My Journey Relearning The Meaning of Self Awareness

One idea that struck me in the Inner Development Goals training was the idea that self-awareness is multifaceted and multifunctional. Before I started this course, I was under the impression that self-awareness meant knowing yourself on a basic level, like understanding why you would do certain things or react in a specific way when facing confrontation, but that was about it. There was nothing more you could do with the things that self-awareness shows you. I thought of the idea and skill of being self-aware as a helpful insight but not a functional tool used for major self-growth. 

Self-awareness being the foundation for better self-regulation is a basic idea in hindsight, but before this training, I had not thought that the two were connected. It makes perfect sense now that I have learned that these two skills rely on each other. Of course, I must know myself to be able to regulate. How would I know what helps me regulate if I don’t know what “makes me tick”? 

After mulling over the idea that self-regulation relies on self-awareness, I have started to build a “tool kit” of things that could grow both skills in tandem. Some of my ideas are meditation, mindful self-care, and journaling with my nightly cup of tea. I plan to watch how I feel when I do these activities to understand my self-regulation better, and I hope that grows my self-awareness! 

Now, my question is, what do you do for self-awareness and self-regulation? Do you practice both of these skills in tandem like me or separately? Why or why not?