From birth, every child begins to construct a unique identity. This identity, or mental picture of themselves, helps give them a sense of who they are, who they can be, and where they fit in the world.

Childrens identities are shaped by many factors including their physical appearance, gender, age, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status, strengths, education, relationships, social roles, media and culture. They might reflect this identity in a myriad of ways through their choice of clothes, hairstyle, music, physiology, language, attitudes, behaviours, interests, activities, and groups to which they belong. And as they get older and have new experiences, their identities will evolve and grow.

Helping children get to know who they are, what they are capable of, and all the things that make them special, is an important part of their development. For as their sense of self develops, so too does their confidence, self-esteem, and ability to achieve their true potential. And ...

... once you see a childs self-image begin to improve, you will see significant gains in achievement areas, but even more importantly, you will see a child who is beginning to enjoy life more (Wayne Dyer).

A good way to help children become aware of how they are deriving their sense of identity is to get them to watch out for I statements. For example I am ... reveals a childs beliefs about who they are; I can .... reflects what they think they can do; I have ... indicates the things or possessions they use to define themselves; and I like refers to their personal preferences or likes. But the important thing is to notice the words they use to finish these sentences, because any time they start with an "I" statement, they are effectively creating what they will do and experience in life.

Getting children to identify their strengths is a particularly useful step in this self-awareness process. Thats because every child, regardless of their individual circumstances, has strengths that are unique to them. Recognising their strengths allows them to positively focus on what they are doing successfully, as well as consider how they can apply their strengths to bring about the changes they want in their lives.

But it is important to note that a childs identity can only ever be a perception of who they think they are. In fact, the word identification is derived from the Latin word idem, meaning same and facere, which means to make. In other words, children choose to make certain things the same as themselves, or part of their identity, based on the way they perceive the world. The problem is when children base their identities on faulty thinking; for example, I didnt do well in the test again. Im an idiot, a failure, a loser. But just because they think this way, doesnt make it the truth, nor does it serve any useful purpose. And in holding onto this false identity, they essentially rob themselves of their true potential. Thats because when they label themselves as a certain type of person, only capable of limited things, then they can only ever hope for limited outcomes.

The key then, is to help children stick to the facts, not be so limited in their definitions of who they think they are, and always use positive "I" statements. For what what they think and believe about themselves will affect everything they do and achieve in life.

View original post here:
Getting to Know Who I Am (SELF-AWARENESS & IDENTITY)

Helping People Get to Know Themselves

Veer erik degraaf

Telling your story helps people get to know you.

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 ways in which people can develop self-awareness on their own. However, coaching can be a better way of helping people view their own actions and reactions objectively, so it's useful for helping people to build self-awareness.

In this article we'll look at six approaches that you can use to help others build this self-awareness.

Some of the approaches we describe are useful generally within the workplace, while others are only really appropriate in situations where the person you're coaching has a very close and trusting relationship with you. Choose the approach that suits the situation.

As with all types of coaching, feedback is important. But feedback - even very accurate feedback - can be nothing more than interesting information, unless it causes the person being coached to change his or her perspective in quite a fundamental way. Do what you can to support these changes in perspective.

Psychometric tests are useful for giving people an objective view of how they behave, and how they compare in outlook with others. The answers they give categorize them by the personality traits or preferences they show, and then provide some commentary on these.

Of course, none of these tools captures the richness and uniqueness of an individual person. But they can point out the similarities and differences between people.

One useful personality model, the Big Five or OCEAN model, looks at five main features of human personality: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. This tool can help people understand more about themselves and others. Tests like this one can give people a great insight into their behavior and performance in the workplace.

Another popular test, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (or MBTI) is useful for understanding our preferences for interacting with others, how we like to receive information, and how we make decisions.

Other psychometric tests can be used for other purposes, and it's worth exploring the full range of these to understand what you can do with them.

Once the people you're coaching have taken these tests, you can explore what the test results mean, and help them think about what have learned about themselves, and the way they interact with other people.

It's important that you, as the coach, are familiar with these tools before you use them with people in your team.

We often discover new things about ourselves when we're in unusual situations, or facing new challenges. Our reactions or responses to new environments, new people, or new demands can help us understand how we deal with some of the more familiar aspects of our lives. However, rather than waiting for new experiences to arrive, it can be really valuable to look for them proactively.

We can do this for ourselves by taking different types of vacations, or experimenting with new hobbies, for example. We may find hidden talents, or things about ourselves that we didn't know about - particularly when the new activities are stimulating and energizing.

One way of doing this in the workplace is to encourage people to explore unfamiliar roles or situations. The advantage of using coaching in these situations is that you can help the person you're coaching explore which new roles to try, and you can then help them analyze the experience afterward.

As a coach, the key is to help interpret the experience, and ensure that any learning from it passes back into the coachee's day-to-day life.

There's a big difference between reading a rsum, and meeting a candidate at a job interview. Likewise, it can be very revealing to hear someone's life story first hand.

An experienced coach who listens to someone talk about their life will see and hear so much more than simple facts. These stories can reveal whether people really understand who they are, and why their lives have turned out in the way they have.

Do they understand the impact of the way they were raised, and the influence of their friends and family on the decisions they've made so far? What types of emotional journey have they taken? Is their life full of joy, or weighed down with deep fears or anger? To what extent do their past experiences affect their current experiences? Do they accept themselves for who they are, or do they fight against this, and have a false self-perception?

Whatever the content of the story, a coach's questions and feedback often make the difference between a story that's just told, and a story that's really heard and understood - by the person being coached as much as by the coach.

It's often said that to write well, you have to write every day. By writing down your thoughts and feelings on a daily basis, you build fluency - particularly, emotional fluency. This habit also captures the mood of the moment - when reviewed at a later date, the collection of writing can help the writer understand the range of emotions he or she has experienced.

For the creative writer, this is an exercise of skill and fantasy building. But for people who write about their experiences and feelings, this regular writing improves their self-awareness.

In coaching, a coachee's daily journal is great resource to use. The journals can often be an excellent prompt for discussion during your coaching conversations.

We all play many roles in life. To some, we are colleagues; to others, we may be family or friends. Describing the role each of us plays - at work, within our family group, across our circle of friends, or in our local community - builds a picture of how we see ourselves relative to others.

In coaching, the way the person being coached perceives his or her role can help you understand their underlying motivation for achieving tasks and goals. It can also help explain why coachee's may fail to make progress towards their goals and objectives. If you have issues with people in these areas, take your time to explore their understanding of their roles - this may provide a great opportunity to help people improve their performance.

The very best coaches are careful to tell the people they're coaching precisely the truth they need, at precisely the time they need it. When they do this, they are the perfect "mirror" for coachees to see themselves as they really are.

To do this well, coaches need to invest time and attention in understanding how people see their lives, what they're sensitive about, what energizes them, and what makes them lose energy. Within a safe and trusted coaching relationship, coachees should expect that, when asked, their coach will tell them honestly what they've seen and heard.

As well as providing this valuable feedback, the coach's role here is to help the people they're coaching to be honest and straightforward when observing their own behaviors and actions.

With high levels of self-awareness, we can find a the right direction in life, and we can build better relationships with other people. Coaching is great for helping your people build this self-awareness.

As a coach you can help the people you're coaching interpret and understand information about themselves, and there are six main approaches you can use to do this. These include examining feedback, analyzing outcomes from psychometric tests, learning from new experiences, and considering people's life stories.

Try using these approaches with your people - you'll be surprised by how powerful they can be!

Read the original post:
Coaching to Develop Self-Awareness - From MindTools.com

Self-awareness involves being aware of different aspects of the self including traits, behaviors and feelings. Essentially, it is a psychological state in which oneself becomes the focus of attention.

Self-awareness is one of the first components of the self-concept to emerge. While self-awareness is something that is central to each and every one of us, it is not something that we are acutely aware of at every moment of every day.

Instead, self-awareness becomes woven into the fabric of who we are and emerges at different points depending on the situation and our personality.

We are not born with self-awareness, however. Researchers have demonstrated that the awareness of ourselves begins to emerge at around one year of age and becomes much more developed by around 18 months of age.

Lewis and Brooks-Gun (1979) conducted some interesting research looking at how self-awareness develops. The researchers applied a red dot to an infant's nose and then held the child up to a mirror. Children who recognized themselves in the mirror would reach for their own noses rather than the reflection in the mirror, indicating that they had at least some self-awareness.

Lewis and Brooks-Gun found that almost no children under one year of age would reach for their own nose rather than the reflection in the mirror.

About 25 percent of the infants between 15 and 18 months reached for their own noses while about 70 percent of those between 21 and 24 months did so.

It is important to note that the Lewis and Brooks-Gun study only indicates an infant's visual self-awareness; children might actually possess other forms of self-awareness even at this early point in life.

For example, researchers Lewis, Sullivan, Stanger, and Weiss (1989) suggest that expressing emotions involves self-awareness as well as an ability to think about oneself in relation to other people.

Researchers believe that an area of the brain known as the anterior cingulate, in the frontal loberegion, plays an important role in developing self-awareness. The Lewis and Brooks-Gun experiment suggests that self-awareness begins to emerge in children around the age of 18 months, an age that coincides with the rapid growth of spindle cells in the anterior cingulate. Researchers have also used brain imaging to show that this region becomes activated in adults who are self-aware.

Psychologists often break self-awareness down into two different types, either public or private.

This type emerges when people are aware of how they appear to others. Public self-awareness often emerges in situations when people are at the center of attention, such as when giving a presentation or talking to a group of friends.

This type of self-awareness often compels people to adhere to social norms. When we are aware that we are being watched and evaluated, we often try to behave in ways that are socially acceptable and desirable. Public self-awareness can also lead to evaluation anxiety in which people become distressed,anxious, or worried about how they are perceived by others.

This type happens when people become aware of some aspects of themselves, but only in a private way. For example, seeing your face in the mirror is a type of private self-awareness. Feeling your stomach lurch when you realize you forgot to study for an important test or feeling your heart flutter when you see someone you are attracted to are also good examples of private self-awareness.

Sometimes, people can become overly self-aware and veer into what is known as self-consciousness. Have you ever felt like everyone was watching you, judging your actions, and waiting to see what you will do next? This heightened state of self-awareness can leave you feeling awkward and nervous in some instances. In a lot of cases, these feelings of self-consciousness are only temporary and arise in situations when we are "in the spotlight." For some people, however, self-consciousness can become a chronic condition.

People who are privately self-conscious have a higher level of private self-awareness, which can be both a good and bad thing. These people tend to be more aware of their feelings and beliefs, and are therefore more likely to stick to their personal values. However, they are also more likely to suffer from negative health consequences such as increased stress and anxiety.

People who are publicly self-conscious have a higher level of public self-awareness. They tend to think more about how other people view them and are often concerned that other people might be judging them based on their looks or their actions. As a result, these individuals tend to stick to group norms and try to avoid situations in which they might look bad or feel embarrassed.

More Psychology Definitions: The Psychology Dictionary

References:

Crisp, R. J. & Turner, R. N. (2010). Essential social psychology. London: Sage Publications.

Froming, W.J., Corley, E.B., and Rinker, L. (1990). The influence of public self-consciousness, and the audience's characteristic on withdrawal from embarrassing situations. Journal of Personality, 58,(4), 603-622.

Lewis, M. & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1978). Self-knowledge and emotional development. In M. Lewis & L. Rosenblum (Eds.), The development of affect: The genesis of behavior, 1 (pp. 205-226). New York: Plenum Press.

Mullen, B. & Suls, J. (1982). Know thyself: Stressful life changes and the ameliorative effect of private self-consciousness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 18, 43-55.

2016 About, Inc. All rights reserved.

Read more here:
What Is Self-Awareness and How Does It Develop?

Self-awareness is crucial for evolving and finding coping strategies for weaknesses. An excerpt from How To Become a Better Leader. Image: PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi.

PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi has said that she benefited from feedback from mentors.

Image courtesy of PepsiCo.

How can leaders recognize and manage their psychological preferences?

In a wide-ranging article for the Spring 2012 issue of MIT Sloan Management Review, authors Ginka Toegel, a professor of organizational behavior and leadership at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Jean-Louis Barsoux, a professor of organizational behavior and leadership at IMD, lay out findings from more than 2,000 in-depth conversations with international executives.

In this excerpt from How To Become a Better Leader, the authors examine the role of self-awareness, which they deem crucial for evolving and finding coping strategies for weaknesses:

A survey of 75 members of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council rated self-awareness as the most important capability for leaders to develop. Executives need to know where their natural inclinations lie in order to boost them or compensate for them. Self-awareness is about identifying personal idiosyncrasies the characteristics that executives take to be the norm but actually represent the exception.

Sometimes self-awareness comes early in ones career, prompted by a comment from a trusted colleague or boss. In an article in Fortune International, Lauren Zalaznick, now chairman, Entertainment & Digital Networks and Integrated Media for NBC-Universal, recalled that the best advice she ever received was from her first boss, who told her: Throughout your career, youre going to hear lots of feedback from show-makers and peers and employees and bosses. If you hear a certain piece of feedback consistently and you dont agree with it, it doesnt matter what you think. Truth is, youre being perceived that way.

On her rise to the top, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi has also benefited from constructive feedback: Im a pretty honest and outspoken person, she told the Wall Street Journal Europe. So, you sit in a meeting and somebody presents a five-year plan. [Other executives] would say, You know, thats very interesting. But maybe you could think about this slightly differently. I just said, Thats crap. This is never going to happen. Im sure they were all thinking that, but they were saying it in a much more gentle way. Id come out of the meeting, and one of the guys would pull me aside and say, You could have said the thing slightly differently.

Over the past two decades, companies have increased the opportunities for executives to gain insight into their personalities and receive feedback from multiple sources. These instruments can even be distributed to friends and family, who may be only too pleased to enlighten their loved ones on how they come across. And self-awareness is one of the most frequently cited outcomes of leadership coaching.

But some executives resist this process for a long time. Take the case of David Pottruck, the former CEO of Charles Schwab. Earlier in his career, he was summoned to his bosss office and told that his colleagues did not trust him. As Pottruck recalled in the Harvard Business Review, That feedback was like a dagger to my heart. I was in denial, as I didnt see myself as others saw me. I had no idea how self-serving I looked to other people. Still, somewhere in my inner core the feedback resonated as true.

For further details on how executives need to understand their natural inclinations in order to modify them or compensate for them, see the full article.

See the rest here:
Self-Awareness: A Key to Better Leadership

What to look for?

In the beginning stages Stages Course of disease progression defined by levels or periods of severity: early, mild, moderate, moderately severe, severe of Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease A neurological disease that affects memory and behaviour. It is characterized by beta-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. There is no known cause but genetics and lifestyle are thought to play a role. and dementia with Lewy bodies Lewy bodies Round clumps of protein found in the brain's neurons in many people who experience a neurodegenerative disorder., people have varying degrees of self-awareness. Some people are very aware of their limitations, making them feel sad for the way they are now and making them worried about the future. In general, as the disease progresses, the level of self-awareness will most likely decline. In the earlier stages of the disease, the person you care for may deny or not understand that they have the disease. This can result in them not realizing their own limitations in their abilities Abilities Level at which certain actions and activities can be carried out., such as driving. As well, the person you care for may believe that they are completing tasks which are now being done for them. For example, they may think they have made the bed when someone else has. As their self-awareness declines, so will their ability to express their thoughts and feelings accurately. This loss of self-awareness does not have to be a negative thing. If someone with Alzheimer's disease does not recognize their decline, it is possible that they could believe they were suffering less.

Related to insight, self awareness means you have the ability to "see" yourself as others see you. As insight is affected in people with Frontotemporal dementia Frontotemporal dementia A type of dementia that mainly affects the frontal lobe causing a problem in executive function tasks., so too is their ability to recognize their behaviours, deficits and illness. They no longer know what appropriate social behaviour is and often lose their inhibitions. In many ways, the "self" that they were has changed and they exhibit behaviour that would have been bizarre in their former concept of self. One disturbing behaviour for caregivers and families is a hypersexual behaviour. This can range from a preoccupation with sexual jokes to compulsive masturbation or sexual behaviour in public.

In today's busy, world keeping track of symptoms can be a challenge to say the least. That's why we've developed SymptomGuideTM. By taking a more active role, you can better understand how a symptom is affecting everyday life and you can communicate this knowledge with others involved.

View original post here:
Self-Awareness (Problems with) - Personality Changes ...

An African proverb says, When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside can do you no harm.

Self-awareness is one of themost importantskills for success.How you behave and respond to external situations is governed byinternalmental processes. Self-awareness uncovers anydestructivethought-patterns and unhealthy habits. Thisleads to better decision-making and behavioral responses.

Here are 12 exercises for greater self-awareness:

Before acting on a decision, ask yourself Why? Follow up your response with another Why? And then a third. If you can find three good reasons to pursue something, youll have clarity and be more confident in your actions.

Being self-aware meansknowing your motivesand determining whether theyre reasonable.

The philosopherWittgensteinsaid, The limits of my language means the limits of my world.

Emotions create powerful physical and behavioral responses thatare more complex than happy or sad.Puttingyour feelings into words hasatherapeutic effecton your brain; if youre unable to articulate how you feel, that can create stress. Heres agreat listof feeling words to help withlabelingyour emotions. Increase your emotional vocabulary with one new word each day.

Related:Are You Emotionally Intelligent? Here's How to Know for Sure.

The ability to say no to yourself to put off short-term gratification for the long-term gain is an importantlife-skill. Like a muscle, it is strengthened with exercise. The more you practice saying no to small daily challenges, the better you can withstand major temptations.

There are plenty of daily temptations --social media, junk food, gossiping, Youtube. Make a goal of saying no to five different temptations each day.

A person without self-awareness runs on auto-pilot, and responds withknee-jerk reactions. Self-awareness allows you to assess situations objectively and rationally, without acting onbiasesand stereotypes.

Takea deep breath before you act,especially when a situation triggersanger or frustration. This gives you time to re-assess whether your response will be the best one.

Nobody is perfect. Being aware of your flaws, but failing to accept accountability, is leaving the job half-done. Were often critical of others, whileignorantof our own flaws. Self-awareness helps turn the mirror on ourselves and prevents hypocritical behavior.

Iteration and self-improvement only happens once you recognize a flaw. Create a habit of acknowledging yourmistakes, rather than making excuses.

There is non-stop commentary inour headsthatis not always helpful. A little bit ofnegative self-talkcan spiral into stress and depression.

Pay attention to the way you respond to your successes and failures do you pass off your achievements as luck? And crucify yourself after failures? Positive and negative feedback-loops will form in your mind based offhow you respondto successes and failures. Being tough on yourself needs to be balanced withself-compassion. Celebrate your wins, forgive your losses.

Related:How Talking to Yourself Can Help You Be More Successful

Watching yourself on video can be a cringeworthy experience, but awareness of your body language, posture, and mannerisms improvesyour confidence.

Slouching, or taking a low-power-pose increasescortisoland feeds lowself-esteem, while standing tall or taking a high-power-pose stimulates testosterone and improves your performance. Using hand gestures helps witharticulatingyour thoughts and affects howpeople respond to you.

Record a speech or presentation and evaluate your posture andhand gestures. Watch videos of skilled speakers and adopt their mannerisms to improve your own.

Taking an opposing view forces you to question yourassumptions. Your "default"beliefs and worldview are notalways reasonable; its healthy to argue against yourself and see how your views hold up.

And youll give your brain a good workout. Processing challenging information stimulates newneural connections.

Knowing your personality type allows you to maximizeyour strengths and manage your weaknesses. Understanding your strengths and talents can be the difference between a good choice, and agreatchoice. (Strengths are skills and knowledge that can be acquired, whiletalentsare innate).

Start with understanding where you fall on theintrovert/extrovert spectrum;know yourMyers-Briggstype; and thenconduct a personalSWOTanalysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats).

Keep ajournaland track your progress. How would you rate your current level of self-awareness out of ten? Think about how often you say regretful things; repeat bad habits; make absent-minded decisions; and have erraticthoughts.

Set regular goals, break big goals down into smaller milestones. Ask yourself at the end of each day, What did I do well today? And, How can I improve on this tomorrow?

We all have blind spots in our thinking patterns and behaviors. Asking for regularconstructive feedbackcuts through any self-deceitor one-dimensional views you might hold. But only ask people youd consider mentors those who understand you; whom you respect; and will tell you what you need to hear, not what youwantto hear.

Meditationis a foundational practice for improving self-awareness. To focus solely onyour breathingis to focus on a key internal process. Youll become aware of how your mind wanders, and get better at snapping out of distractions.

For beginners, start with ten minute sessions. Find a quiet place to sit, breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. Count your breaths silently, pulling your mind back when it wanders. See how many breaths you can string together.

Related:Meditation Isn't Just For Hippies: Here is How it Can Help Entrepreneurs

Go here to read the rest:
12 Self-Awareness Exercises That Fuel Success

Self awareness is the foundation of personal growth and success. Daniel Goleman calls it the 'keystone' of emotional intelligence. Find out how one of the most powerful tools recognised by leading psychologists and change agents can revolutionise your life starting today.

Recognise and understand your emotions and you have the power to control them. This kind of self awareness makes it impossible for your emotions to rule you. Unless you choose to give them the upper hand.

Men and women are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds. Roosevelt's insight, shared by thought leaders around the world, points to an opportunity for the ultimate prison break. You can escape reacting to events and emotions and learn to choose your response to any situation.

In the Prison Break television series Michael Scofield's freedom came as a result of learning the system well. The freedom to choose your response and not be a prisoner to reactions also comes as a result of learning the system well. In this case the system is you. You have to know yourself.

Emotional intelligence consists of four basic capabilities, or domains. These are:

Use the links above to find out about the other domains or get an overview of emotional intelligence here.

Before you can make changes in yourself you have to know what there is to work with. Becoming self-aware is about the process of understanding yourself.

Emotional awareness means being able to recognise emotions that you experience, understand the feelings associated with the emotion, and understand what you think and do as a result.

Professional sportsmen and women get intensive training to help them recognise and overcome emotions during a game.

It's essential they don't allow their performance to be affected by frustration or anger.

To increase your emotional awareness download this audio session to discover your identity and develop a strong sense of who you are using the gentle persuasion of hypnosis.

When you're aware of your strengths and limits you'll be more confident about what you can and cannot do. Self-confident people are more assertive about what they believe to be right.

Being assertive doesn't mean you always get your way but rather that you convey your thoughts and ideas confidently and justify why you believe a particular decision or idea is the right one.

According to Daniel Goleman the competencies associated with self-awareness are:

Awareness of self and emotions can be developed. Spend some time recognising areas you need to develop and intentionally making an effort to develop or strengthen that aspect of yourself.

So, how can you become more aware of your strengths and areas for development?

You could

In reality a combination of all three of these is best.

Emotionally intelligent people plan to put time aside to build self awareness. One way to do this is to meditate or reflect daily.

This means that you plan to create a quiet space for yourself in the day, away from work or other activities, and spend time focusing on doing something that opens your mind to deeper thoughts.

Values, beliefs and assumptions

Values are the principles, standards, morals, ethics and ideals that guide our lives. Knowing your values is an essential part of building awareness of yourself.

Knowing your values is like following a well sign-posted road. You're comfortable and secure because you know where you are, you know where you're heading, and you're confident, relaxed and happy knowing you're on the right road.

Here's a great personal assessment I created to help you discover your values. Complete the other three parts of this assessment for a complete awareness building exercise.

Assumptions

Developing awareness of the assumptions we hold about others is an important aspect of emotional intelligence. Self awareness also means that we shouldn't ignore the assumptions we hold about ourselves.

Assumptions about ourselves can be positive or negative. Negative assumptions include thoughts such as Bad things always happen to me or I dont know enough to start my own business. Positive assumptions might include thoughts such as If I keep trying I will be successful or People are inherently good.

Spend some time thinking about a challenging task you performed recently. Can you think of one? It could be work related, or something you did at home.

The beliefs that we have about ourselves are important as they determine our behaviour.

To have greater self awareness or understanding means to have a better grasp of reality. Dalai Lama

Self awareness is the essential building block for emotional intelligence. Becoming self aware is a journey and we'll probably spend a life time learning about ourselves. But as we improve self awareness we also improve our experience of life, create opportunities for better work life balance , become aware of our emotions, and improve our ability to respond to change.

Take the next step to emotional intelligence - Self Regulation

Original post:
Develop Self Awareness To Build Emotional Intelligence

Self awareness: the mental ability to recognize who and what you are - namely that you are distinctly separate from other people and your environment.

This knowledge enables you to consciously realize your own personality, feelings and desires - allowing you to have abstract thoughts about who you are, and things you have done in the past or will do in the future.

Humans have a high capacity for self awareness - though we are discovering that more animals qualify for self awareness too. It's especially helpful in lucid dreaming; converting the passive dreamer into a consciously thinking individual, with the power to explore and manipulate their dream world at will.

To be habitually self aware in waking life means to be more self aware in your dreams. This will produce many more lucid dreams because you'll be able to recognize when you are dreaming (that it is a separate place from waking reality). What's more, those lucid dreams will be more vivid and intense, more malleable and long-lasting, thanks to your heightened sense of self awareness.

Developing a more self-aware mind set doesn't happen overnight but can have a significant impact on your lucid dream life over time.

Here are five ways to improve your self awareness and become a more thoughtful observer of your reality, both while awake and while dreaming.

Let's start with a simple observational exercise in self awareness.

Go to a quiet place - indoors or outdoors - where you can be left alone for a while with no distractions. Sit down and take some slow, deep breaths. Allow everything to slow down while you attune yourself to the environment.

Focus on what's going on around you, as opposed to what's going on inside your own head. Most of us go about our days jumping from one distraction to another and pay little attention to our surrounding environment. Instead of ignoring the background noise let's tune it in and see what it's doing.

Look at any inanimate object that catches your gaze and that you can see clearly. Study its shape - is it flat, straight, jagged, curvy, round? And the texture - is it rough, smooth, rippled, soft, hard, solid? Notice how it is hit by the light; whether it is light or dark, dull or reflective, colorful or bland.

Now get a sense of its depth and position in space. Is it real or imaginary? In your mind's eye, isolate it from its environment completely. Imagine what exists behind the object in the space you can't see. Did it ever look different? How was it created? What will it eventually become?

Without even touching the object we now have a much more profound awareness of how it appears to us in waking reality.

This will come in very handy when you're dreaming tonight.

By paying close attention to even the blandest objects in your environment you are picking up on subtle but important clues that distinguish dreams from reality. To instinctively analyze the same object in your dream tonight would almost certainly yield a lucid dream.

Repeat this exercise with more features in your environment whenever you have a calm, reflective moment. There are no limits: you can do this exercise with a mug or with a cloudless sky. Test yourself.

You can study your environment with any sense (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch... and beyond: temperature, pressure, weight, and so on). Use all your senses -- or use sight alone to retain your complete focus on the experience.

Sometimes though, different objects trigger different senses (eg, birdsong, distant thunder, the smell of home cooking, the touch of grass underfoot) so focus your awareness in the manner most conducive to exploring the object at hand.

This exercise is based on a well known lucid dreaming technique called reality checking or reality testing.

Take any object from the first exercise (eg, a glass of water) and, having studied and experienced it in full, now imagine the impossible. With your eyes open and looking directly at the glass, visualize it melting into the table.

Now imagine it shattering as if spontaneously fractured by a high pitched sound.

Imagine it levitating and floating an inch up in the air.

Now imagine the water coloring itself with a deep red dye.

There are countless ways to imagine the glass of water changing in unlikely or impossible ways. All these sorts of surreal events happen in dreams and by imagining them and analyzing them in reality, we trigger a level of awareness that causes us to ask the question: "This can't be real - am I dreaming?"

This exercise provides a training ground for us to stop sleepwalking through our day, study and observe our reality, and question whether it is real or not.

And when you determine your world isn't real, you become lucid...

The first two exercises explore our perception of the external environment. Now we'll enhance our self awareness from within.

Practice this during meditation. If you don't meditate, try this while falling asleep tonight (it's about the closest thing without calling it meditation).

If you want to start meditating on a regular basis (and I recommend you do for lucid dreaming) try listening to brainwave entrainment specifically designed to aid lucid dreaming practice.

When you are fully relaxed, lying down and with your eyes closed, focus your awareness within and ask yourself: what does it feel like to be me right now?

Just as we did with the first exercise, start with very basic awareness, such as the physical sensation of lying in bed. Is the mattress soft or firm? Are the sheets cold or warm? Rough or smooth? Does your body ache or are you completely comfortable? Do you feel heavy or light?

Then move inwards. Take some deep breaths...

Do you feel calm or stressed? Why is that?

Can you remember a time when you were MORE calm or MORE stressed? What did that calm/stress feel like?

How would you describe the feeling if you were talking to an alien who had never experienced it before? Are there different layers to this feeling? Is it tangible? Can you move it around, build it up, or sweep it away? What might it look like if you could see it?

Direct your focus to whatever emotion or state of mind you feel is strongest and probe it in every way you can think. Like manipulating putty in your hands, try to manipulate any feeling (happiness, peace, amusement, boredom, even pain) to get a better understanding of how it affects your experience of reality.

This is a lucid dream technique that invokes a stronger sense of self awareness.

If you spend every night visualizing a dream about riding on a giant water slide made of ice cream, you'll actually dream about it sooner or later. For accomplished lucid dreamers it happens quickly because it's second nature.

Children who lucid dream frequently use this method intuitively. They'll go to sleep thinking about the amazing Candyland they just witnessed on TV and it'll suddenly become their next dream reality.

Not knowing any better, they assume everyone does this...

The technique of "daydreaming yourself to sleep" is straight forward in its essence but there are tricks to enhance the process and make it more effective.

So what's the best way to visualize a dream scene so it plays out sooner?

First, visualize in vivid detail, engaging as many senses as possible. Trick your brain into believing that the experience has actually happened.

Tonight as you fall asleep, put your awareness inside a desirable dream scene and explore every element with your senses. Don't worry about planning the sequence of events so much as setting the opening scene.

To enhance the visualization further, attach an emotion to it. You are more likely to dream of an event if it was particularly emotional.

Unfortunately, negative emotions seem to penetrate our dreams more easily. Horror movies can so easily trigger nightmares in some people, but for most it takes extreme situations like grief or trauma to noticeably penetrate our dreams. The effect can be powerful and even lead to recurring nightmares. This all supports the theory that dreams are a psychological healing ground.

Nonetheless, many lucid dreamers incubate using only positive emotions, such as a deep desire to experience a particular dream event. There is no need to spook yourself or re-live bad memories for this exercise.

So far all the exercises take place in the waking world.

This one is for when you're next inside a lucid dream.

Using a combination of outside observation, reality checking, and exploring your own inner awareness, you're going to maximize your self-awareness when lucid.

From the moment you become lucid, start exploring your dream world. Look around you, turning 360 degrees slowly, before selecting an interesting target. It may even be your own hands.

Study the object in detail, scrutinize its shape, texture, color, and so on.

Then expect it to grow or shrink (it will!)

Push your awareness into the object and observe it from the inside.

Expect the impossible... then see it happen.

Now ground yourself by observing your own thoughts and feelings within the dreamworld. Are you happy? Excited? Playful? Can these feelings become tangible?

Of course! You are dreaming...

There are an unlimited number of ways to probe your lucid dream world, to see how it reacts to you and vice versa.

By staying lucidly focused and in the moment you'll enhance your lucidity as you go, significantly prolonging your lucid dream and thereby training your mind to have more lucid dreams in future...

Latest

What do blind people dream about? Can they "see" in their dreams? Take a look at scientific studies into the dreams of the blind, colorblind, and black-and-white dreamers. In 1999, dream researchers at the University of Hartford analyzed 372 dreams of 15 blind people. They found that both the congenitally blind and those who went blind before five years old did not have any visual dreams at all. That's because our dreams are made up of real world experiences and our innermost thoughts, anxieties and desires. So for someone who has never perceived images or light (or can't remember any) their dreams simply can't manifest visually.

Latest

Not long ago, scientists at Frankfurt University discovered how to produce lucid dreams with electronic stimulation. It was a world first. And - astonishingly - it worked in non-lucid dreamers 77% of the time. Now you can buy the same technology for yourself. The foc.us V2 - which delivers the proven optimum 40 Hz transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) - was originally developed to increase working memory in video gamers and improve sleep.

Latest

As technology continues to move us towards more immersive dreamlike experiences, one can only wonder what digital wonders lay just beyond the horizon of tomorrow. We may also question just how the future of virtual reality will impact the study and practice of lucid dreaming. Are we, perhaps, the last generation to whom lucid dreaming will maintain an appeal?

Latest

Jeremiah Morelli is a whimsical fantasy artist and visual storyteller. He places conceptual fairytale creatures in vivid dreamscapes to capture the imagination. He's also a school teacher, and amazingly finds the time and motivation to create this huge gallery of artwork. Such light and dark fairytale paintings make beautiful places to visit in your lucid dreams.

Latest

Inspired and named for the notion of Flatland, artist and photographer Aydin Buyuktas has created a series of works where "a space of surprises creates a space that creates surprises." Based on photos of Istanbul, Buyuktas explains: "We live in places that most of the times don't draw our attention, places that transform our memories, places that the artist gives another dimension; where the perceptions that generally crosses our minds will be demolished and new ones will arise. These works aim to leave the viewer alone with a surprising visuality, ironic as well as a multidimensional romantic point of view."

Feature

Experts agree that everyone is capable of having lucid dreams. Dreaming itself is a normal function of the mind. We all dream every night, even if we don't remember. And we all achieve conscious awareness while awake every single day. So what does it mean to combine these states? Why, the amazing ability to have conscious - or lucid - dreams. Sounds simple, doesn't it? So why do I keep hearing from people who say they can't achieve their first lucid dream?

View post:
How to Improve Your Self Awareness - World of Lucid ...

We primarily grow as human beings by discovering new truths about ourselves and our reality. Steve Pavlina

The scope of personal development and growth is a broad one. It is through the powerful impact of personal development and growth that we can grow and improve our relationships, our careers, our wealth, our health, and our happiness. At the very fundamental core of this broad and powerful pursuit is self awareness.

To discover new truths about ourselves is to expand our self awareness. Think of self awareness as a circle. Everything within and without the circle is the self. What is within the circle is what your current level of self awareness allows you to consciously perceive.

As you expand your circle of self awareness not only are you consciously aware of a greater portion of your self but also the borders of your awareness have expanded such that your self awareness borders upon an expanded field of future discovery and growth.

The more doors we open the more doors we discover there are to be opened. Self awareness is the very beginning of personal development. It may very well be the ultimate end.

A man is but the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes. Gandhi

The perspective we take on the happenings of the world and our lives largely determines for us the state of our world and our being. Thus probably the most vital lesson we can learn in life is the importance of what we think.

If you think failure you will find reasons to fail and inevitably succumb to it. If you think health and wellbeing you will make the conscious decision to take the path that leads to greater health and wellbeing.

Unfortunately, many of us do not consciously choose the perspective we take. Our thoughts, which may be considered covert behavior, may simply roll with life and become conditioned by events, the media and other people around us.

If this happens we have given up our power as human beings to create our world and our life around us. In fact we are using our own power against ourselves to make ourselves feel powerless. It is impossible for us to develop and grow ourselves if we lack awareness of ourselves.

A person who is aware of himself is in a better position to predict and control his own behavior. B. F. Skinner

Within Buddhism one of The Three Poisons is Moha or delusion. Buddhism sees the three poisons as the root cause of all suffering. Moha basically means not knowing what is going on within oneself.

According to Buddhism, Moha is the most fundamental of the three poisons. It is a lack of awareness that lies at the root of all our problems. The cure Buddhism proposes is to extend clarity and awareness down into processes that are normally unconscious.

It is mindfulness that Buddhism uses to achieve this aim. Mindfulness is the process of bearing something in mind. An awareness, which does not drift along the surface of things but is a thorough observation, observing without judgment, without habitual reaction or compulsion, but clearly acknowledges what is actually there in the flow of experience, noting its nature.

Thus one of the ways in which we can expand our circle of self awareness is through the development of mindfulness. This can be achieved both through meditation practice and by making a conscious choice to actively be more mindful in our daily lives. In this way, through greater self awareness, we become empowered to choose our own way, to grow ourselves in the manner of our own choosing.

Photo by Esparta

Read more from the original source:
Why Self Awareness is Fundamental to Personal Growth ...

No one is perfect.We all have our quirks and unique personalities, and sometimes these can even make us cute, special or endearing to many. However, some quirks are a bit less attractive, and when they are, self-awareness is somewhat critical in either improving upon them or managing their impact on others.

That said, many people arent self-aware or arent self-aware ALL of the time. Maybe it is someone at the gym who thinks that all of the equipment is his or her very own and doesnt like to share. Or, maybe it is a family member who believes that they are always right and that the rest of the world is wrong. Or, maybe you work with a colleague who just doesnt have any sense of how they bully others. Some of these people can produce continual toxicity in our lives, while others may cause only a momentary frustration. Whoever or whatever the case may be, these people are among us.

But why is self-awareness so important? It makes us better people. Heres why:

So how self-aware are you? Here are a few questions to ask:

If you answered yes to most of the first questions in each pair, you are most-likely self-aware. If you answered yes to most of the second questions in each pair, you probably could afford to tune into other peoples reactions and do some inner reflecting.

Self awareness gives you the ability to be open, thoughtful and aware of how you impact others. It is one of the best and most valuable qualities you can have! Do you think you are self-aware? Have you met others who arent? How did they make you feel? [ad#Get-Real]

More:
The Importance of Self-Awareness | Brett Blumenthal