How to Increase Self-Awareness

“Self-awareness is an important skill that we can cultivate to help us progress on our personal development journey, and we could all use a little more of it sometimes. Below are 4 ways to increase self-awareness.

1. A thought diary is a foundational place to begin increasing self-awareness.

- Keep track of thoughts that pop up in the form of an automatic reaction.

- Track what was occurring at the time.

- Track your level of emotion to the stimulus.

If time allows, analyze the underlying reason for the emotion experienced. If time does not allow, the diary will enable you to track common threads. Introspection is not efficient in higher order cognitive processes (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977). Humans tend to reflect with a self-serving bias, rather than objectively analyzing situations for abstract learning. To be more efficient, the thought diary should be less of an emotional exercise and more of a fact-finding mission. In other words, leave judgment out of it.

2. Starting a mindfulness practice is another way to increase self-awareness. There are a variety of activities to include in a mindfulness practice. Find a few ideas to inspire you to incorporate meditation, yoga, or some other variation to improve your presence. When mindfulness is practiced, behavior becomes more intentional, and increased self-awareness develops.

3. Asking a friend to clarify your strengths and weaknesses can be a significant pathway to self-awareness. While many people believe they are self-aware, having an outside perspective is helpful in a clearer understanding of external self-awareness.

4. Ask your subordinates to rate your leadership skills. Experience and power may be a hindrance to self-awareness (Ostroff, Atwater, & Feinberg, 2004). This is for those leaders out there. When people are at the top, they tend to overestimate their abilities because they don’t have as many opportunities to build external awareness.

Read the whole article at PositivePsychology.com

#Self-awareness #Tips #Mindfullness

💬 Do you practice any of the mentioned techniques? If no, what other ways do you know for increasing self-awareness?

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