How to be more Self-Aware! 😊

We have all been through the process of questioning ourselves and asking if we are proud of who we are. But do we even know who we are? Or is it all a mirage - created by our deceiving minds, tricking us into believing that we are so much better than we actually are. I am not being intentionally and ignorantly pessimistic, but more in the spectrum of realistic. I myself have been victim to this, tricking myself into believing that my flaws don’t exist, and that even if they are evident, there’s a rational reason for them. This process sort of cancelled out the introspection in the first place, displacing me to the starting point again.

For example, recently I was playing football with some younger children and when one got angry at me and kicked me, I kicked him twice. He asked me why I had to do it twice, and I said “Because I can”. After I got home, I was feeling a little low and after some reflection I understood that this incident was bothering me. I realized that I was being an asshole, and that it was wrong for me to do that. But I quickly backed my actions up with the excuse that I had the same done to me when I was a child, so why should he have it any different?

We project a lot of our past experiences and use it as a reason to justify our immoral actions when the fault is clearly ours. Recognizing this is very important if we want to better ourselves. To get a complete unbiased perspective of a situation, there is a metaphor that I love: It states that our thoughts flow like rapids in a river, and to really observe the rapids, one cannot be amongst them. One must be on the riverbank, closely watching the thoughts simultaneously.

The simplest way to be aware of yourself is not by sitting alone on a rock and thinking about it, but by putting yourself into social settings and observing the way you handle relationships and treat people. Our relationships and interactions give us a true sense of who we really are. Once you take stand on the riverbanks, you will see the amazing journey of self-awareness ahead of you.