What is self-awareness? How it is useful for us; therapist explains | Health

Self awareness is the practice of being in connection with oneself. Knowing ourselves better – from physical sensations to our emotional health – helps in determining self-awareness. Clinical psychotherapist Jennifer Nurick explained how self-awareness works. Internal self-awareness and external self-awareness help us to understand ourselves as well as our situations better.

Internal self-awareness:

Internal self-awareness refers to a person’s clarity about knowing who they are and what they are looking for. Being clear about their value system, their ethics, their goals and their needs helps them to be safe people in relationships. Internal self-awareness also involves being brave with the discomfort of elf-reflection and finding imperfections in oneself. This further helps a person choose themselves before anything else and make choices that they are happy with.

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External self-awareness:

While most of us believe that self-awareness is a journey with oneself, it also involves knowing what others determine of us. Being open to feedback and constructive criticism from others and understanding how people around perceive us, is a part of external self-awareness. We should equally be curious of the impact of our actions on others.

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How is self-awareness useful to us?

Self-awareness helps us to understand what we need and what can make us happy – this further impacts the decision process of making choices that can make us happy and content. With better self-awareness we are able to combat the intense responses that we may have towards people’s actions. This improves self-esteem and creates better clarity about what we are good at and what we are not. Self-awareness helps us come in close contact with our value system – this further guide us in every choice that we make. When we learn how others perceive us, it helps us to become more securely attached in relationships as well. Most importantly, self-awareness helps us to manage our emotions better and reduce the impact of stress and anxiety on ourselves.

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