When people consider self-awareness, they tend to link it to either introspection or self-reflection. However, there are some slight differences between these concepts. Introspection refers to the “process of attempting to directly access one’s own internal psychological” consciousness to see thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Self-reflection focuses on the reason why individuals have those thoughts and feelings and act the way they do.
Practicing introspection and self-reflection leads individuals to become self-aware. However, research led by Dr. Tasha Eurich found that only 10%-15% of individuals are truly self-aware, while the rest believe they are self-aware.
Our purpose with this post is to provide you with the tools you need in your journey in becoming self-aware, and to help with your overall mental health. We will define what self-awareness is, its two types, the multiple benefits of being self-aware that directly affect the mental health of individuals, and what they can do to become self-aware.
What Is Self-Awareness?
In the book “A Theory of Objective Self Awareness,” psychologists Shelly Duval and Robert Wicklund defined self-awareness as 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 behavior with your values, and understand correctly how others perceive you.”
To unravel this definition, we can state that when a person objectively interprets their actions, thoughts, and emotions, they are self-aware. Individuals can also experience two types of self-awareness—internal and external.
Internal Self-Awareness
According to Dr. Eurich, internal self-awareness represents “how clearly we see our own values, passions, aspirations, fit with our environment, reactions (including thoughts, feelings, behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses), and impact on others.”
This internal self-awareness is imperative for a person’s mental health, as being self-aware helps them see or anticipate any mental health triggers that may arise. For example, when an individual is in recovery from substance use disorder, being self-aware of any behaviors or weaknesses helps them develop coping skills to stay on the path of recovery.
External Self-Awareness
External self-awareness refers to understanding how other people view them based on the same factors listed above—values, aspirations, emotions, behaviors, strengths, weaknesses, environment fit, and the impact they have on others. In addition, externally self-aware individuals have a higher level of empathy and strong social norms.
Individuals need to learn to balance both internal and external self-awareness to avoid dwelling on the opinions of others, which may lead to social anxiety, overthinking, and overanalyzing.
The Benefits of Being Self-Aware
The benefits of being self-aware are vast, and help different aspects of an individual’s life, including personal growth, better self-control or regulating their emotions, improving mental health, developing relationships, and leading a happier life.
- Personal growth: Personal growth expands during the lifetime of an individual because they grow, evolve, and learn to overcome challenges or changes as they arise. When we refer to personal growth, we also refer to the mental, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual changes an individual will experience. Being self-aware leads the way to personal growth because it helps individuals become better decision-makers and problem-solvers while finding ways to improve.
- Self-control and emotion regulation: Being self-aware leads to emotional awareness, which allows individuals to regulate their emotions. For example, when an individual is aware of a specific feeling, such as anger, they can appease these emotions using established coping mechanisms before reacting to them.
- Improving mental health: When any negative feelings arise due to a mental health problem, being self-aware helps individuals recognize the negative feelings as what they truly are and take action that helps them improve their mood.
- Developing relationships: Because self-awareness makes you aware of negative patterns, it contributes to developing meaningful relationships with loved ones. If a problem arises during a relationship, individuals can learn from their mistakes and find ways to move forward with compassion and better communication.
- Happier life: By being internally and externally self-aware of values, aspirations, emotions, behaviors, strengths, weaknesses, environment fit, and impact on others, individuals learn to understand what makes them happy and, as such, live happier lives.
Ways to Become Self-Aware
There are multiple exercises individuals can practice at home or with a mental health care professional on their journey toward being self-aware. Remember that becoming self-aware takes courage and time, and individuals may discover things about themselves that they may not like.
However, that is the purpose of becoming self-aware. Finding any negative thoughts, emotions, or patterns, and replacing them with positive ones. Remember to practice becoming self-aware with compassion along with self-care.
Below we provide you with some tools to get you started.
Take a Self-Assessment
There are some self-assessment or personality quizzes individuals can take online to help get them to get a better insight into themselves.
- Insight Quiz: Developed by Dr. Tasha Eurich, the free 14-question online quiz only takes five minutes to complete by you and someone who knows you well. Once the quiz is completed by both, the score arrives via email. Note that the online quiz is only a subset of the original 70-question questionnaire.
- The Typefinder Personality Test: This is a free personality test based on the personality theory created by Myers and Briggs. The test has 130 questions but should take no more than 15-20 to complete. It measures four dimensions and 23 facets of your personality type. It is a great option to get started and see a comprehensive profile of your personality, including how it affects your strengths, work, and relationships.
- The VIA Survey of Character Strengths: This is another free self-assessment test that will provide you with a report and actionable tips to apply toward becoming more self-aware.
Start Journaling
Starting a journal is not easy, as it means writing consistently to keep a record of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. It helps individuals understand what led them to negative thoughts, emotions, or behaviors.
Mental Health America states that journaling also helps individuals deal with stress, anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. All you need to get started is a journal (paper or digital) and set a time for writing with no interruptions. You can start with 5-10 minutes or up to 20 minutes. During your journaling time, don’t worry about spelling or grammar, and feel free to use any type of formatting that best suits you, such as a list, poem, or letter. You can also use sentence completion exercises. For example, “Today, I felt…,” “Today, I am happy because…” can help you get started.
Mindfulness and Meditation
The purpose of mindfulness and meditation is to help you become aware of the moment in time. It helps you observe and feel your thoughts, emotions, and body sensations. You can practice mindfulness and meditation with yoga, self-care meditation apps, or using grounding techniques, such as the grounding chair or the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique.
The grounding chair involves sitting in a comfortable chair with feet flat on the floor. Take deep breaths with your eyes closed, and take note of your body and what it is feeling. Feel the floor beneath your feet, the texture of the armchair, and the pressure on your back. Then, push the floor with your feet while you let go of your thoughts or bad energy.
The 5-4-3-2-1 technique involves taking stock of yourself and your surroundings. Name five things you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and finally, one thing you can taste.
Group Therapy
We mentioned earlier the two types of self-awareness—internal and external. External self-awareness is understanding how other people view you and asking for feedback. Group therapy is an available option where one or two professionals meet with a small group facing similar issues.
The Alvarado Parkway Institute Intensive Outpatient program provides opportunities for group therapy. Give us a call to see if this program is a good fit for your mental health treatment.
You can learn about group therapy in our post “What Are Some Benefits of Group Therapy?”
Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy treatment used to treat mental health disorders, such as low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, or marital problems. The purpose of CBT is to help you identify negative thoughts, feelings, or behavioral patterns to replace them with positive ones.
Because CBT is goal-oriented and focuses on problem-solving, you can check with your mental health professional if it’s an option that can suit you in your self-awareness journey. Our team at the Alvarado Parkway Institute can help. As part of our services, we provide cognitive behavioral therapy, inpatient treatment, and intensive outpatient programs. You can also reach our trained call center staff who is ready to assist you at 619-333-7050 and is available 24/7, or complete our contact form online.
