Exploring Self-Awareness!

It's been a while since I last wrote and today is an attempt at getting back to my commitment of writing more. With an overflowing list of personal and professional to-dos, the notes app has been both, a savior and a witness to all the super exciting, crazy, busy, anticipated and unexpected tasks, with some entries on writing ideas, choreographies, restaurants to try and places to visit.

I am pulling out one of those writing entries today because I believe a Sunday is a day that bridges the week and the weekend, it allows for the perfect opportunity to transition with awareness from BEING to DOING. Ideally, that is how it should be, because we play so many roles and mean different things to different people, it becomes all the more important to have SELF- AWARENESS.

Very often, people confuse self-awareness with defining themselves. However, they are not the same things. When we define ourselves, we put ourselves into boxes that have either been designed by others, or by ourselves and then we spend our entire lives trying to STAY TRUE to those definitions. On the other hand, self-awareness is a very gentle, empathetic approach to enhancing our understanding of our current state of being. It helps us to get to know ourselves with no judgement, while also assessing those areas that will benefit from improvement.

As I spoke earlier, it is gentle, which means we create that safe space for ourselves to be our most vulnerable, raw and honest versions so that we can learn more. Very often, what we learn also helps us determine our next steps and most importantly, help us see others with the same empathy and clarity. Getting to a point of complete self-awareness is a myth, because we evolve every single day.

I have found that the most I learn about myself is in isolation, disconnection and often when I am out in the nature, either on a run or a walk. I also enjoy having conversations with myself while I am traveling by myself. Another very important activity that helps me unlock and unpack this learning is when I allow myself to journal freely, without an agenda.

It's said that it takes courage to admit your shortcomings, self-awareness is that one practice/quality that takes the shame and power away from NOT KNOWING.

According to research, leaders with empathy perform higher in employee engagement, decision making and coaching. In all my experiences so far, whether it is the leaders that have led me or the employees I have had an opportunity to lead, self-awareness has been a differentiating factor between empathetic and indifferent individuals. It is also a tool that helps spot genuine and malicious intentions, projections of insecurity and determination of biases when engaging with other individuals.

For the last six years, I have been practising 20 minutes of "sit idle" time (we may also call it meditation) usually at the end of the day, where I do absolutely nothing and allow all my thoughts to flow, without judgement. In those 20 minutes, I am offered a chance to look at myself and my day from 2 perspectives, as I have lived it and the interactions I have had. It gives me an opportunity to differentiate between who I am and shed all of those labels/projections that may have impacted my awareness of self. It isn't as easy as it seems, but I still attempt to get in those 20 minutes, without fail. Sometimes my mind is preoccupied with the list and other priorities. However, I look at this as a hygiene activity, something that needs to be done so that I continue to not only stay empathetic towards others but also remain just and honest to myself.

As my responsibilities have multiplied, both at work and in life over the last few years, this exercise has been my major source of grounding, enhancing self-awareness, leveraging my strengths and embracing my shortcomings, seeing people for who they are, offering them a chance to be their most authentic, vulnerable selves, but also seeing through nonsense :)

If you enjoyed this read, do let me know and please do share it with someone who may enjoy this too. Happy Sunday!