The Most Important Journey You Can Ever Take

 Do you often feel stressed and out of balance in terms of your work, life, health and family?

Do you have difficulty determining what you really feel in the moment?

Do you have a hard time expressing your feelings?

Do you often get easily frustrated and irritated?

Do you often experience sudden bouts of panic and anxiety attacks?

Do you sometimes feel down for no reason?

If you answered YES to three or more of these questions, you might need to embark on a journey of self-discovery.

Lost in Your Emotions

Describing and expressing your emotions is not as easy as you would like to think.

Think about how often you respond, "I'm fine," when asked how you're doing emotionally.

Are you sure you're really feeling "fine"? What exactly does "fine" mean to you? What emotion are you really feeling at the moment?

Sometimes, we get lost in our emotions, and when we are lost, we have a hard time determining what emotions we are experiencing and why we are experiencing them. Being in this state often leads to frustration and more unwanted emotions.

Developing Emotional Self Awareness will enable you to navigate your emotions in a healthy way rather than getting lost in them.

What is Emotional Self Awareness?

Emotional self-awareness is the ability to notice and make sense of your own emotions, feelings and reactions. For example, if you are feeling angry, sad, or anxious, you will be able to determine why you are feeling that way which will help you make healthy decisions on how to navigate them. Emotional Self-Awareness also enables you to know what triggers your emotions, thus, helping you make different choices.

A study from the University of Pennsylvania showed that self-awareness is linked to several positive changes in the workplace, such as:

• 100 per cent of the respondents reported a significant improvement in workplace effectiveness.
• 79 per cent mentioned more effective workplace relationships.
• 86 per cent described an improved ability to identify and manage their emotions.
• 81 per cent of the respondents said they experienced fewer feelings of overwhelm and stress.

So, why do you need Emotional Self Awareness?

When you can clearly understand yourself and others, you will be able to:

1.  Know what emotions you are feeling and why.
2.  Recognise how your feelings affect their performance.
3.  Talk about your feelings and show them in the right way.
4.  Determine when you are feeling upset.
5.  Know how to calm yourself and others.

So, how do you go into this journey of self-awareness? You can reach your destination by going through the following:

Practice Mindfulness.

When you lack emotional self-awareness, you often tend to overthink. You can be easily distracted by your thoughts because you may think they are valid or worth thinking about just because your mind came up with them.

Meditation is a way to become more aware of the present moment. Most types of meditation start with paying attention to and enjoying the simple act of breathing in and out. But these don't have to be formal or set in stone. Taking time to stop and think can also help you see things more clearly.

Ask "what" questions.

The heart of self-awareness is the ability to reflect. However, there can be times when we do our reflection the wrong way. When trying to resolve an internal conflict, we often ask ourselves, "Why?" However, the danger with asking "Why?" questions is that it is subjective and can, therefore, lead us to answers that may not be accurate and negative.

Take an inventory of your emotions and expand your emotional vocabulary.

Knowing how you feel at any given time is a big part of being emotionally healthy. One of the most important things to do to get to know yourself is to build up your emotional vocabulary. Part of being able to figure out what you're feeling is having a wide range of words to describe how you're feeling.

A limited emotional vocabulary prevents us from addressing unwanted behaviour and self-limiting beliefs.

For example, if you have chest pain, doctors need to know more about it before they can properly diagnose you. For instance, they might ask, "When did you first feel the pain?" "Where in your chest do you feel the pain? "How bad is the pain?" "Does it come with other signs?" etc.

The same is true for your emotional health. If you want to be able to do something about how you feel, you have to get a clear picture of how you feel.

I encourage you to print out this Emotional Vocabulary list. Keep it in an easy-to-reach place, like your planner or work desk.

Try to ask yourself, "How do I feel right now?" a couple of times a day. Check in when you feel especially upset or triggered or after a hard conversation and when you don't feel as upset or triggered. Try to use more descriptive and insightful emotions. Doing so will make you more aware of what you're feeling in the present.

Know your emotional triggers.

Have you ever been in a good mood until you ran into something or someone that made you feel bad? Perhaps they reminded you of something traumatic that happened in the past. If that is the case, you have encountered an emotional trigger, and it can be very hard to deal with them every day.

Emotional triggers can be caused by many things and affect people differently. Knowing what makes you feel a certain way will help you deal with those feelings in a healthy way.

Ask for feedback -- and take it as a good thing.

While many aspects of yourself can be improved, the parts that you cannot see are the main issue. These parts are your blind spots.

Seeking feedback lets you determine your blindspots and how you can improve them. And remember, when asking for feedback, you need to take any feedback as a positive.

Clarify your values.

Often, your busyness and the constant stream of activity in our lives can rob us of the time to reflect on our personal values. Failing to clarify your values will often lead to dissatisfaction and failure to reach your goals.

Knowing your personal values will allow you to say "Yes" only to the things that are really important to you.

The Journey to Self-Awareness is the Most Important Journey You Could Ever Take

The road to self-awareness may take a lot of work however, it can be one of the most rewarding journeys you could ever go on.

As you navigate the year ahead, and look for destinations to reach, make it a goal to take the journey to self-awareness first.

We Are Here to Help

At People Builders, we have a team of expert trainers and coaches who can help you build your and your team's Self-Awareness. 

Contact us today for a quick chat to see how we can partner with you to train and coach you and your team. 

If you want to become a certified trainer and coach in Social and Emotional Intelligence, Applied Neuroscience, or Extended DISC, go to our People Builders Institute website.