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The Miseducation of Self-awareness

Reviewing the narrative.

By essameyPublished 4 years ago 2 min read
2

Is anyone like me, where you’re always in a headspace of self-awareness or are you normal? I can take several moments of the day in a daze dissecting my character, my behaviours, and every associating situation and environment I find myself in. I’m literally always being challenged by my reality, which causes me to never completely be living in the present. My mantra has always been to

do better, be better.

But where is the line between being better, and just being you? If you’re anything like me, I’m sure you’ve experienced some of the following responses when it comes to self-awareness.

Positives:

Enables personal development.

Understanding the depths of yourself and using this knowledge to evaluate what areas you need to prune, mature or change could potentially change the course of your future. Taking time out to meditate, journal and to pray on these things really allows you to tune into you.

Develops character.

When you look at yourself for who and what you really are, you’re in a much better position to see yourself from different perspectives. You begin to analyse things such as your patterns of behaviour, your love languages, your triggers and your traits. It allows you to become more connected with your psyche and point to things that would’ve been harder to realise in passing.

Offsets healing and self-care.

Throughout our lives we collect and carry so much baggage daily. Becoming in tune with our emotions can help to offset a process of healing from any trauma or triggers, and create a habit of taking care of one’s mental health, allowing you to operate and do life from a healthier place.

Negatives:

Becoming negatively critical.

A habit of analysing and evaluating yourself can quickly turn into a case of being judgemental and negatively critical of oneself. If we’re not careful to realise when this begins to happen, everything you do will be brought into question which can leave you struggling to accept, and even hate, your current reality.

Regular mood swings.

Where being self-aware can encourage you to assess your emotions, it can also lead to being overly emotional about every little thing and detail of your life that you’re not pleased with, causing several bursts of emotional episodes.

Becoming hostile.

Every correction, feedback, mistake, sin and ill-treatment is absorbed a lot more than it should be and is taken as an offence, causing you to become a lot more defensive and hostile in response.

So, how do we find a balance?

Schedule a time and place.

Try not to burn yourself out by assessing every situation, thing or response as and when they arise. Journal and take note of these, but schedule a set time and a physical place (maybe once or twice a week) where you allow yourself to process, offload and become aware to all of your emotions.

It’s just a bad day, not a bad life.

Remember, we all do things that may not have been the best reflection of ourselves, but don’t always associate a bad moment with having a bad character or being a completely bad person. No one is perfect and it shouldn’t be expected of you, so don’t put so much pressure on yourself to be.

Remain integral to your truth.

Be aware of your values, principles and/or morals and filter everything through these lens. When you’re grounded in who you are and what you stand for, it becomes easier to know to respond to situations and handle your thoughts accordingly.

Be rest assured: you’re doing better, and being better x

self help
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About the Creator

essamey

A self-help guide for people who understand Black Twitter references.

Navigating love, relationships, faith & lifestyle.

IG: es_journal

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