adept at telling you, in both overt and more subtle ways, that you shouldn’t be yourself. They make suggestions and demands that keep you from being the authentic you. The key to living a great life is to increase your self-awareness so you can do your own thing and make your own choices. Move forward courageously, and positively, based on what your inner voice is telling you. Do what you love doing.

I’m so glad I figured out that I could follow my own path. What will you do to develop self-awareness and live your own life?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Helps People Be Less Broken - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Helps People Be Less Broken

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The world teems with people who are broken and don’t yet have the self-awareness to heal themselves and live healthy, balanced lives. To clarify: I don’t believe anyone is actually broken, I’m using the word to refer to people who don’t yet realize they could be significantly happier and more whole by:

  • Discovering who they really are; their talents, passions, dreams.
  • Healing their hurts and unresolved issues.
  • Loving themselves so they can live healthily and feel empathy toward others.
  • Letting go of the need to be right, win, or dominate others.
  • Living their lives as themselves, doing the things they really find meaningful.
  • Behaving with love, kindness and empathy toward themselves and others.
  • Finding strength inside themselves instead of from an outside source.
  • Being comfortable with all their emotions.
  • Doing away with negative thoughts and behaviors.
  • Waking up each day full of joy, peace and balance.

Imagine how powerful you would be if you did one of these things, or if you did most or all of them. As a person striving to increase your self-awareness, you get to decide what kind of life you live. If you already do the things on this list, you know how wonderful they make you feel and how they help make the world a better place for everyone. What will you do to move past being broken?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy