Self-awareness is the ability to recognize our emotions, our thoughts, our needs, and our behavior. Being able to recognize who we really are, leads us to the first step of personality development.
The five levels of self-awareness:
1. Understand your strengths and weaknesses
Make a list of your strengths and weaknesses, which are in fact opportunities for growth.
Example
Strength  | Weakness  |
Creative Sincere Responsible Goal-oriented Diplomatic | Impatient Overthinking Self-critical Too sensitive Impulsive |
2. Ask for feedback from your friends and family
3. Identify your emotions
According to the wheel of emotions, there are 7 primary emotions: love, anger, fear, joy, sadness, disgust, surprise, as well as plenty of secondary emotions which are reactions we have to primary emotions.
''For example, a person may feel insecure. In this case, fear would be the primary emotion, while insecurity would be the secondary emotion.''
In order to better understand your emotions, you can keep a daily journal with the various events that happen in your life, what your thoughts about them are, how they make you feel and what you can do about it. Our emotions are triggered by our thoughts. Thus, if you keep a daily journal, it will help you manage your thoughts and cultivate positive emotions.
Example
Action I am working on a new project | What I think The result will not be good enough | What I feel Insecure | What I can do I can do my best to achieve the desired result and if it is not as good as I expected it to be, I can improve my skills for the next time. |
4. Get in touch with your body
Explore sensations in your body. For example, when you are happy, your body feels healthy and you have a lot of energy, whereas when you feel anxious you might have a headache, you may feel weak and your heart rate may be elevated. Thus, if you don’t know how to manage your stress, physical symptoms will affect your body and daily life. Try to find a form of therapy that is helpful for you, perhaps relaxation techniques like yoga or meditation, or take up some form of physical exercise.
5. Understand yourself under stress
Ask yourself 3 questions which can help you to manage your stress:
- What makes me stressed?
Whether you are being under lots of pressure or you are facing big changes in your life or just worrying about something.
- How do I know I am stressed?
You may feel low in energy, have headaches, a rapid heartbeat, sleep problems or may notice changes in your behavior.
- What makes me cope with stress?
You can try to eat more healthily, to share your problems with your friends, or to exercise.
Contact us if you want to learn more!
