Five Ways to Increase Self-Awareness

Five things you can do to increase your self-awareness today

The more self-aware you are, the more empowered you are to direct your own life.

This week we have been talking about self awareness and its power for changing your life for the better. In light of sharing the powerful essence of this amazing action, I wanted to share some tangible ways one can increase their own level of self-awareness, in case it is a goal you personally have for yourself.

The five things I suggest below are things I have experience with or know others who have experience with.

Five Ways to Increase Your Self-Awareness

1. Journal

If I had to point to one thing outside of therapy that has revolutionized my life, its journaling. The amount of times I’ve pivoted to journaling when I am feeling overwhelmed, and it helped me not only in the moment but also later, is innumerable. And the reason it is so powerful for building self awareness is, that you can go back to it later on when you are feeling calm again, and re-read it. And you can see very clearly the thoughts that were in your mind. This can help you realize patterns of thinking in certain moments, triggers, and false ideas that may cause you to continue to feel anxious, triggered or scared. For example, I can look back at a journal entry from when I was feeling a lot, and see things that I wrote like “I just feel like nobody wants to talk to me or be my friend, because nobody ever calls me.” In the moment, I can feel that so strongly. And later I can go back and read it and realize, wow, that was catastrophic, all or nothing thinking, and quite frankly, not true. It’s not true that nobody wants to talk to me or be my friend, or that nobody ever calls. It just not a factual statement. They may be calling less, or not as much lately, but its not true to say that they NEVER call. Looking back later can help you to see these patterns of thinking, which can help you become more self aware. Journaling can also help you with number two below.