What does self awareness mean?
How do you improve self awareness? Is it a skill? Is self awareness hyphenated?
These are the types of things people search for when it comes to answering what does self awareness mean (that last one was included to be funny, but it’s actually the number one search result – go figure!)
This is episode 2 in the EMBODIED Self Love podcast series and today we’re getting into the first step in the framework – Self Awareness.
Self awareness helps us relate to ourselves and observe how we are actually showing up in life.
It’s a consistent, mindful practice of observing and being honest with ourselves. It’s not just about how we think and what our intentions are, it’s also about the impact we’re having on others, ourselves, and how things are going through our experiences, behaviors and choices.
Self awareness means calling attention to yourself, with purpose. It’s not always easy or pleasant. Sometimes you won’t like what you see. But when you commit to observing yourself for the sake of knowing, trusting, accepting and respecting yourself, you can do it with more objectivity than scrutiny. Something I’ve been teaching my clients and students for years is that awareness comes before acceptance and acceptance precedes improvement.
In Episode 339 of the Embodied Podcast with Elizabeth DiAlto, she covers
- What self awareness has to do with self love
- The gentleness and curiosity self awareness requires
- Some questions self awareness helps you answer like: Who am I being? and How am I showing up?
- How to be honest with yourself
- How self awareness helps you to navigate when you’re “feeling all the feels”
- The difference between responses and reactions and how self awareness helps you get better at both
In this episode about what self awareness means we discuss
- [2:55] Why you can’t improve a thing before first accepting it
- [4:24] How a baseline level of self love will make the hard things easier
- [4:48] What self awareness truly is and what it helps you to recognize
- [7:08] The three things you want to start observing for self awareness
- [10:38] Engaging with “feeling all of the feels” to connect and speak with your embodied language
- [13:11] The differences between a response and a reaction
- [14:58] What it means to be flooded and my experience with this trauma response
- [16:53] Why you should avoid self deception
- [20:22] How self awareness is an ongoing, lifelong practice
Resources for Becoming More Self Aware
Quotes from this Week’s Episode of the Embodied Podcast
- “Self-acceptance has to come before self improvement.”
- “We can’t improve a thing if we don’t first accept it.”
- “There is something so epically beautiful and satisfying when you love yourself.”
- “We observe so we can better see ourselves.”
- “Your body is communicating with you all of the time.”
- “The difference between a response and a reaction is time.”
- “Reactions are immature. They come from our unhealed places, they reflect our wounds and triggers and come from the ego.”
- “You do need to let all of these things be living, breathing, evolving, ever changing practices and accept that there is not an arrival.”
- “We come here to grow, heal and be fully embodied. When I say fully embodied I mean fully embody our souls, the highest most magnificent versions of ourselves.”
How was this episode for you?
Was this episode helpful for you today? I’d love to know what quote or lesson touched your soul. Let me know in the comments below OR share the episode on Instagram, tag me your stories @elizabethdialto, or send me a DM!
About the Embodied Podcast with Elizabeth DiAlto
Since 2013 I’ve been developing a body of work that helps women embody self-love, healing, and wholeness. We do this by focusing on the four levels of consciousness – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
In practical terms, this looks like exploring tools and practices to help you tune into the deep wisdom of the body and the knowing of the heart, which I believe are gateways to our souls. Then we cultivate a new relationship with our minds that allows the mind to serve this wisdom and knowledge and soul connection, rather than override it, which is what many of us were taught.
The show runs in seasons now and this season we’re focusing on my EMBODIED Self Love Framework.
We’ll be looking at Self Awareness, Self Knowledge, Self Acceptance, Self Trust, and Self Respect – with a bonus episode on Boundaries as well.
If you’ve been doing self-help or spiritual development work for a while, these are the types of foundational things that often people overlook in pursuit of fancier concepts that often aren’t practical or sustainable. Here, we will focus on building these strong foundations so you can honestly and thoroughly embody self-love. If you’re feeling it, subscribe to the show, and leave us a review wherever you listen from. You can also keep up with show updates and community discussions on Instagram here.