What do you do if you struggle with self-awareness while managing stress?

If struggling with self-awareness in stress management, practice mindfulness techniques, seek feedback from trusted individuals, engage in reflective journaling, and consider professional guidance or therapy for deeper exploration.

It's easy to struggle with maintaining self-awareness when experiencing high levels of stress. It can actually become cyclical: the more stress we experience the less self-aware we become, which leads to even more stress. Taking breaks to check in with yourself can be helpful, both in terms of managing stress and in developing or maintaining self-awareness. The check ins can be brief and can include things like physical symptoms, breathing and heart rate, irritability, and how other people are responding to you. Does it feel like suddenly the people around you are more irritating than usual? Are the drivers on the road worse than usual? If yes, it's possible that your own stress tolerance is low, and your self-awareness.

One thing I have found helpful is that when you are able to identify the stress triggers it gives you an upper hand in how you handle the situation and react to it positively. In this case it makes you seen as Emotionally intelligent to handle incidence.

Self-awareness ( SA ) can be defined as the ability to take oneself as the object of awareness Research by Prof. Mograbi et al 2023 ( an extract) 1??“Accordingly, SA can be thought of not as a single unified capacity, but rather as a variety of processes (Mograbi et al., 2021).2??These would include, for example, both the representation of internal bodily states (i.e., interoception) and declarative personal information about oneself (i.e., autobiographical memory).3?? It follows from this multiplicity of self-processes that self-awareness can be differentially affected by clinical conditions, with some features, but not others, showing alterations….”4?? SA can be defined as the ability to take oneself as the object of awareness.”

Body-awareness is key to self-awareness. Recent research has emphasized the link between how our body expresses nervous system responses and how our minds (and emotions) experience our world. We not only "neuroceive" (perceive at an unconscious, neurological level) the emotions of others, we "feel" them as if we are networked together. In a culture as ours, which has taught us largely to ignore our bodies (don't cry, play through the pain, toughen up), it takes practice to rediscover how much wisdom our body speaks to us. Allowing it to be one voice (not the only or absolute) that informs us about the "now" is so valuable and helpful for self-regulation and co-regulation with others.

Our bodies are infinitely wise. Some say that our body is the most evolved part of us. This is not hard to believe if you stop and think about how our body functions, without us having to consciously make it happen. Just think about things like breathing, heart beat and digestion. What incredible wisdom! Therefore, it certainly makes sense that our body will also communicate to us when we something has gone out of balance. Learning to pay attention to the body's signals helps us remedy the imbalance before it gets too severe, causing dis-ease.

Emotional check-in is a great way to increase self-awareness. If you can close your eyes, or even just soften your gaze, and take a deep breath. Notice how you're feeling. It may take some practice to really notice, but it's worth doing it. When you become aware of your feelings, you don't need to try change them. It's enough just to notice and breathe and feel. This in itself will shift your mood, and you will find yourself feeling calmer and more relaxed as a result.

In a research conducted by Prof. Daniel C. Mograbi et al 2023 on “ The cognitive neuroscience of self-awareness” ( an extract) ?? 1??“Traumatic experiences have also been associated with altered awareness of body ownership (Rabellino et al., 2018) and can occur in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depersonalization disorders.2?? In depersonalization, part of the body (e.g., a hand) can be experienced as “non-self,” or there may be complete loss of body ownership where the whole body is felt as non-self (Sierra & David, 2011).3?? Depersonalization phenomena can occur in the context of neuropsychiatric conditions such as major depression or PTSD, or as a primary disorder (Medford et al., 2005). “

When you're in the thick of a high stress season, and especially if you're burnt out, it can be hard to be self-aware enough to notice what's going on and what you really need. Your brain is literally in reptilian survival mode and not operating with your more executive functioning prefrontal cortex -- understand that can influence this lack of self-awareness. A fun way to get external information about yourself is through wearables - for example, the Oura ring will tell you when you're stressed, engaged, relaxed, or restored. While wearables are not accessible to all, if they are it's a data-driven way of truly getting a sense of what's going on in your own mind/body which can motivate you to take action.

Seeking perspective when struggling with self-awareness amid stress is crucial. Trusted individuals offer valuable insights, highlighting blind spots and providing coping strategies. Recognizing shared experiences reduces isolation, fostering resilience. Diverse perspectives offer new strategies, enhancing coping skills. Overall, seeking perspective promotes self-awareness and resilience, empowering effective stress management.

In the Research Paper “The cognitive neuroscience of self-awareness: Current framework, clinical implications, and future research directions by Prof. Daniel C. Mograbi et al 2023 ) , an extract from the conclusions 1??“ The search for self-awareness has been a journey for our species, with answers to this question being traditionally provided by religion and philosophy. 2??A cognitive neuroscience of self-awareness has only been emerging in the past few decades, but growing evidence has been shedding light into the phenomenon, not least in the case of neuropsychiatric conditions...3?? It is expected that the expansion of this field will have implications for theoretical, clinical, and ethical perspectives.”

According to Prof. Mograbi et al 2023 ??“ Expanding our knowledge about the level of self-awareness (SA) of other species may have an important impact in our relationship with them. This evolutionary perspective may also shed light into another frontier of human knowledge, namely the capacity of devices to become self-aware. Various attempts have been made to explore this issue , for example, investigating the extent to which inner speech may be linked to SA in robots (Chella et al., 2020). This could help revealing if inner speech is sufficient for the development of SA (or, rather, which type of self-awareness may emerge from such an attempt), while an evolutionary approach may indicate whether this construct is necessary or not.”

The cognitive neuroscience of self-awareness( SA ) by Prof. Daniel C. Mograbi et al 2023 ( an extract ) 1??“An approach would be to identify which neurotransmitters are implicated in alterations of SA .2?? For example, the role of dopamine in agency has been suggested, with higher accessibility of dopamine potentially increasing sense of agency (Render & Jansen, 2019).… 3??Another avenue of research would be to explore substances with traditional use that more recently have been incorporated into mainstream treatments….4??Considering the boom in research on psychedelics, investigating self-awareness may help bringing some of these compounds into clinical practice, also providing resources for a cognitive neuroscience of self-awareness.”