Self-awareness

When much of your day is made up of tasks to tick off, it’s natural to look at what you’ve achieved to construct a sense of self. That may be fine for now, but problems arise when what fills your days doesn’t align with your core values or offer a sense of meaning. Without self-awareness, it’s easy for habits to shape your experience of the world and affect your connection with yourself. Are you doing too much to numb feelings of disquiet about the direction your life is going, or about certain relationships? In answer to the question: ‘Who are you?’, would you struggle to answer if you couldn’t list what you do?

If your life feels safe and stable, your gut instinct may rightly tell you to avoid inviting disruption and uncertainty – but could you allow a chink of space for daily stillness and curiosity about the weather pattern inside through mindfulness, yoga or a walk in nature? Just make sure it doesn’t also become a task to be ticked off a list. If it does, reduce it to simply pausing in the day and enquiring with curiosity: ‘How am I reacting to this? What are my thoughts and emotions?’