One of my roles as a transformational life coach is to equip my clients with practical self-empowerment tools. These tools are used to improve personal growth and development while developing essential skills such as self-awareness.
Is your work or personal life (or both) chaotic? Are you reactive towards people or situations? Do you struggle to be the best version of yourself?
Self-awareness can be learned and plays a vital role in your desire to be happier, fulfilled, and content with life.
Cultivate and nurture your self-awareness and you’ll discover tremendous changes in all areas of your life! Let’s talk about this one skill that will help you step into your personal power and transform the way you live your life.
What is Self-Awareness? Definitions to Make You Think
Google self-awareness and you’ll discover there are some great definitions online. I like the one described by VeryWellMind – “Self-awareness is your ability to perceive and understand the things that make you who you are including your personality, actions, values, beliefs, emotions, and thoughts.”
When you can tune into your behavior, feelings, and thoughts, you can identify and work on your strengths and weaknesses. Your ability to be self-aware lets you thrive and grow in challenging situations while making you a better leader and decision-maker in work or personal environments.
I love this simple but powerful quote by Bill Hybels – “Self-awareness allows you to self-correct.”
Yung Pueblo’s definition of self-awareness is deep and gets to the nitty-gritty of what needs to be done to boost this skill – “To see your hidden patterns you need to intentionally build self-awareness. Question your perception, build a compassionate and honest internal dialogue. Dig deeper into what your real motivations are and have the humility to know you can learn more. Self-awareness combined with action opens the door to real change.”
Understanding your perceptions, your REAL motivations for doing or wanting something, and having the humility to pursue growth are what will see you thrive in life.
When I take on new coaching clients, one of the first things I say to them is that they must be absolutely honest with themselves. This entails being honest when tackling the various steps in the life coaching program – otherwise, they’re wasting their time.
The Benefits of Boosting Your Self-Awareness
You get to make progress in all areas of your life
You have a better insight into who you are and what you enjoy
You understand why you react rather than respond to certain people or situations
You can regulate your emotions
You align ALL your goals to your personal core values
You identify what skills you do have
You develop deeper compassion and empathy for others (and yourself)
You have stronger relationships
You’re more resilient
You’re more adaptable and flexible
Being self-aware improves your overall well-being while having a positive impact on both your work and personal life. Through self-awareness, you can guide others to become better versions of themselves.
5 Tools to Boost Your Self-Awareness
1. Explore Reflective Journaling
Journaling to explore yourself more is one of the most powerful tools for developing self-awareness. When journaling ask yourself some of the following questions:
What were my moods and emotions today?
What triggered me today and why?
What beliefs and thoughts do I hold that don’t serve me or are empowering?
Why did I default to destructive behavior?
What did I do well today?
Self-reflective questions help you to identify the things that work or don’t work for you. Reflective journaling is one of the tools I share with my life coaching clients and it includes 13 weekly tips to help you learn more about yourself.
Download the “Journey Inwards” journal from The Free Spirit Store and start boosting your self-awareness today!
Activities That Build My Self-Awareness While Journaling
I journal whenever I need to express my feelings – both good and bad. I often use my Osho Zen Tarot to help me understand what’s going on internally. I ask for guidance before pulling cards and then I write down what thoughts came to my mind for each card. This is a powerful method for inner work and for boosting my self-awareness.
Another journaling activity I do sometimes is to write non-stop for five minutes. This method frees your mind up and it’s amazing what comes as I journal!
2. Take the Self-Love Challenge
By taking the “Self-Love Challenge” you can cultivate your self-awareness. This introspective tool is another way of going inward and discovering your desires, motives, and thoughts. I’m big on self-love and self-care but it’s only possible to do them when I have nurtured my self-awareness.
With better self-awareness, you know what you need and how to foster self-love. With the 30-day Self-Love Challenge, not only do you find ways to love yourself but you get to know who you are and what makes you happy.
Download this beautiful journal from the Free Spirit Holistic Collection and watch yourself transform in 30 days!
My Self-Love Activities That Improve Self-Awareness
One of the hardest things I ever had to do was look into my eyes in the mirror and say out loud, “I love you.” But, I forced myself to take note of the different feelings that surfaced as I did this activity – shame, sorrow, and pain were some of the most common that arose. However, some days there would be feelings of joy, peace, and contentment.
This exercise allowed me to understand what my inner child was experiencing and I would take it one step further and identify what fears or beliefs were triggering those feelings. I would then journal about these feelings and thoughts before releasing them to the Great Spirit.
3. Identify Your Personal Core Values
One of my favorite empowering sessions in my life coaching program is the one focusing on personal core values. It’s easy to think you know what your values are but when it comes down to putting words, feelings, and definitions to them, you may discover differently!
Often, your values are those you carried over from your childhood and aren’t necessarily your own. Your values are those things you hold close and dear – words such as honesty, respect, and love are used to describe them. Your values determine what you do and why.
When making a list of your values, consider words that resonate most with you. These could include:
Ambitious
Spirituality
Adventure
Compassion
Making a Difference
Belonging
Health
Grateful
Peaceful
The list is endless so don’t limit yourself but pick 10 words for your personal core value system. These words should be a reflection of who you aspire to be and what’s most important to you moving forward.
When you have your list of values, define what those words mean for you. While you may not be the only person who chooses ambition as a value, how it feels for you could be very different from what it means to another person.
Exploring your personal values is a wonderful tool for developing your self-awareness. Knowing your values allows you to set goals that are important to you and let you live a happier, more meaningful life.
Values Activities That Boost My Self-Awareness
When I was training as a life coach, I had to come up with my personal core values system. I framed it and keep it on my desk where I see it daily. When I feel out of alignment, I take my framed values system and read through each word and definition to determine what isn’t right for me.
Through this activity, I gained a different perspective on what’s bothering me and made the necessary changes to ensure that I return to a place of alignment. This is a wonderful exercise to use when I need to make a decision or judgment call on someone or something.
4. Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness is about being fully in the present. In this state, you know what you’re doing, where you are, and what you’re thinking. Through mindfulness exercises, you become self-aware and fully engaged with whatever you’re doing in the moment.
Practicing mindfulness allows you to accept what’s happening without any judgment.
Through mindfulness, you become aware of your thoughts, your body, and even your breathing. This results in better responsiveness, a calmer mind, and a relaxed state of being. Mindfulness reduces emotional burnout, improves sleep patterns, and boosts your attention span.
How do you practice mindfulness? Here are some activities that will help you:
Meditation: Sit quietly with your eyes closed and focus on your breathing. You can use a guided meditation if battle with overwhelming thoughts. Try to meditate for 10 – 30 minutes daily for best results.
Be aware of your senses: Use your senses to help you focus your attention. What can you see, hear, feel, smell, and taste? This is useful when you’re eating a meal or spending time in nature. What do those senses make you feel?
Find joy in the ordinary things: Living in the moment heightens your self-awareness especially when you find joy in the ordinariness of life. Bring your attention to the act of doing household chores, watching the sunrise, smelling the roses, or playing with your dog.
The more you practice mindfulness, the more you learn about yourself and what matters most to you.
Mindfulness Activities That Increase My Self-Awareness
I find the following mindfulness activities most useful for increasing my self-awareness:
Gardening
Walking in nature
Doing a moon ritual
Meditating
Cooking
Housework (yes, you read that right!)
These activities put me into an introspective state while being in the moment. I use all my senses to notice what is going on in my surroundings and I’m mindful of the things that make me feel joyful. I love dusting my collection of shamanic tools every week as much as I enjoy tending to me vegetable garden every evening.
I love to spray my office every day with the gorgeous Hello Sunshine aromatherapy energy mists - these help me to become self-aware and be in the moment.
5. Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
Challenging yourself to do something new builds your self-awareness. When you step out of your comfort zone, you discover what makes you uncomfortable and whether it’s good for you or not. You explore new opportunities that grow your potential while facing fears that have held you back from living your truth.
Consider learning something new such as writing, painting, or playing the guitar. Or, join a club or group that shares similar interests to you and meet new people. Start a new hobby or challenge yourself to travel somewhere new every couple of months.
If stepping out of your comfort zone seems overwhelming start small – change your route to work or try a new recipe once a week. Baby steps improve your confidence and self-esteem which will encourage you to try more challenging things as you grow and develop.
Activities That Took Me Out of My Comfort Zone and Boost my Self-Awareness
Buying my first property ten years ago was a biggie for me as was signing up for a shaman course that I continue to attend eight years down the line. Enrolling to become a life coach was a huge step out of my comfort zone as was leaving a full-time job to go self-employed.
Learning to walk with a white cane, fundraising to pay for my Usher syndrome genetic testing, and choosing a simpler lifestyle were other changes I made that improved my self-awareness. Writing my weekly blogs continues to keep me self-aware as does challenging myself to reach out to at least one person daily.
Final Thoughts
Boosting your self-awareness is vital for evolving your consciousness and keeping your mind, body, and soul in balance. Being self-aware isn’t only good for you, but it’s good for others and the greater good. It frees you from the chains that hold you back from living to your true potential.
If you want to discover more ways to improve your self-awareness, contact me today, and let’s talk. Undertaking my life coaching program is another potent tool for developing and growing your self-awareness. What a gift to give to yourself!