Awareness Meaning

Self-Awareness and Going beyond the Family

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People who possess self-awareness tend to chart their own courses instead of following rules imposed by outside influences, including their families. A lot of individuals are bound by a sense that they have to adhere to family rules and expectations, but I’ve often noticed that they often live more fulfilled lives when they follow their own inner voices.

Yes, the family is an important social structure that can provide a sense of meaning and belonging, but it is a human construct that has held countless people back. How many people have had to live their lives a certain way because their family tells them to? How many people have had their dreams extinguished because well-meaning family members suggested they follow a certain path? Far too many.

A major reason people are profoundly miserable in life is that they pretend that they enjoy doing what others tell them to do. Trying to be someone we’re not is always a recipe for disaster because the only way we can be truly happy is to do what we love to do, in a way we love doing it, for the reasons we find meaningful. This kind of courageous self-determination often goes against the rules and expectations of our families, but it is the only path toward true fulfillment.

At its very core, being happy means having the self-awareness to be who you really are: an individual who does his or her own thing regardless of what any other person or group says. What will you do to develop self-awareness and go beyond the family?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Creating Change in Your Life

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Self-awareness is a major part of creating change in your life because, when you are in touch with your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, you’re able to consciously move in any direction you wish.

Anyone at any time can make a deliberate decision to change their life. We literally can move our life in any direction we want to. For example: If I decide I want to be an artist today (even if I am not one) I can do specific things to achieve that goal. I could take a class, call some artists, visit some galleries, buy some art supplies, paint a picture, and the list goes on and on. The only thing stopping me is the voice inside my head that tells me I can’t do it. This is the voice that tells me that I will never achieve that, that I should be sensible, that I can’t take a risk, that people will judge me, that my dreams are stupid and that I might as well give up.

This programming is powerful but can be overcome by following these basic steps:

1. Close your eyes and think about what you are telling yourself that stops you.
2. Close your eyes and think back to the first time you heard that message from someone.
3. Picture how your life would be without that message. Develop a short phrase that describes that feeling. For example, “I can be an artist because it’s who I am.”
4. Write down the phrase you come up with.
5. When you wake up in the morning and before you go to bed read the phrase and experience the good feelings that come with it. Repeat for a month and longer.

We play messages in our brains over and over that keep us from being self-aware and doing things we love. Following these basic five steps gives us a chance to introduce a new way of seeing ourselves. Practice it over time (at least a month) to make sure your brain believes in your new way of thinking. If you don’t practice, it won’t stick. Once you’ve shifted your thinking you can move on to a new goal.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and create change in your life?

Cheers,

Guy

8 Benefits of Self-Awareness

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As you develop self-awareness, you’ll increase your ability to consciously move your life in any direction you want rather than fumbling around letting things happen to you. Here are eight benefits of self-awareness:

  • You get to take an honest look at yourself.
  • You can evaluate what you do well and what needs adjusting.
  • You can keep what works and get rid of what doesn’t.
  • You can heal your emotional hurts.
  • You become healthy inside and outside.
  • You learn how to treat yourself and others well.
  • You feel, think, and behave in positive ways.
  • You genuinely love yourself.

Imagine what your life would be like if you did these things. Self-awareness is beneficial because it emphasizes getting to know yourself on a deeper level and living life as the authentic you. You get to let go of all the junk that isn’t real and just be yourself. What would you add to this list?

Cheers,

Guy

Mean People and Self-Awareness

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I talk with a lot of kind, thoughtful, self-aware people and a question that frequently comes up is, “Why are people so mean?” This type of question usually arises because someone has been treated poorly by someone else without provocation. Here are some of the reasons people who lack self-awareness are mean:

  • They have unresolved issues inside themselves that cause them pain and discomfort, so they take it out on others.
  • They haven’t learned how to be nice, perhaps never had a role model to show them what it’s like to kind and empathic instead of cruel.
  • They were hurt at some point in time and have never moved past it.
  • They had their feeling of safety taken away or betrayed by someone they trusted and they lash out at others to form a perimeter of safety.
  • They figure if they hurt others first, they won’t be hurt.
  • They don’t believe in going to therapy to figure out what’s really going on under all the fear and anger.
  • They’re unhappy with themselves but don’t know how to change it.
  • They surround themselves with people who enable their behavior.
  • They think everyone is out to get them.
  • They don’t know how to deal with their own emotions and thoughts.

It’s important to note that, if you said something rude to someone or poked them in the eye, it would be natural for them to be less than nice to you, but I’m referring to instances where you were treated meanly by someone without any provocation.

The main thing to remember when someone is mean to you without provocation is that it has nothing to do with you. You’re not at fault and you didn’t deserve it. It’s just that they have unresolved issues that boil up uncontrollably and you happened to be in the vicinity. If someone is mean to you, you have a lot of power because you can choose the self-awareness path: Realize that it’s not about you, and remove yourself from the situation.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and deal positively with mean people?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Helps You Figure out Who You Are

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A big part of self-awareness is discovering who you are and what you want to do with your life. Take some time to think about what’s important to you and where you see yourself going. Make sure to be truthful with yourself. Don’t settle for whatever life throws you, choose to move your life in the direction of your dreams.

Why do any of this? Because you’re worth it. Countless people all over the world spend their entire lives living as someone else or doing what others expect them to do. You can be one of the very few who actually breaks the mold and moves forward authentically.

It takes courage to consciously decide to live life as the real you. There is always the chance that you’ll encounter setbacks. Don’t be discouraged. You’re an amazing person who deserves to do meaningful things and follow your own path. All you have to do is determine who you really are and do small things each day to simply be yourself.

What will you do to develop self-awareness and figure out who you are?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness and Taking Action to Love Yourself

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As you’ve probably guessed from experience, loving yourself is about building self-awareness, doing things that lead to positive outcomes, and continuously improving yourself. An additional action you can take to learn how to love yourself is to find out who you are.

Set aside some time, without interruptions, to find out who you are. Ask yourself some self-discovery questions. What is my passion in life? What are the things I do well? What are the areas I can improve? What is my part in creating great relationships?

The process of loving ourselves comes from increasing self-awareness, understanding who we are, and working through the things that block our ability to love ourselves. For example: If you have difficulty committing in a relationship it may stem from something inside you that blocks you from accepting or giving love. If you identify what is blocking you it suddenly gives you a lot of power to change what you are doing.

Self-love is about practicing positive behaviors and experiencing the joy that comes from learning about yourself. What will you do to develop self-awareness and learn to love yourself?

Cheers,

Guy

Self-Awareness Helps You Do Instead of Wish

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I’ve noticed over the years that a lot of people who lack self-awareness think wishing is the same as doing; they expect that if they just hope something happens, it will. Many people also live in a state of denial, where they pretend things are a certain way when they’re really not. There’s nothing wrong with wishing for wonderful things to happen, it’s just that results only come from living in reality and taking concrete action.

Part of self-awareness is having the ability to see how your actions in the present affect your future. Success rarely happens happens in life without ongoing, tangible efforts to make your wishes come true. I love providing life guidance for people who value self-awareness because they are already working on identifying who they are, where they want to go, and how they’re going to achieve their goals. They fulfill their aspirations by actually doing stuff.

The key to living a happy life is to have dreams and also take steps to make them come true. What will you do to develop self-awareness and actually do things instead of wishing they would happen?

Cheers,

Guy

The Self-Awareness Guy