Cultivating Self-Awareness (New Content Series)

Self-care is more than just face masks, reading, and using our planners. Although those activities are fun and important, your self-care should also focus on helping you be your best. So, self-care also means asking the hard questions and doing the work to better ourselves. For the month of March, we’re chatting about cultivating self-awareness as a form of self-care. 

When I think of self-awareness, I think about knowing who I am: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Merriam-Webster defines self-awareness as “an awareness of one’s own personality or individuality.”

Having this knowledge of yourself can empower you. You can decide what you want to do with the information. For me, self-awareness is key. I can't improve and better myself if I don’t know who I am. 

My goals this month are to encourage you all to explore self-awareness as I do the same. I want us all to ask the tough and difficult questions that will help us be the best version of ourselves. (We are our only competition!) During March, I’ll review my current methods for cultivating self-awareness. I'll also share how I'm improving or changing these methods.

Here are my current methods:

Journaling

For the first time in a very long time, I’m journaling daily. The practice itself is very therapeutic. But I also like to review my previous entries for patterns. Reviewing past entries help me to see patterns in my behavior and moods. I often struggle to see the "truth" or "reality" of a situation when I’m going through struggles and emotions. 

Therapy 

I’ll always advocate for therapy! (Of course I wrote about why therapy is an important part of my self-care routine.) My therapist usually offers me a neutral, third-party opinion or view on situations, especially when I’m unable to see a different perspective. This neutral perspective can help you notice things about yourself that you may not already know.

Mood Tracking 

Lately I’ve been more in tune with my moods and emotions. I track them in my journal! Tracking moods and why I am experiencing certain emotions helps me to notice certain patterns about myself as well. 

Throughout the month, I’ll be sure to share updates and how I’m cultivating self-awareness in my life. Stay tuned! 

If you want to read more about self-awareness, check out this article from Psychology Today.