Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Realization and reflection about personal development
Environmental effects on childs development
Implication of environment on individual development
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
“Know thyself” – Socrates. Self-awareness is the act of being fully perceptive about one’s innermost self; an essential part to one’s life. However, this self-inquiry is not easily obtained. “Self-awareness and its accompanying egoism profoundly affect people's lives, interfering with their success, damaging their relationships with other people, and undermining their happiness.” (Leary) One’s self can become distorted through the influence of society and their beliefs. “Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment” – Tao Tzu. This introspection surpasses the ordinary understanding of life and grasps the aspect of one’s innermost self. The insightfulness brought to one through self-awareness leads to the utmost happiness and creates a way for personal change and improvement.
One may believe that he or she can make “reliable psychological ascriptions to himself immediately” (Moran) based on fact or of past experiences, which may or may not be accurate. However, how others choose to view another person can be surprisingly differentiating from how one tends to view one’s self. This perspective of one’s self lies within the characteristics of a first person position. One’s views of one’s self, on the other hand, may contradict with the third person’s views. A third person’s perspective has a singular view due to that person’s beliefs, and thoughts which are capable of influencing the opinions that he or she may have.
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are” – Anais Nin. A great deal of distortion of one’s view is attributed to the ego. Because one’s views are affected by ego, perceptions are bias to favor one’s self and ultimately have an effect on the view of the world. One does not perceive the wo...
... middle of paper ...
...ss one learns what inner needs are necessary in life from the materialistic, worldly desires which prove not to be necessary. (Priddy) One’s most basic identity is not “dependent on the body” which changes throughout the years, neither does it depend on society or one’s standing in it. One’s inner most self is not identifiable to others. Only one can access one’s self. Through this Enlightenment, one truly obtains happiness. Once one knows one’s self it is easier to achieve the much wanted and needed self improvement.
Self-inquiry is hardly an easy realization. Principally, it is due to bias of one’s self and society. One tends to look outside of one’s self for direction; however they are poor reflections of who one’s self really is. (van Warmerdam) The clarity and understanding of one’s emotions in the end achieve clarity of the mind, focus and happiness. (Robson)
The idea of self-discovery surrounds each and every one of us. It can be the understanding of our own abilities and feelings, or simply the acquisition of knowledge that can be applied for greater use. Self-discovery is crucial in determining the path we take in our lives and the choices we make that help us reach the end goal. As a society that is constantly changing and innovating, self-discovery aids in the process of learning and growing to better those around us and our own interests. Self-discovery enables us to pursue the new found interests and impacts the decisions we make in our lives.
What does sense of self-mean? It means what that person sees when they look in a mirror. Whether it is a decent, awful or an indifferent image. Everyone’s self-image is different, and that’s acceptable; normal even. No one person is exactly the same. The authors explain how a sense of self is like internal conflicts and the decision to lie in order to gain approval.
In the book, Siddhartha written by Herman Hesse, the topic of self-realization and gaining self-knowledge is explored. Ralph Waldo Emerson states that “[who] would be a man must be a nonconformist [...] Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind […] with consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall.” Here, Emerson states that in order to be a man, one must break away from generally accepted beliefs and practices. Society is not optimal to cultivate the foundation to finding one’s self. Participation in society inhibits individual growth because it confuses one of their true values, wastes time, and clouds success and determination.
The Atomistic way of discovering the self is to look into oneself. It is discovering oneself through self-analysis and learning through one’s own experiences. The discoveries and sense of self-developed in this manner are unaffected by the people around the individual.
If I can successfully shape my life around ideas of self-reliance I can be exactly who I want to be. I look around me and don’t want to conform to society’s standards, I recognize that there is an easy way out, but try my best to remain true to myself by following my heart with pure conviction. Because of my desire to remain true to myself, I closely identify with Emerson in “Self-Reliance”: “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, - that is genius.”
"To be self aware is to be conscious of one's character, including beliefs, values, qualities, strengths and limitation. It is about knowing oneself" (Burnard 1992).
We often believe that others are more like ourselves than they really are. Thus, our
In addition a positive self-awareness gives a sense of continuity, wholeness and consistency to a person. In relation to nursing, self-awareness helps nurses to learn about their strength and weaknesses. “It helps nurses to deliver better client care thus; client gets well soon and builds a trusting relation between the client and the nurse. Self-awareness helps nurses to identify several problems that might be a cause I providing better care”(Nancy Burns, 2005).
This is the main idea of Waldo’s philosophy. He thinks that a man should learn to express himself. Being yourself will help you to solve the problems of your life. We need to trust ourselves in order to improve our life, like all great men have done. Self-reliance stems from within deep in our soul which is the pillar of our personal power and self-respect. This source of all greatness, sets us free form the ego and helps us to transcend through the ideals of love, truth and justice; some people call this “the moral sense”. The soul cannot be completely defined or described but it is the only thing we can be absolutely sure of, since all other facts are temporary. Being ourselves allows us to obtain many more answers and to understand our unconscious intentions. Humans may exceed their limited ideas by realizing that God does exists and that in Him, we will find many answers if we open ourselves to Him.
In order to understand how one perceives situations and how they can determine the way one communicates; we first must understand the value of self-concept. Self is easily defined; it is one's beliefs, attitudes, feelings and values. It is who one is and what one stands for. Self-concept, is a relevantly stable set of perceptions and emotional states. It is the way one sees and understands oneself, and contributes to how one perceives oneself and perceives situations. One's self-concept may alter their perception, and either enhance or impede one's communication effectiveness. The way one sees oneself can influence the way they see their social surroundings. Only after one become aware of oneself can they be aware of their physical and social surroundings, which will allow one to perceive situations and people with a truer idea and create a more positive outcome.
Self-knowledge is a persons’ ability to have knowledge of what they know and what they do not know. If a person is not aware they actually do not know something, then they often times contradict themselves. Socrates asked Alcibiades a question in a conversation about self-knowledge, “Look at it in common with me. When you don’t understand something, but recognize that you don’t understand it, are you confused about that sort of thing? Like the preparation of gourmet food – you know, surely, that you do not know about this?” (Alcibiades I, 117c). Socrates argues that a person needs to know that they do not know something so they avoid mistakes and avoid contradicting themselves. An example of this is when people talk about media. Media is
Self-awareness is not about reading a book or attending a course. Self-awareness is a journey, and it takes practice. It’s like a muscle that becomes more effective with time and effort. It gives us mental strength as opposed to physical strength. We are constantly changing and adapting to the multiple external forces around us and to our individual experiences. The more we learn to be aware of, and understand, our reactions, thoughts, and emotions, while also keeping in mind our values, the more we can become the best we can be and the more successful we can become.
Truth of oneself makes it visible when faced with absurd events in life where all ethical issues fade away. One cannot always pinpoint to a specific trait or what the core essence they discover, but it is often described as “finding one’s self”. In religious context, the essential self would be regarded as soul. Whereas, for some there is no such concept as self that exists since they believe that humans are just animals caught in the mechanistic world. However, modern philosophy sheds a positive light and tries to prove the existence of a self. Modern philosophers, Descartes and Hume in particular, draw upon the notion of the transcendental self, thinking self, and the empirical self, self of public life. Hume’s bundle theory serves as a distinction between these two notions here and even when both of these conception in their distinction make valid points, neither of them is more accurate.
“Self-awareness is a psychological state in which people are aware of their traits, feelings and behaviour. Alternatively, it can be defined as the realisation of oneself as an individual entity.” (Crisp & Turner, 2010). In other words, self awareness is recognising one’s personality which includes strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs and emotions.
Once more, the reason we should nourish the soul is because it is who we are. Our lives go from finite to infinite when the soul is awakened and expressed. By identifying with the ego, we are identifying with a social concealment, our desire to prove ourselves worthy, jealousy, past experiences, and even materialism. By identifying with our soul, we identify with our unmistakable worth. The quality of life when resonating with the true self increases and grows more plump, deeper and all-encompassing. When we love the soul we love ourselves.