Developing self-awareness is important for better relationships and for a more fulfilling life, both in the workplace and at home.
With a good understanding of how we relate to others, we can adjust our behavior so that we deal with them positively. By understanding what upsets us, we can improve our self-control. And by understanding our weaknesses, we can learn how to manage them, and reach our goals despite them. However, it’s difficult to be objective when we think about ourselves, and how others actually see us can be quite different from what we think they see.
There are 4 Steps that can guide you towards your self-awareness path:
Step 1: The Body – learn to become aware of your body first. Learn to place your attention and sense your body’s energy from the inside out. Learn to feel its presence, it’s aliveness. You can begin by starting in small parts of the body, such as your hands until your attention can encompass your whole body.
Step 2: Your Thoughts – Once you become observant of your body, expand your awareness to observe and watch your thoughts.
Step 3: Feelings and Emotions – When you are able to watch your thoughts, learn to watch your feelings and emotions. When you are watchful of your body, thoughts, feelings, and emotions your awareness will begin to operate from a state of inner harmony.
Step 4: Aware of your own awareness – When you live a life of inner harmony, that harmony allows you to be in a position to become of aware of your own awareness.When you are able to be aware of your own awareness you will realize how cunning the mind is, and how great it is at rationalizing. Rationalizing is not awareness, awareness means that whatsoever is happening at the moment is happening with complete consciousness, that you are fully present.
Challenges in Self Awareness:
The problem lies in that all the mind can do is think of the past and imagine the future. To be present and totally aware is to be in the space of no thought, dropping your analytical mind. Also, try and understand that dropping the mind does not mean to be in a vegetative state, it is simply space where you move into a deeper depth of understanding and perspective. Your mind is only able to work linearly, from point A to point B, from one thought to the next. If you move vertically that is a movement of consciousness, which is awareness.
How to overcome these Challenges?
Learn to continually bring yourself to the present. When you catch yourself living in the past or imagining the future, bring your awareness back to the present moment. Do not feel bad when you realize you are not in the present, this is just a habit you need to gradually get out of until your new habit is being more in the present.
Just learn to be a passive witness, which means you observe without judgment, and slowly you will fall into moments of beautiful silence. By constantly being in a state witnessing you will fall into the gaps between your thoughts.