A Self-Awareness

People with Self-Awareness Understand That Feelings Are Normal - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

People with Self-Awareness Understand That Feelings Are Normal

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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

Conflict Resolution Requires Self-Awareness - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Conflict Resolution Requires Self-Awareness

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I recently facilitated a workshop on conflict resolution and I found it fascinating that almost no one possessed the self-awareness to understand their own role in conflict. I heard many comments about how the other person would be so much easier to get along with if they only did this or that but very little about what each participant would do himself or herself to improve the situation.

Conflict can be a horrible mess or it can be an opportunity for growth and increased understanding. The challenge for many people is that it requires putting their own issues aside in order to connect with someone else, which requires a high level of self-awareness. So how can you become more self-aware and resolve conflicts more easily? Try thinking of the following ideas the next time you feel a conflict coming on.

1. Be aware of your personal triggers. What sets you off?

2. Remember that you decide how you react to situations.

3. Only you can let someone make you mad.

4. Understand it’s not personal, people aren’t trying to slight you in general.

5. Learn to recognize exactly when someone is getting to you.

5. Where do you feel it? Identify where you feel the conflict in your body.

6. Do something different to interrupt the pattern.

If you deliberately give some thought to these areas you will find that you can increase your self-awareness, reduce the way conflict affects you, and move toward more positive interactions. It takes some discipline but it also affords you a way to not let conflict consume your life.

What will you do to develop your self-awareness and decrease the conflict around you?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Experiencing Kindness - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Experiencing Kindness

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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

Self-Awareness and Finding Meaning in Life - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Finding Meaning in Life

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Self-awareness is a vital to finding meaning in life because when you understand and are able to manage your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, you can live more consciously, deliberately, and meaningfully.

If you’re searching for meaning in your life, you’re not alone. It can feel scary and uncomfortable to not know what direction your life is going in but you can find your path by asking yourself questions like:

  • Who am I deep inside?
  • What do I really want to do in life?
  • What brings me deep joy and fulfillment within myself?
  • What things am I doing to take care of myself?
  • In what ways am I following my true path in life?
  • What am I doing to love myself?
  • What resources am I using to help get me where I want to be?

When you ask yourself questions like these, you’ll be building self-awareness and moving toward finding the answers you’re looking for. It all starts by looking deep within yourself and doing the work necessary to live the life you want to.

What will you do to increase your self-awareness and find meaning in life?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and the Power of Positive Thinking - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and the Power of Positive Thinking

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Self-awareness is connected to positive thinking because, when you understand yourself deep inside, you’re able to focus your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in a favorable direction.

I was recently facilitating a workshop with a group of people who had been through significant trauma in their lives and I posed the question, “Why is it that some people are able to move forward and others can’t?” Their responses included determination, resilience, and courage.

An answer I’ve found helpful is: People who overcome obstacles are those who develop their self-awareness so they are able to focus on the positive. This doesn’t mean that they minimize trauma or don’t acknowledge difficulties, it’s simply that they are able to understand themselves well enough to bypass the negative and concentrate on doing positive things.

Human beings have an amazing ability to move in any direction they want to. Right this moment you could take some small action to increase your self-awareness and change your life. All it takes is making a conscious decision to do something, anything. Being positive is about focusing on the things you can change and that you have control over.

We are able to change ourselves because we have control over what we do. Next time you feel like there is no hope, try doing one thing to interrupt those thoughts and that will move you in a positive direction. Time after time I’ve had clients tell me that all it took to change their lives was thinking positively about something they used to think of as negative.

What will you do to increase your self-awareness and think positively?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Doing Things Now - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness and Doing Things Now

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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 Can Help You Overcome Insecurity - On Developing Self-Awareness and Being Self-Aware

Self-Awareness Can Help You Overcome Insecurity

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Self-awareness can help you overcome insecurity because, the more you know yourself deep inside, the fewer reasons you’ll have to be insecure. Self-aware people understand themselves and their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors and are able to focus their energy in a positive direction. So how can you reduce insecurity? Let’s take a look.

Insecurity comes from deep within you and is often caused by messages you heard early in life. You can feel insecure even when things are going well in your life because it never goes away unless you heal it. The difficulty arises when your inner dialogue gets in the way of being a happy, balanced or effective person.

So what do you do if you regularly experience insecurity? If you’re really ready to move past it, you’ll work on understanding why you feel the way you do (increasing your self-awareness) and ask for help when you don’t have the answers. There is a pervasive myth that working on your issues should be avoided at all costs. That approach never leads to happiness because the issue never goes away and often gets worse the more you try to ignore it. No matter how much you try to stuff it back in the box, it always pops out again, often at inappropriate times. Doing the work is the only way to alleviate the situation.

Feeling secure comes from building your self-awareness. It’s the process of finding out who you are, what you love to do, what brings you joy, your interests, your passions in life and the issues that you need to resolve to move forward. When you understand yourself better, you make decisions based on feeling powerful and happy rather than insecure.

What will you do to build your self-awareness and reduce your insecurity?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy