Self Awareness Flashcards
What is self awareness?
Emotions are felt before we are even conscious of them.
Managing yourself and your relationships means you first need to be aware of the full range of your feelings, both positive and negative.
When you don’t take time out to notice and understand your emotions, they have a strange way of resurfacing when you least expect it. It’s their way of bringing something important to your attention.
Getting in touch with your emotions and tendencies takes honesty and courage.
As you start to become aware of little things about yourself that you were previously unaware, you are progressing.
What percentage of people are accurately able to identify what emotion they’re feeling?
35%
What does Quit Treating Your Feelings As Good or Bad mean?
It’s human nature to label emotions as “good” or “bad.”
Most people would classify “fear” or “guilt” as “bad.”
These are emotions people don’t want to feel, even beat yourself up about it and do whatever you can to get rid of it.
Suspending judgement of emotions allows them to run their course and vanish
Judging your emotions keeps you from really understanding what you’re feeling
Next time you feel an emotion coming up, take notice of it and refrain from putting a label on it.
That feeling is there to help you understand something important.
Observe the Ripple Effect From Your Emotions
emotions can ripple and have **widespread effects on others **
consider what happens when a stone is dropped into water. The stone sends ripples in all directions.
Your outpouring of emotion are like stones that send ripples through the people in your life.
If you’re angry and lash out publicly, the ripple effect from the explosion affects all who witnessed it. The rest of the team feel the anger and wonder if they are next.
Your emotions are powerful weapons, don’t make the mistake to think their effect is only felt in the instant and the effect minimal. Watch closely how they can impact other people and understand they will affect a wider circle long after you unleash the emotion.
Understand that your emotions ripple outward, and if you do, you’ll be better equipped to choose the type of ripples that you want to create.
Action:
* spend some time considering the ripple effect of your emotions
* ask other people how they are affeced by your emotions
What does feel your emotions physically mean?
When I experience an emotion, electric signals course through my brain and trigger physical sensations in my body. These can vary from muscles tightening in my stomach, heart rate increasing, breathe quickening, mouth becoming dry.
Because mind and body are so tightly connected, an effective way to understand emotions as they happen is to learn how to spot the physical changes that accompany emotions.
Closing your eyes and thinking of emotionally arousing events is training for the real thing - spotting your emotions on the fly. Open your mind to notice the sensations. As you improve you’ll find you are often physically aware of an emotion long before you’re mentally aware of it.
- close your eyes, feel how fast or slow your heart is beating. Notice the pace of breathing. Determine how tense or relaxed the muscles in my arms, legs, neck and back are.
- Take one positive event and one negative events from life (that generate strong feelings). Think through these events in enough detail to feel your emotions stir. Take note of physical changes …
- do they make your breathing or heart rate change? Do your muscles grow tense? Do you feel hotter or colder?
Lean Into Your Discomfort
Ignoring a feeling doesn’t make it go away, it helps them surface when least expected.
When I ignore, minimize an emotion I miss an opportunity to do something productive with that feeling.
It can sting when things surface after you’ve been avoiding the discomfort of seeing yourself as you.
Your goal should be to move towards an emotion, into it and eventually through it even with mild emotions like discomfort, boredom, confusions or anticipation.
Don’t be afraid of emotional mistakes, they tell you what you should be doing differently and provide information to understand yourself as life unfolds.
To be affective, we need to discover our own arrogance and lean into the things we don’t bother with or dismiss as unimportant.
Know Who and What Pushes Your Buttons
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Watch Yourself Like A Hawk
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Keep A Journal About Your Emotions
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Don’t Be Fooled By A Bad Mood
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Don’t Be Fooled By A Good Mood, Either
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Stop And Ask Yourself Why You Do The Things You Do
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Visit Your Values
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Check Yourself
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Spot Your Emotions In Books, Movies, and Music
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