Self-awareness can help you with addiction recovery and mental health wellness.
A new year and a new your starts with self-awareness and self-acceptance; but, what is self-awareness?
The dictionary defines self-awareness as knowing one’s personality. However, there is more to self-awareness than just knowing your personality. To achieve true self-awareness you not only should know your personality and character but you should also know your feelings and thoughts.
When you have true self-awareness you will be able to know yourself and your impact on those around you.
What makes self-awareness important to recovery and mental health?
People who have true self-awareness are happier and have better relationships than those who are not self-aware. Why do they have better relationships? Because, they know themselves they have a good relationship with themselves – in essence, they are happy with who they are. This makes for a better relationship with others because you are already happy with who you are, you are not depending on someone else to make you happy. Remember this; you have to be able to be happy with yourself alone before you can be happy with anyone else.
How does one become self-aware?
If you are not self-aware yet, there is no need to worry. You can learn self-awareness.
This particular skill set of self-awareness people can learn and improve but it takes hard work. If you’re ready to roll up your sleeves and put in the hard work, we will provide you with a general outline to work from.
First, start asking tough questions. Start with “what” questions such as:
- What scares me the most?
- What do I wrestle with the most?
- What satisfies me?
- What is easy for me?
- What is the difference between listening and hearing and which do I do?
- What are some of the things I value most about myself and why?
- What am I feeling right now?
When you can answer those questions honestly, you’re on your way to self-awareness.
Second, practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is the act of being present in a situation. You can achieve that by meditation. Meditation can help you learn to be present and pay attention to what you are doing during the day and why you are doing it.
Third, listen. Listen to people around you. Listening requires that your mouth is closed and your ears are open. Listening can help you learn from others who have some of the same issues and how they deal with those issues.
Finally, engage in therapy. Find a professional therapist and set up an appointment to work on becoming more self-aware. Cognitive Behavior Therapy can help with self-awareness by changing how you think about stressful or anxious situations and how you deal with those situations.
When you have the what questions answered you can move on to other questions of why, how, and where. At 449 Recovery, our therapists can help you with your treatment plan. Contact us today 855-735-7449
The journey of self-awareness starts today.