Self Awareness Do We Need It?

Self-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the ability to recognise oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals.It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While consciousness is being aware of one's environment and body and lifestyle, self-awareness is the recognition of that awareness.Self-awareness is how an individual consciously knows and understands their own character, feelings, motives, and desires. So it is the ability to focus on yourself and how your actions, thoughts, or emotions do or don't align with your internal standards. If you're highly self-aware, you can objectively evaluate yourself, manage your emotions, align your behaviour with your values, and understand correctly how others perceive you. Having awareness creates the opportunity to make changes to behaviour and beliefs. A simple quick assessment of self awareness might be: 1) Basic- Aware of your thoughts while you have them. 2)Medium- Aware of the thoughts and emotions you have about your thoughts in the moment. 3)High- Able to put attention on your emotions, and physical state in a way to relax and thereby change your thought process in the moment. Maybe you are at high level of self awareness in a relaxed state, but in a stressed state you might shift to a medium or basic level of self awareness. Even where we are on the spectrum changes depending on other factors during the day. Some benefits of self awareness are: 1) Living as a self aware individual allows you to live in the present, knowing who you are and what you want. 2) You find it easier to let go of toxic people as you know what you deserve. 3) Aware people welcome mistakes as stepping stones to success. They are not deterred by failure as they know what they are capable of. 4)Gratitude goes hand in hand with awareness , you are grateful and thankful for who you are. 5) You understand you own boundaries and have limitations. Therefore you are comfortable saying no. 6) Self awareness boosts confidence. 7) Productivity is another benefit of self awareness. Being able to control your emotions means you replace reactivity with productivity. How to develop self awareness 1)Meditate- Meditation can really help you to focus on being more self-aware. 2)Ask yourself questions, to develop a better understanding of yourself and your actions e.g. "why do i avoid certain things or situations?", "what am i trying to achieve?" 3) Keep a log or journal, which will help when tying to understand your attitude and actions. 4) Ask your friends and family, to give you an honest critical and objective perspective on you and your feelings/behaviour. 5) Live in the moment and analyse your emotions by doing this you learn to stop worrying about the future or the past. Self awareness does not stop you making mistakes it allows you to learn from them.