Self-Awareness is the core emotional intelligence skill we all need to develop to live in harmony with ourselves and others. It is about being aware of our thoughts, emotions, and behavior.
You may use the following five steps to improve your self-awareness:
- UNDERSTAND WHAT CAUSES YOUR POSITIVE EMOTIONS
Anger, fear, humiliation, and sorrow are all unpleasant emotions that are triggered by individuals we know, events we face, and our own thoughts and feelings. The difficulty is that if we don’t exercise self-awareness, these triggers will trip us up for the same reason over and over again. The idea is to travel back into your memory vault and look for the trigger’s source.
The cause for the trigger is most likely several years old and out of current with the person you have become today. It is up to you to adapt the language of the trigger and transform it into a positive affirmation after you have identified the trigger, which might be anything someone said or did to you. When you’ve done this and genuinely believe in your new identity, the next time you’re triggered by anything that causes you to react negatively, take a step back and practice your new language before reacting. Self-awareness begins with being aware of how our emotions are influenced by our ideas and felt in our bodies, and you may begin practicing right now.
- CONSIDER HOW YOU RESPOND TO THINGS.
Rather of getting enslaved by your own emotions, which are triggered by your ideas and situations, spend some time each day to focus on how you are emotionally reacting to the environment.
This may be done at any point throughout the day when you are alone and have some free time. Allow yourself to feel the emotion you may have had during a troubling occurrence and allow it to travel through you without condemning yourself. Consider the root of the feeling and if you can alter the negative self-talk that goes along with it. Create a new viewpoint, whether it’s about yourself or someone else, or about a scenario, and activate your new positive self-talk, which will not only make you feel better but also help you build emotional awareness.
- ALLOW SOME TIME FOR LAG BEFORE RESPONDING TO THINGS.
When you exercise conscious self-awareness, you begin to examine yourself and make immediate adjustments to your behavior because you are aware of what is going on within you and how your words, body language, and behavior influence people around you.
Slowing down and not responding to things instantly gives your prefrontal cortex the time it needs to assess what’s in front of you and around you and then pick the best answer.
Warren Buffet, dubbed the “Oracle of Omaha,” believes that you might be angry with someone tomorrow. Of course, by that time, the situation would have passed, and you would have avoided being enraged and even damaging a relationship or perhaps your reputation.
- BE AWARE OF WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY.
Being self-aware entails not just recognizing what causes you to experience bad emotions, but also recognizing what makes you joyful. There are several degrees of happiness; for example, we may use the term “ecstatic” to represent an extreme sensation of happiness, “cheerful” to indicate a medium intensity level of pleasure, and “pleasant” to express a garden variety level of pleasure.
The goal is to be able to identify and define your happy sensations, as well as figure out what and who causes you to feel that way. Then, after you’ve done that, schedule times, events, and relationships that will allow you to experience these emotions. After all, we only have so much time on this earth; we may as well make the most of it!
- DON’T BE DECEIVED BY A GOOD OR BAD MOOD.
We often make choices while we are in a good or poor mood, only to come to regret them later.
When we cultivate self-awareness, we take a step back from making snap choices, no matter how appealing the rush of dopamine seems. Before making a choice, think about how your emotions and mind desire to make a conclusion. You stay at the mercy of your emotions if you allow your mood decide for you.
To make a good choice, draw a line down the middle of a paper and write down all the things you feel about the choice on the left hand side and all the things you think about the choice on the right hand side, which will most likely contain the facts. After then, think about it for a while before making a decision. You will make a choice based on emotion and logic, and you will almost certainly not regret it.
Conclusion
We refer to self-awareness as a personal skill in emotional intelligence. The other three skills are self-management, which is called a personal competence, and social awareness and relationship management, which are the two domains of social competence development.
If you try these five techniques to improve your self-awareness, you’ll be well on your way to growing emotional intelligence on purpose. It’s not just a nice idea, but it’s also critical if you want to communicate and lead more successfully at home and at business.
