Hello and welcome and today's word is self-awareness.
My goodness,
Such a vital area for living our best life.
Do you truly know yourself?
Self-awareness is the foundation of personal growth,
Allowing you to really understand your strengths,
Your weaknesses,
Emotions and motivations,
When your strengths are really strengths and when they might be weaknesses,
When your weaknesses might even be strengths.
We examine ourselves,
We examine our behaviours,
We examine our feelings.
Imagine how much more intentional your life would be if you had a deep understanding of your own thoughts and behaviours and why you do what you do.
Imagine understanding how your upbringing and your childhood has perhaps influenced how you see the world today and how you navigate through the world.
Very,
Very fascinating.
Self-awareness really helps us make better decisions and improve our relationships and it very often leads to us also being able to manage other people's emotions and if I can find compassion for myself,
I can much more easily find compassion for others.
Now overall,
When we develop self-awareness,
We do become much more attuned to our emotional triggers,
Our biases and our habits and this allows us really to get more responsible,
To understand the role that we may play in situations and take responsibility for that.
Much of what sits in the subconscious mind is driving our life and if we can bring those elements into the conscious mind,
We have choice over what we want to hold on to and what we would like to reframe or let go of.
But without bringing things from the subconscious into the conscious,
That can be very,
Very hard.
So that self-awareness piece,
The journey of self-awareness is very fascinating.
Benjamin Franklin,
He practiced self-reflection through his daily journals,
Constantly assessing his own behavior and seeking self-improvement,
Asking the questions,
Could I have done that differently?
Could I have done that better?
He even created a personal development system focused on tracking virtues such as temperance,
Humility and perseverance.
And then we have Marcus Aurelius,
The Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor who regularly wrote in his journal,
Contemplating his emotions,
His actions and his purpose.
His reflections were later published as meditations and they remain a guide of self-awareness and wisdom even today.
Now studies from Yale University suggest that self-aware individuals tend to be more successful in leadership roles.
Research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology has found that self-awareness leads to better emotional regulation and decision-making.
In fact,
Without self-awareness,
It will be very difficult to manage our emotions because we simply won't know what's going on and what's there.
Neuroscience indicates that mindfulness practices enhance self-awareness by activating the prefrontal cortex responsible for introspection and self-control.
This is not about navel gazing.
This is about really understanding who you are,
To know who you are and what you're bringing to the world.
So three steps I invite you to contemplate today to bring more self-awareness into your life.
Number one,
Keep a daily journal for a while to track your thoughts,
Your emotions,
Patterns in behavior,
Negative self-talk,
Fears,
All of those different things.
And I would also track judgments you might be making about other people,
Things that seem to be important for you,
Value systems,
Because we never judge others unless we judge ourselves in the same way.
And there may be judgments there that are actually holding you back.
Number two,
Seek feedback from trusted friends,
Colleagues or mentors,
Family members perhaps,
About how you come across to others.
You don't have to agree with what they say,
But recognize that we will come across to people in different ways and each of those different ways could be a gift in certain situations.
And the third one is practice mindfulness and meditation to cultivate the present moment awareness.
And we're going to end on a quote today by Aristotle,
Knowing yourself is the beginning to all wisdom.
