When I look at the topics I cover here, mainly centring around health, happiness and hope, there’s one theme I find coming up again and again, and that’s self-awareness.
A lot of what I talk about involves you getting to know yourself better, knowing your strengths, accepting your weaknesses and basically doing you.
Looking back at my own life I know a lot of the things I’ve overcome and succeeded in have involved me understanding myself better. Knowing why I react a certain way to certain situations. Realising what drains my energy and what gives me energy. Listening to myself and trusting myself.
Isn’t self-awareness just another form of narcissism?
Put simply, no - it’s not. I know for some people the investment of time and effort required to get to know yourself and become more self-aware seems unnecessary or even selfish - but I, respectfully, think this is bullshit.
Here are a few pretty amazing things that happen when you’re self-aware:
You treat yourself better
Once you are more aware of who you are, you can start being kinder to yourself. You can make changes of course, but when you know, accept and love who you are - everything comes from a place of compassion.
You gain confidence
When you know better what makes you tick, what you really enjoy and what you thrive on - you can do more of that. When you’ve accepted who you are, you can stop hiding, stop apologising for who you are. This is where confidence grows.
You succeed
Being kinder to yourself, treating yourself well and gaining confidence can only lead to one thing - success. What does success look like to you? It looks different to everyone. I love Sara Tasker’s article on defining your own success.
You become a better partner and friend
Knowing what situations make your blood boil or how you’ll react to certain conversations is a huge asset in relationships. Knowing what you need from others and how you communicate lifts the veil of uncertainty and breeds honesty.
You feel happier
All of the above, generally, culminates in a big increase in happiness. It won’t stop life’s ups and downs hitting you, but it might just give you enough cushioning to get through it unharmed.
You make the world a happier place
And here lies my biggest argument to the ‘isn’t self-awareness selfish?” question (and guys, it’s backed by science). A study by Harvard scientists has found that when we’re happy it actually creates a ripple effect, impacting on those we’re in direct contact with AND people up to three degrees of separation away.
What this essentially means is that us being happier impacts our friends’ friends’ friends. So being more self-aware and being happier, isn’t selfish at all - if anything, it’s a responsibility we all have to make a happier society.
If I’ve managed to convince you and you want to learn more about improving your self-awareness, I’ll be covering this in Sunday’s Monthly Musings newsletter. I’ll be sharing some fab resources on the topic and giving you a downloadable PDF with some self-awareness journaling prompts to get you started.
Be sure to sign up before Sunday 29th October to get this newsletter (you’ll also get my welcome email complete with a guide to self-acceptance, self-love and confidence - win win!).
Do you consider yourself self-aware? What effect has it had in your life?
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I used to step on the scale every day, sometimes twice to make sure I was “aware” of my self. I’m so glad I have a different, deeper, more acute awareness of myself now. But it’s a practice. A work in progress.
That is a very good point, there’s a fine line with self-awareness. So glad to hear your awareness has changed, and yes it is most definitely a practice ❤️
I have had a lot of my preconceptions about who I am thrown out in the last four years. It has been a period of discovery and I am acutely aware of my negative characteristics but I am not sure if that is a true reflection of me or a symptom of my anxiety. I am trying to be kinder to myself.
It’s a fine line isn’t it and things like anxiety can certainly skew our perception. Glad to hear you’re trying to be kinder to yourself, honestly believe that’s key to all of this ❤️ thanks so much for reading!