Self-awareness, A Wise Look Inside Ourselves
Self-awareness is the ability to look inside ourselves wisely, a complicit reading of our wills, our feelings, our emotions, our thoughts and our concerns.
Self-awareness as a pillar of emotional intelligence allows us to sweeten the perception of our individuality in the present moment, taking into account the past that we were and the future that accompanies us in the form of personal expectations.
Inner work, essential for our well-being
By working on improving self-awareness and clarifying our thoughts we can achieve considerable improvement. We may think that we are all self-aware, but we really tend to only attend to superficial issues within ourselves.
Life passes through us instead of us passing through it, because we neglect the perception of what is really transcendent. It often happens that we get used to routines and feelings and, as a consequence, we disconnect ourselves from ourselves.
Is this possible? Obviously yes, since a large part of us live unplugged and behave almost purely in a mechanical way. Self-awareness is actually quite a complex function, especially in the emotional universe.
Emotional self-awareness, an unknown universe
Many of the emotional states that we reach or can reach are practically imperceptible if we do not attend to them with the intention of experiencing them and giving them a name. However, these same emotions often direct our behavior as if we were automatons.
The key is to pay attention to mild emotional indicators, since the appearance of any emotion has a message to convey to us in order to constantly learn about the hidden causes that cause it. That is, it is about normalizing our emotional and psychic behavior to achieve a purer well-being.
The example of anger or rage is usually given, emotions that have a recipient but that may be disguising envy, for example. Being aware of this is only possible through introspection and self-knowledge.
It is good to have an emotional diary of what we feel from day to day : examining ourselves in this way has the ability to enhance or shift our inner gaze. At the end of the day, it is about getting to know each other and that requires work and effort, which is impossible if we only pay attention to what interests us the most and discard the rest.
In this way, when an emotion seizes us and we only perceive discomfort or distress, we are ignoring a wide range of colors that can add richness to our lives and to our way of looking at experiences.
Control of the inner world, key to managing our life
“Pain ends only through self-knowledge,” Krishnamurti once asserted. This means that the tools to end the pain caused by our emotions and feelings are in our hands or, rather, in our inner vision.
Emotional states are not summarized as: I am angry or I am happy. We can only perceive them if we pay attention to the emotional reality that accompanies us everywhere:
A mixture, an amalgam that originates and acts as a consequence, perpetuating itself as if it were a chain of events. In other words, we must distinguish between what it is to realize the ultimate reaction (I am angry) and what it is to attend to its origin and the accumulation of feelings and emotions that generate anger.
In short, emotional self-awareness is realizing the way in which past and present feelings, thoughts and behaviors are related, as well as their interrelation with our expectations at all levels.
Being aware of this is the first step towards our self-control, since the main architect of what you think and feel is yourself. We cannot attack the outside or look to blame for what happens to us, since we are the one who validates our own feelings and emotions. Although it should be noted that this is undoubtedly reflected abroad.
