How do you find true self awareness?

Answer 1

True self-awareness stems from mindfulness. Being mindful at all times is essential to self-awareness. We must know what is occurring in our minds at all times as well as in our bodies. When a thought arises in your head take note of it and move on. When you are typing, know that you are typing. You must also know that you know you are typing. We must be aware of our feelings and motions at all times. This will lead to true self awareness.

Answer 2

Before I can answer that I need to know what you mean by "true self awareness". That's a pretty ambiguous term, to say the least. (Try this experiment: ask a Christian what "true self awareness" is, and then ask a Buddhist the same question. You'll find that not only are their answers dramatically different, but they actually have completely different understandings of the term.)

I suspect you meant something like, "How do you come to truly understand yourself and who you are?" In answer to that question, I don't think you really ever can, because character and personality are not stationary- they change all the time with every decision and experience you have. I don't mean that you are an artistic or intelligent or extroverted person one day, and the opposite the next based on a single thing you experienced or did, but who you are is a combination of your (apparently) innate tendencies and your decisions. For example, you may find that you seem to naturally have a difficult time following through on things you do, but that is something you can actively choose to change about yourself if you want to by making different kinds of decisions in your day to day life. (Whether these "natural" tendencies are things you're born with or just things you learn so early in life that it seems as though you're born with them is at least as much a question for psychology as philosophy, if not more so, and is a whole separate issue in itself.)

All that being said, if you are finding it difficult to find the line between who you are and who other people or things are requiring you to be, just pausing once in a while to ask yourself how you really feel and what you really want should do the trick in any given situation. Whatever you do (either because you want to or because you have to), you ultimately know what you want to do, and what would be most "you". If that becomes lost sometimes, it's probably because you're feeling a lot of pressure from outside sources to conform to some standard for some reason. Just stop and think about what you believe, what you know, and what you want, and the "real you" should rise to the surface.

Answer 3

I agree with all of the above answers but I think it all boils down to self-evaluation, self-realization, and self-actualization. When searching for true self awareness, a person must have other honest people around them who are willing to contribute to this person's personality, the person seeking this must be willing to make the changes, and passionately & actively listen to what their trying to say - using it to their advantage.
Self-realization means taking a look back in time & evaluate my actions, don't try to relive it again but pick up warning signs from people & their reaction to the presence I had, and what made them not like me the way I was.
Self-actualization means coming into actuality and understanding where the person was coming from or trying to understand how it may have affected their judgment of you.
The final step to finding true self-awareness is redefining who you are now that you know what you know now.

Answer 4

You don't find self-awareness. You either are self aware or not to some degree. Trying find self awareness is actually being aware that you aren't very self aware. It grows from there. This is actually the simple answer as there are many facets of an individuals life that they me more or less aware of at any given time.

Answer 5

There are several paths to self awareness.

1/ Zen meditation
2/ Counselling or T Groups

toname but a few

The essence must be that it is person centred and not set out with an agenda

Answer 6

First you must want to find true self awareness.
Next you must allow it to enter into your self.
Sounds easy enough.
IMO one benefits from the observation of others. My wife helps me a lot now. We both spent some years with a teacher and a group of students.
Eliminate as much new negative programming as possible.
This means all media.
Find a system that suits your new aim, since from this you can learn all kinds of methods and tools.
In retrospect I can say that the friends I made along the way are extremely special. I can say that I am far happier than I could have imagined.

Answer 7

It will sound cheesy, but here's a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_awareness

Self awareness / self consciousness is something, once you've heard of it, and you're interested, you're on your way.
True self awareness may take lots of study and self analysis.
I believe this is a highly controversial issue. Guru's / leaders have been outlawed for disseminating their "wisdom" on this matter.

Answer 8

A better question would be whether the average person could remain sane if they were truly aware of just how bizarre their behaviors and thought patterns really are.

Answer 9

There are lots of approaches to this, but one that is often ignored is getting rid of the expectation that true criticism will be handed to you on a silver platter.

Answer 10

i smash my thumb with a hammer and i am fully aware of the pain i inflicted on myself!!!

see how easy real life answers are when someone tries to ask questions that sound intelligent?