5 Ways to Improve Self-Awareness & Change Your Life

When searching for ways to lose weight, exercise more, sleep more, stress less, feel better, have more energy...we often look for more information. We look for the best diet, breathing exercise, workout, etc. etc., drowning in articles and videos, bouncing from one thing to the next searching for the thing that will work at last!

Here’s the deal, you don’t need more information. More information isn’t the answer. If it was, no one would have a problem because we are in an age where we have too much information, not too little. What you need is more awareness...that is more information about yourself. 

Self-Awareness is the first major step to changing your lifestyle, whether that change is personal or professional. 

Here are five ways to improve your self-awareness, so you can improve your life!

1. Reflective journaling:

Journaling helps you de-clutter your mind so you can work through thoughts and emotions, leading to greater clarity. This helps increase self-awareness, and mindfulness. Remember to simply let the words flow out of you, without editing or judgement. 

2. Meditation:

Meditation whether moving (like walking to Tai Chi) or seated in stillness is a way to focus the mind on the present moment. Meditation can help you connect with and better understand your inner self. 

3. Active listening:

Active listening involves paying attention to the speaker’s body language, emotions, and words. It’s focusing on what the other person is communicating, without looking for a way to interject. Active listening helps you stay present. 

4. Ask for feedback:

Getting feedback can help you understand yourself and how you communicate yourself to others. Learning how others view you through constructive feedback can help you look inward and discover new perspectives of yourself, increasing self-awareness. 

5. Ask yourself what instead of why:

Organizational Psychologist Tasha Eurich found in her research that why questions keep us in the past, in victim-mode. What questions move us into growth mode, into our future. What questions, she says, help us stay objective, whereas why questions can stir rumination. For example, instead of asking yourself “why do I feel this way,” ask yourself “what am I feeling?”. Then, what are the situations that make me feel this way and what do they have in common?