Self-Awareness: How we see ourselves

What makes someone self-aware? Maybe it is choosing the red pill instead of the blue one. How can someone be aware, they are not aware? What degree do you have to get to become self-aware? Let’s try to shed some light and open our third eye to awareness.

Here is a story of becoming self-aware. One day you wake up, and you walk to the bathroom to begin your daily morning hygiene routine, then you notice your hairline is crooked. You just went to the barber the day before and didn’t realize the mistake. You think to yourself, I could go back to the barber and have him fix it, but that would mean your hairline will be a little further back. So, you decide to leave it as it is and let it grow back. Time goes by, and your hair has grown, and you realize the right side of your hairline has more hair than the left side. You try to position your hair in a way that hides your hairline then you notice the top of your hair is thinner than the sides. This is when you start to realize you are becoming your father.

Not sure if the story is a good representation of self-awareness, but hopefully, you enjoyed it.

How we see ourselves

For most people, it’s hard to think of yourself as average and even harder to think you are below average. In our youth, we think we are special and we can achieve anything. The older we get, the more we realize we are more alike than not. So, it seems we become more aware of ourselves as time goes.

There is a problem with thinking awareness comes with time. We have certain ideas, values, habits, or personality traits that guide our decisions. Usually, it takes something going wrong to become aware of what is guiding our decisions. That’s when we start to make improvements or adjustments to prevent something from going wrong again. This is what some people would consider self-aware. 

Are you still self-aware if you forget what you were aware of? Most people would call this relapsing or be human. Instead of becoming more aware of the times, it seems more like reacting to the times. Something happens we react. So, do our reactions reflex our awareness?

The only time our reactions reflex our awareness is when we remind ourselves. Otherwise, we will fall back into our old ways. When we become removed from experiences motivating change, the incentive to remind ourselves is gone. To be self-aware to remind ourselves how to react.

What do we remind ourselves of? In the story above, the man tries to fix his hair, and the experience of dealing with his hair reminds him of his father. When we see ourselves self-aware is achieved when experiences remind us who we are and what we do.