As a growth junkie, I am such a promoter for everyone I work with to continually work on increasing their self-awareness. It has been such a game changer for me and I continue to intentionally work to grow in it daily. The definition of self-awareness is simply the understanding that something is happening or exists in or around us. It is the what we perceive or are alert to inside us or around us. As humans, we are made up of a body, a soul (mind, will and emotions) and a spirit. Awareness in all three areas is something to continue to expand for ultimate growth and reaching of our potential.
Self Awareness is also an essential for good leadership! It is your ability to accurately perceive your own thoughts, feeling, behaviors, reactions, responses, patterns and motives. It really comes from being an attentive student of yourself and allowing that knowledge to foster great leadership of self and others. But you may ask, what does that look like? Well let’s unpack that together!
Awareness in our physical body would be allowing the 5 senses that God gave us to experience life fully and take in information, aware of the sounds, sights, smells, feel and taste of things. I will never forgot my brother making a comment one time when he had gone into recovery. He stated; “Wow, I never noticed how green the grass is and the brightness of the flowers.” He was dulling his awareness with substances and he was not experiencing fullness of life. We all go through life, to some extent, so fast that we miss the small gifts that are in our lives. Intentionally tuning in brings more fullness to life. St. Iraneus says, “the glory of God is man fully alive”. Physical awareness would also include picking up on our actions and patterns and developing understanding of these.
Soul is made of mind, will and emotions. The body and its actions are definitely affected by this part of us. Awareness of our soul’s movement would include our mind–What is our mind thinking? What are our desires? and What are we feeling? Are we anxious, tired, excited, hopeful, insecure? Often we are unaware of all of the inner workings of our soul. A great tool would be a feelings wheel to help us get more in tune. It can help us to become aware of specific emotions not just our major emotions like anger. A feelings wheel can help us identify that maybe we are not feeling anger but just irritation. We also seek to become a student of our thought life, tuning into the thoughts that take up real estate in our brains. Words have the power of life and death and the words we speak to ourselves have the same effect. Being aware of our self-talk and choosing to change the station to a positive one is key in our growth and thriving.
Spiritual awareness is awareness of God’s movement in our lives, speaking to our hearts, feeling the Holy Spirit nudge, using our senses to pick up on what he wants to say. Using our imagination to allow story to come alive in the bible and speak to our hearts.
So awareness in all three of these areas is what makes up great self awareness.
Self-awareness is what I would deem the most important first step in leading ourselves well. It is really having a deep understanding of all three areas, as well as the way God wired us, our strengths, limitations and one’s values. The Law of Awareness states that you must know yourself to grow yourself. Great self awareness is crucial and it all begins with self examination, wherein we intentionally scrutinize our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, habits, and factors that influence them. David states in Psalm 139, Search me God and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
Self-aware people typically find time to reflect quietly, many times alone, which allows us to think things over learn from what we are seeing. Reflection develops a slowing down and an intentionality of what is going on in and around us. The journey to more self awareness is one worthy of your time and will change the trajectory of your life and those around you!
Recent Comments