Self Awareness

Today I have decided to write something about Self awareness, as this forms the cornerstone (for me) to discover one's Purpose in Life.  But starting off it would probably benefit to see what self awareness is.  Some of the explanations include:
* The awareness of oneself, including one's traits, feelings and behaviors,
* The awareness of your own unique identity,
* The ability to know and understand oneself,
* The ability to have a balanced and honest view of yourself, aligned to what others might see, and
* A conscious knowledge of one's own character, feelings, motives and desires.


All of these are in my opinion correct.  But how do you get to this state?  How do you become fully aware of who you are, why you are here?

The first and most obvious is the physical.  Even I with my extremely long hair (whatever), will stand in front of the mirror to see if I look good enough for the day or not.  Is my tie straight?  Does my suit look good?  Is this T-shirt too old or not?  Am I fat?  Ouch, yes I am most probably a little over weight.  We can easily see and judge by using a mirror.  We also know that we have to look after ourselves from a health perspective.  That food is good, that ain't.  So we are very aware of the physical.  And that is good, as long as you have to ability to go deeper!

The Heart, Mind and Gut goes together for me.  And I will start off by saying why.  Compare ourselves with animals.  We all have the physical.  Right?  Right!  Are all puppies the same at a young age?  Certainly not!  Some have more "character" than their siblings.  Some are smarter.  Some have more heart!  So in that regard, we and animals are very much alike.  We all have hearts (feelings / emotional brains), brains (in order to think) and a gut feeling (intuition, 6th sense).  Some people call this collection (heart, mind and gut) your Soul.  But this is what give us character.  This holds our preferences, likes and dislikes.  Being aware of this level, is to know what you think at all times, to know how you feel at all times, and to listen to your gut.  In these times, we men are known to use our mind more than our feelings.  "Real men don't cry", whilst ladies are known to be more emotional.  And that is OK, but, you have to be aware of the other!  You can just think your way though life, or just feel your way along.  Are you aware of yourself at this level?

Next up is the EGO / Mask.  But before I get to the ego, I would like to touch upon the Spirit.  I believe the Spirit is who we really are!  If you are religious, this is where your "gifts / natural talents" reside and come from.  They just seemed to be there since ... since always.  Others refer to these as spiritual gifts.  But bottom line, this is where your Purpose in Life resides.  You need to get in touch with this level.  Within this level, you will find your inner-most dreams of greatness, a kind person who would like to leave a legacy, your passions and strengths.  By knowing these, you will get in touch with who you really are!

But then there is the Ego / Mask.  Since we are born into a world of sin, we were all born with this ego.  This is where your picture resides of who you think you are, or need to grow into.  And sometimes (well, more often than not), our lives are driven from.  If you center your life on, let's say money, you will measure your self-worth on your net-worth.  If you are bankrupt, you will have a very low self image.  And this gives you identity.  And having your life spin around a fake center is not how it was meant to be!  And our Egos can be centered on many things (or a combination of the following), namely Money, Work, Friends, Family, Spouse, religion, etc.

We need to be aware of all these levels to be truly Self Aware.  And it takes much time, effort and learning the hard way.  For your own reference, also research Gustav Jung and Sigmund Freud's theories, as they have shaped the way we think about Self Awareness.  And then to further complicate matters, there is the concept of conscious and subconscious.  But that is another topic all together.

I hope this shed some insight into my thoughts.  My the purpose of this is not to only share my thoughts, but to here from the readers as well.  I do hope to get some thoughts / critisism.

Kind regards

Cedric