Tips for personal self-awareness
Self-awareness has become a common concept in our modern society, but what is it and how can it help us in our day-to-day lives? Self-awareness can be integral to maintaining our personal happiness and mental health, and it has been found that those who are more self-aware tend to be more effective leaders, as they are more aware of themselves and better at understanding others. Self-awareness not only increases your empathy towards others, but helps you understand how other people might perceive you. With all of this in mind, research has found that people are actually not as self-aware as they believe they are and that people struggle to reach an objective viewpoint. The following tips will help you increase your self-awareness, as well as your own emotional intelligence.
1. Keep a journal.
Writing in a journal allows you to connect with your own personal values and goals. You can also write about things you are grateful for, the events of day, or your perceptions of the world. Writing down small things about your day and about yourself has been shown by research to increase overall happiness and life satisfaction. Keeping a journal helps you process your day-to-day life, from your struggles to your strengths.
2. Get different perspectives and ask for feedback.
Everyone can get stuck in the same thinking patterns. Understanding and asking for different perspectives allows us to see things that we might ignore or not realize about ourselves. Everyone has blind spots in their logic and biases by asking for other perspectives, we can
minimize the extent to which we are blinded by our own perceptions.
3. Practice mindfulness
The most common form of practicing mindfulness is meditation, which often focuses on breathing patterns. The idea is that the more you practice and pay attention to yourself, the more present you will be in your day to day life. This results in a better understanding of yourself, the decisions you make and how it is affecting others around you.
Self-awareness and Mental Health
Self-awareness can greatly help people during mental health recovery as well; it’s important for not only patients in recovery, but also the therapists who are treating them. For patients, self-awareness can help them in realizing any trends in how they are feeling, what is helping them on their road to recovery and what might be harming their recovery process. For therapists, understanding their own beliefs and potential biases helps them make sure that they are providing the highest quality of treatment.
If you are struggling with your mental health, or you know someone who might be struggling, please feel free to contact the professional team at Lifeline Connections for help!
Getting yourself help, whether it is through self-help or by reaching out to professionals is an important part of recognizing that you are struggling; it is also a good step forward in getting the help you need. You can visit Lifelineconnections.org or call 360.397.8246 for more information.
