How often in life do we turn to a friend and ask them, “What do you think?” And then if they tell us something we don’t want to hear, we generally disregard their advice. So what is the point?

It seems pretty clear that we already knew the answer before we solicited input from others, so why bother asking? The answer is because you haven’t yet learned to trust your own knowing.

Once you really trust (not just sorta trust, but REALLY trust) your own internal GPS (your inner voice, your knowing), then you will no longer feel the need to ask others their opinions. For you will already know what is the best course of action for you.

As John Steinbeck said, “No one wants advice – only corroboration.” And Cicero said, “Nobody can give you wiser advise than yourself.” These are wise words from wise men.

Try this simple exercise the next time you think you want someone else’s advice. Pretend you are going to ask someone their opinion. But instead of actually asking them, state the question aloud to yourself. Think about what answers the other person might have given you, and then see how you feel in response to each answer.

Those answers you don’t like, you now know aren’t in alignment with your own knowing. Those answers that seem to “fit” (and that are pleasing to you) are pointing you in the direction of what you already knew, but weren’t quite able to define.

After you do this a few times with various topics, you’ll get to the place where you don’t need the exercise at all. You’ll come to a place of surety about what you know, of being more clear about what is right for you and what direction to take.

As Erica Jong said, “Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer, but wish we didn’t.”

Begin to trust in yourself – somewhere inside you do know the answers that are right for you. And in all honesty, only you know them. All that others can do is project their own perspective onto you, and do their best to help you. But you actually know yourself and what’s best for you.

As you practice trusting your own knowing, it will grow stronger and more powerful, just like a muscle that’s been exercised regularly. And it will continue to get easier and easier to really KNOW what you know, to be clear, to be sure, and to be able to hear your internal GPS.

And one day you’ll realize that you don’t really need anyone else’s input – for you can reliably follow your inner knowing. This is typically what people mean when they say, “I don’t care what anyone else thinks.” It’s not that others’ opinions aren’t valuable bits of wisdom, it’s just that this person KNOWS what is right for him/her and doesn’t want or need outside advice.

So the next time you need to make a decision in your life, turn to yourself and ask, “What do YOU think?”

Elise Fee is a Consulting Hypnotist and Life Mentor – her business “EliseOnLife” helps clients get a new lease on life — http://www.EliseOnLife.com. Elise works with clients via private consultations, either in person or over the phone.

With a diverse background in business, marketing and teaching, Elise’s many varied life experiences have taught her broader, more expansive ways to view and experience the world and humanity.

She writes a daily blog sharing her perspectives on life and humanity, and provides readers with practical, easy techniques they can use to begin living their best life. Subscribe to her free blog today: http://www.EliseOnLife.com

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When my children were at an age where they could understand analogies I used “the person in the mirror.” In trying to explain to them various virtues such as honesty, integrity, effort and many others I used “the person in the mirror.”

I explained to them that when they looked in the mirror the person looking back at them would always be 100% truthful. If I asked them a question and I thought they might not be telling me the truth, I would ask them “what would the person in the mirror say?” The look on their face would tell me before they even answered.

When they began playing team sports I always preached to them, that they should always give 100% effort. If their team lost a game and they were feeling bad, I would ask them if the person in the mirror thought they played with 100% effort. I would tell them if the answer was yes, then I was proud of them and they should be proud of the way they played. I also told them that if the answer was no, then they should think about why and what they could do to make sure they gave 100% the next time they played. This philosophy carried them both through their college playing years. I credit this philosophy as a major reason why they each excelled both academically and athletically.

When they entered the working world I told them that if they gave the same effort and asked “the person in the mirror” the same questions they did during their youth, they would succeed in their careers. I explained to them that the average person does not give 100% and that their effort would be easily recognized by any of their superiors.

I think that “the person in the mirror” can serve us all well by answering questions such as.

Did I give 100% effort today in my job?

Am I truly embracing new concepts?

Am I striving to learn new skills to improve my performance?

Do I take responsibility for the results of my effort or do I look for someone or something to blame?

Am I doing everything I can to be the success I say I want to be?

If we ask these and other delving questions of” the person in the mirror”, we can discover our weaknesses and begin to make the necessary changes to improve our performance.

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Authenticity can be defined as honesty with oneself. In other words, being true to yourself. Authentic people have learned how to be honest with themselves and live according to their personal value system. Developing this ability is not always easy. The authentic individual recognizes the connection between all living beings and can be vulnerable and set boundaries within their relationships. Self-esteem is based in authenticity. Thus, being true to yourself, living in accord with your personal values, results in feeling good about yourself.

A step toward authentic self-esteem is to become aware of how you are thinking and what you are saying to yourself. Most of us are unaware of the things we are telling ourselves that can be damaging to our self-esteem. If we were raised in a situation in which a caregiver insulted us, we will continue to, unconsciously, repeat that insult, until we become aware of it. When we become aware of negative messages, we may have introjected, we can begin to change them. Mindfully increasing awareness of how we are thinking and what we are saying to ourselves is vital.

Thinking in a highly critical and judgmental manner, is another problem that can affect our self-esteem. If we are highly judgmental of others, we are most likely judging ourselves, as well. Although evaluation and judgment are normal, it is also normal to have biases and make distortions in evaluations and judgments. With increased self-awareness, people can recognize when they may be distorting their perceptions. As a result, people can make evaluations that are more realistic, and less harsh.

For many years now, advertising in our culture has manipulated and distorted perceptions of reality. It can be difficult for people to know who they are and why they are doing something, if much of what they do has been prescribed by advertising, or cultural norms. The BBC documentary, The Century of the Self, focuses on how, “those in power have used Freud’s theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy.” Adam Curtis, 2002. Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernase used Freud’s theories to, “create the model consumer” and to “manage the unconscious mind of the consumer.” As a consequence, many have followed their prescribed definition of success as financial success and live lives of empty prosperity.

In order to be authentic we need to be thoughtful about what we believe, what we value, and who we choose to be from moment to moment. Rather than automatically accepting something because others have done so, it is healthy to question the beliefs and thoughts of other’s before taking them on as ours. Therefore, developing our individual perspective and value system is vital for authentic self-esteem.

Meaning is another quality that is important for living a life with authentic self esteem. This means living a life with a sense of purpose. Meaning is based in what each of us finds important. Without it life has no purpose, no guidelines. A few ways we find meaning is through our career, relationships, causes, lifestyle and spiritual beliefs. Meaning connects us to something that is greater than ourselves. Knowing what we feel is important results in our making informed choices concerning what to do with our lives. As a consequence of living in a way that is true to our personal values and meaning we develop a sense of integrity, which is a vital aspect of authentic self esteem.

Integrity is the quality of having honest motivations for one’s actions. It is the opposite of hypocrisy. Someone who has a sense of wholeness in their life has integrity. A person who can behave according to their values, beliefs and principles is living a life of integrity.

Developing authentic self-esteem is part of the maturation process. In Men in Therapy, (2009) David Wexler writes, “A hallmark of the mature, authentic self is the ability to appraise the personal past and the personal present with a minimum of denial and distortion,” (page 245). Accordingly, this requires people to accept responsibility for their part in relationships that work well, and, for those that do not work well. Blaming others is a sign of immaturity and, furthermore, suggests that people who blame have self-esteem so low they cannot bear thinking about their mistakes. Additionally, blame prevents empathy, which is imperative for an intimate relationship. According to Wexler, “Empathy is considered to be one of the highest forms of affective development,” (page 253).

Self-awareness is where authentic self-esteem begins. Mindful awareness of the messages we are giving ourselves, helps us improve our self talk. Another consequence of mindfulness is our noticing when we are thinking judgmentally and the distortions that are part of those judgments. This is a state of being from which we can increase our recognition and resistance of the attempts of others to manipulate how we think. Defining our personal value system and developing a meaningful life, a life of integrity is part of an ongoing process that occurs as we grow and change. Woven throughout this process is accepting responsibility. Without acceptance of responsibility we cannot mature. Recognizing that we are fallible human beings who make mistakes renders us more vulnerable and lovable. The process of developing a sense of mature humility is one that results in authentic self-esteem. Authentic self-esteem is based in who we are and who we are becoming, here and now. Authentic self-esteem has nothing to do with what we look like, what we own, who we know, where we have traveled, how much we know, our IQ, number of degrees, or level of creativity. We can raise our authentic self-esteem every day, from moment to moment, here and now.

Anne is a Board Certified Registered art therapist and Licensed Professional Counselor. Anne has been studying human development and relationships for over 45 years. She has been successfully working with families, in various capacities, for over 20 years. Her private practice is in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia PA. She specializes in helping people recover from various types of trauma, difficult changes and loss. Anne has an unusual ability to connect with children and adolescents, along with their parents. Parenting is the most important job we ever do, yet no one shows us how to do it or gives us the support we need. Anne has successfully coached many parents through a variety of critical stages in their children’s lives. Annes greatest joy is helping people understand themselves and each other.

http://www.annescreativetherapy.com

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Self acceptance is like a muscle…We have to continually strengthen it, for it to function properly.

Helping others find self-acceptance and love for themselves is a very important part of the “fitness” puzzle to me. Too often, we work and work to achieve this ideal level of physical fitness, yet still feel unhappy with the results or even find something else about ourselves that we’re not happy with. I have discovered that any type of health kick or fitness regimen NEEDS to include ALL of the components of health…not just the physical aspects, but the emotional aspects as well.

Over the years, as I have worked hard at finding self acceptance for myself – flaws and all – I have learned that it is NOT a one time thing you learn and then you never have a problem with again. Since everything about us is always changing – we need to constantly work on accepting ourselves – no matter what state we are in at the moment.

Think about it. How are you going to feel about yourself when you are at a healthy weight, you’re wearing a brand new outfit that accentuates your assets and hides your flaws, you just got your hair highlighted and nails done at the salon, and you had plenty of sleep the night before? Most likely, you are going to be feeling pretty good about yourself.

Now, let’s think about the flip side of that. How do you feel when you had a terrible nights sleep, your schedule has been so hectic that you haven’t washed your hair in three days, the only clean clothes you could find were a pair of old, worn out jeans that are too tight and a t-shirt you don’t feel comfortable in. And then to top it all off, when you look in the mirror you find three new zits that seem to have appeared overnight! How are you going to feel about yourself in THIS situation. Probably not so great.

Let’s face it. We all have days where we feel better about ourselves than other days. And unfortunately, there are even days where we feel down right icky about ourselves. The thing that is so important to remember however, is that on those “icky” days, we are still the same person that we were on those “good” days. So why let ourselves get down?

On days like these, we especially need to exercise our “self-acceptance” muscle. How do you do that you might ask? Well basically, it’s all in the way you think. You have to force the negative thoughts you may be thinking about yourself, completely OUT of your mind and you have to replace them with good thoughts. It almost sounds too simple to do, but in reality, it can feel like a wrestling match is going on in your brain.

For example: You are having an “icky” day and have to run to the grocery store. As you find yourself among other people, what thoughts are running through your head? Are they negative things like this? “Oh how embarrassing. I look so awful and look at her. She is so skinny and pretty and perfect. I just wish I could hide.” Or what about this? “Ugh…I look so fat. I know that girl is looking at my thighs and thinking I’m disgusting.” Here’s another one. “I better hurry and turn my cart around and go the other way so I don’t run into that guy I knew in high school. I would be so embarrassed to run into him looking like this.”

It’s those types of thoughts that can literally ruin our day and ruin our self perception. As you hear your inner voice say those negative things over and over again, your subconscious mind will actually start thinking them all of the time. It becomes a habit. So eventually, even on those days where you have every reason in the world to feel good about yourself, your mind will tell you reasons why you shouldn’t.

Be aware of what thoughts are going through your mind. Sometimes, we think negative things about ourselves, without even realizing we are doing it. Pay attention! And when those negative thoughts creep in your mind – use your “self acceptance” muscle and tell yourself something positive. Be a little more lenient on yourself. It’s okay if you don’t have great, “put-together” days all of the time. None of us do! It’s okay if you are a little over weight right now and are working on it. Don’t let the tiny size of someone else get you down.

Loving and accepting yourself takes work and dedication. Just like losing weight or strengthening your muscles – it is a daily habit we must do in order to truly benefit. If you can start to accept yourself more and more often – flaws and everything – you will feel so much more peace in your life. You won’t be burdened by a constant negative nag in your mind. Sometimes, accepting yourself the way you are, can seem too hard to do, but don’t stop trying. Keep at it! Remind yourself often that you are beautiful and that you were created to be beautiful. And finally, make sure you tell yourself that the spirit inside of you is what truly matters in life. Take care of it and the rest of you will feel beautiful too.

Article written by: Liz Rosenbaum

http://www.lizrosenbaumfitness.com/blog

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What is your own inner evaluation of your self? Are you open to outside input? Are you self-aware or self-righteous?

There are four types of knowledge:

1.The knowledge of things

2.The knowledge of others

3.The knowledge of oneself

4.The knowledge of God

Surprisingly most people obtain the knowledge of oneself last, often directly after obtaining the knowledge of God. This is because the Creator often has an uncanny way about bringing us to an awareness of ourself. The Word of God in itself is like a divine mirror that supernaturally allows an individual to look into their own soul and make an inner assessment.

When we take time beyond the rat race of the day to look into our soul and evaluate what is there, many discoveries will be made. Insecurities that are often covered and hidden by pride, barracaded by walls of fear, and protected by an outward facade can often be painful to acknowledge.

When we have been bruised or wounded by past experiences, it is natural and relatively easy to be less trusting of people. This can turn into an angst against people as inwardly we truly crave love, but it seemingly tends to allude us. We sabotage relationships because of our tendency to distrust and propensity to have erroneous predispositions toward people. This is because we need to be healed of past hurts lest we perpetuate them into our future. Recycling past pain can be something we often don’t even realize we are doing.

Some people tend to project self-righteousness or the “know-it-all” mentality because they were raised like that by their parents. Perhaps a particular parent who had significant influence over their life was a “know-it-all.” The generational baggage and personage is often carried onward even unbeknownst to people many times. Others embrace such a disposition when they find that a bulldozing approach to life gets them what they want. What they don’t realize is that by winning their miniscule battles and getting what they want they often are losing the war and losing meaningful relationships.

To go from being self-righteous to becoming self-aware, here are some safe and sure secrets to transition and be transformed.

1. Listen with sincerity.

2. Pause and refrain from the inclination to say “I know” even if you already know.

3. Meditate on what is being said to you. Evaluate and think how it applies to you.

4. Realize that mentally knowing something does not mean you experientially see how it fits into your life. Ask “What do you mean by that?” and wholeheartedly listen to the response.

5. Ask for more information, examples, and feedback.

6. Humbly acknowledge that people see things about us we often do not see or know.

7. Be open minded and committed to personal growth.

8. Be patient with yourself and others, realizing change and transformation takes time.

9. Celebrate yourself and others. We are all unique, which makes life exciting. Be yourself and allow others the same privilege.

10. Maintain a sense of humor when acknowledging your idiosyncrasies and peculiarities. We all have them.

Life as a self-aware person is far more exciting, fulfilling, and rewarding then living as a self-righteous individual. When you are self-absorbed and self-righteous there is not much room for personal growth to absorb outside stimuli and influence. Make room for becoming increasingly self-aware. Initially it may be a bit painful as you hear new things about yourself, but if you do you will grow immensely and be treasured by your friends relationally.

Paul Davis is a life coach (relational & professional), traveling minister and fitness trainer. Paul is the author of several books including Breakthrough for a Broken Heart; and God vs. Religion. Paul is a popular worldwide keynote speaker, creative consultant, humor being, adventurer, explorer, mediator, minister, liberator and dream-maker.

Paul’s compassion for people & passion to travel has taken him to over 50 countries of the world where he has had a tremendous impact. Paul has served in many war-torn, impoverished and tsunami stricken regions of the earth. His nonprofit organization Dream-Maker Ministries is building dreams, breaking limitations and reviving nations.

Paul’s Breakthrough Seminars inspire, revive, awaken, impregnate with purpose, impart the fire of desire, catapult people into a new level of self-awareness, facilitate destiny discovery and dream fulfillment.

Contact Paul to minister, speak at your event or for life coaching: RevivingNations@yahoo.com, 407-967-7553.

For additional info: http://www.DreamMakerMinistries.com, [http://www.CreativeCommunications.TV]

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“When times are challenging you learn about who you are” – Stephen Green, HSBC

It is important as leaders to be able to lead ourselves. In fact it is important for all of us to be able to lead ourselves. Timothy Gallwey in ‘The Inner Game of Work’ talks about us all being the CEO of our own company, namely our own lives, and its true – if we lead nothing and nobody else, we lead ourselves. How well are we doing it?

The bible also suggests that a man ought to examine himself because if we judge ourselves, we will not come under judgment – it talks in a spiritual sense but is this not true of the natural world as well. If we look at ourselves with an objective and critical eye (or as unprejudiced as we will ever be) we can make changes and improvements before someone else points out our faults to us – potentially an infinitely more painful process.

Self-awareness though is not something that will come easily. Many of us will be overly critical seeing all of our faults. Others of us will be verging on cocky, aware of our strengths and unconcerned or blinded to our flaws. How can we be realistic and tend towards the objective?

It seems there are three keys to becoming more aware of who we are.

Meditation

It’s not easy or quick but absolutely necessary. If we try to look at ourselves in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, all we will see is a busy person struggling to give enough time to the task.

Instead we need to step back from life, somehow detach ourselves from the merry-go-round we live and work on and find a place of silence. That might be out on a hillside or it could be in your own front room. The location is irrelevant so long as there is an air of remoteness from the pressures of life; a remoteness that is not in danger of being punctured by incoming phone messages or people clamouring for your attention. So switch off your Blackberry, walk away from your laptop, leave people behind.

Make enough time for really getting quiet as well. We can’t do it simply be sitting down for a quiet half hour. There will be too many errant thoughts still spilling in slyly from your previous concentrations. If you have less than half a day, it will be hard to enter a space of peace and start to think unadulterated thoughts.

Maybe you are the type of person who can focus on things simply by sitting still and thinking through them. Alternatively you might want to be active, doing something that focuses your thoughts. However the thoughts come to mind though, write them down. They might be instantly obvious or you may need to mull them over in the next days or weeks – what do they mean?

Self-assessment Tools

There are many tools on the market ranging from the free to vastly over-priced; from three insightful questions to books of material to wade through. Some of them however will be useful.

How you decide what to use can be narrowed down initially by what you want to find out about yourself. For example if you want a clearer idea of your personality strengths you could use persolog’s Personality Profile, a Myers Briggs Type Indicator or any of the huge range of other offerings available on the market. When you want to know what your style of creativity is, you could try a Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory. To see where your motivating abilities lie, try an xpand Skills Workbook. But these are only the tip of the iceberg to serve as examples. There are hundreds of thousands of know-yourself type products on the market so which do you use?

What have your friends and people you trust used. What can other people recommend? What can you afford or how much do you want to budget? Find someone with some ideas and start from there.

External Feedback

What do other people say about you? We tend to notice the nice things that people say, but often they are not particularly insightful. The other statements that make their mark on our conscious are the criticisms, but how many of these are valid and again, insightful? It is, however, worth delving deeper into both of these sets, because there are probably nuggets of truth in there before they have been filtered by the other persons situation and feelings.

As well as that though, you need to find an objective source of feedback. The people that you trust, whom you referred to in order to find self-assessment tools, are hopefully also people you trust to talk straight to you about your strengths and weaknesses. If they are not, search your list of close contacts and find that kind of person. It needs to be someone who knows you well, that you trust to speak the truth, and whom you respect so that you don’t discount what they say. Likewise, they need to respect you, otherwise they won’t bother themselves and may give insufficiently thoughtful answers. Also be aware of any power imbalance in the relationship before you start. Are you willing for a boss or subordinate to point out your failings? Will a subordinate tend to give you an overly positive assessment and not be critical enough?

Once you have found such a suitable person (or people – different viewpoints will give you a better overall picture), don’t simply ask them bland ‘what are my strengths?’ type questions. Instead, how about getting them to complete the same self-assessment tools that you have already completed and then compare the answers – where are the discrepancies and why have they appeared. Alternatively, simply sit down with the answers you generated yourself and ask your reviewer(s) if they agree with your findings. If your reviewers/critics/mentors have something to agree or disagree with then it makes their job easier so they are more likely to spend time with you on it and you will get better feedback.

Don’t forget to thank them in some way for their time and effort – they are then more likely to help you next time you come to complete a self-reviewing exercise.

If you want some active tools to help you ‘meditate then try the CoachYourself self-coaching ideas found on the Square Pegs Coaching website.

Nick is an Outdoor Life Coach and Trainer. Within his company, Square Pegs Coaching, he uses outdoor experiences to help people develop themselves. To understand better what this means in practice and to take greater advantage of his expertise, go to http://www.squarepegscoaching.com

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What are you doing to increase your self-awareness? Why is increasing your self-awareness important anyway? It is important because it teaches us about how we show up in the world. We learn what impact our lives have on other people and things. It teaches us what we are good at and what we are not so good at. It guides us in surrounding ourselves with people who can support us because they have skills we do not have.

OK, so how do you increase your self-awareness? There are lots of ways you can do this. You can work with a coach or your HR department to take some assessment to learn about some of your skills and abilities. You can also take assessments to learn about your personality and how you relate to other people.

You can ask people for feedback on your behaviors. Ask them how they perceive you, what they see as your strong points, your weak points and your areas of the most potential. Ask them what they see you doing in five or ten years.

You can write in a guided journal. A guided journal has starter sentences or topics for you to reflect on. It is an opportunity to learn more about your beliefs, values and goals.You can find this type of journal in various book stores and on line. Just be sure to ask for a guided journal.

Another thing you can do to increase your self-awareness is to hire a good coach. You can work with a coach to increase your self-awareness and find ways to parlay that into personal growth and development. When you work with a coach you can go much deeper. You can explore your values. You can identify your self-limiting beliefs and replace them with more empowering beliefs. You can engage in goal setting and action planning. You can also work on specific issues you might have and grow and develop as a result of that.

If you decide to hire a coach be careful to hire a good one. Look for someone who has solid credentials and a background of extensive training and experience. Also look for someone you can trust to hold your information and sessions in complete confidence. You need to be sure there is good “chemistry” between you because you need to feel free to talk about anything you choose. Also be sure to interview two or three coaches to be sure you have a good fit.

About the Author:

Lynn Banis PhD, MCC is known as America’s High Performance Coach. She specializes in helping executives and entrepreneurs make the most of their opportunities and potential. Her years of working with small and large businesses has given her a depth of knowledge that is invaluable to her clients. You can reach her at http://www.discoverypointcoaching.com or lynn@discoverypointcoaching.com. Also check out Lynn’s other businesses: Coach Academy Texas, a cutting edge coach training company; and Turnkey Coaching Solutions, a coaching program management and contract coach staffing company.

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Self awareness is necessary to affect change. After all, how can you fix something if you aren’t even aware of what is wrong? Becoming self aware is a large part of any journey towards self-esteem and happiness.

Once the basic physical needs of food, shelter, and comfort are met, we move on in our search for happiness. Unfortunately, many of us are often let down by those around us, by circumstances that arise, and by our own limitations. The practice of being self aware can help us center ourselves and stop focusing on those trivial things that cause us to become discouraged.

Most people have been ‘conditioned’ for focus on the world around them instead of what lies within. Over the years, each of us collects assumptions, beliefs, and expectations about what will make us happy, and these push us to make certain choices. When we are influenced by false beliefs, we end up disappointed, disillusioned and frustrated, among other things.

Also as we change, our tastes, needs, wants and expectations change. A college student has a different world view than a senior; they may not expect the same service, treatment or advantages. In other cases, a good relationship turns sour – but the person being neglected or abused keeps holding on to what once was. They have been conditioned to accept, to gloss over or to deny.

You can change your worldview, however; recondition yourself to look at things differently and be more aware of your thoughts and feelings. You can even come to grips with false beliefs, and adapt to new information you know to be true, allowing yourself to change and become a more whole person.

Express love, acceptance, and respect instead of judgment, fear, jealousy, and anger. The negativity breeds emotional chaos, but positive emotions brings happiness and joy. You have to take the wheel; determine how you think, which words come out of your mouth, and what emotions you create. Your core beliefs can be altered to improve the emotional quality of your life!

This power to change your life belongs to you and you alone. If you let others try to manipulate you, change or ‘save’ you, the process is doomed to failure. Take responsibility for your own joy, and seize every opportunity to live in happiness instead of anger, and in joy instead of fear.

When reject and refute the false beliefs in your mind, you will break free of the shackles of emotional reactions. You will learn to control the moment when you begin to react, and choose not be a victim to runaway emotions. Instead, you can throw the switch and divert the train onto a track towards calmness and serenity.

Developing personal will power will help you keep your commitments with yourself and others. With self awareness you will be able to make choices that reflect that will power, and keep yourself from being driven by emotion alone. This can affect the way you communicate in your relationships, where false beliefs, emotional reactions and lack of will power cause the most emotional pain.

When you learn to master yourself, you are taking action on what you have learned through becoming self aware. You can seamlessly blend your natural reaction with the right emotions, for an appropriate display that guides you down the right track instead of leaving you derailed. Self awareness is one of the biggest things you can do for yourself, so take that first step and turn your focus inward. Ask yourself what happened the last time you had a sudden, intense emotional reaction, and start being self aware today!

Zoltan Roth is a native Hungarian teacher who resides in the United States. His passion is to help people around the globe to discover their enormous mental potential to create a happy, peaceful life we all deserve. For more information please visit his website at http://www.selfesteem2go.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Zoltan_Roth
http://EzineArticles.com/?Developing-Self-Awareness&id=3387849

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Self-awareness is key when looking at any fitness program or fitness lifestyle. As you work toward your fitness goals, many times tunnel vision can set in. You can be so set on the plan and frame work, that you will ignore what your body could be telling you. Even though, it is highly important to have a plan, sometimes creating self-awareness and listening to your body is key to consistency throughout the program.

Let us look at an example:

You have committed to 30, 60, or 90 day challenge. Many programs like Jillian Michaels 30 day Shred, P90X, or a customized plan are structured at a set number of days. A good program will do that. However, many times there is a set schedule you must follow. While these schedules are great, they can be misleading at times.

Most of these programs are designed with everything in mind. Hard days mixed with easy recovery days. Many people follow these to the letter. However, some days you MUST LISTEN to your body.

Your body is an amazing tool. Its design is so complex we still haven’t uncovered all of its potential. Since it is so complex it often uses systems to tell you what is going on. It is your job to be in tune with these systems.

If today is a scheduled intense plyometric day but your body tells you, I am too run down, you listen! Use this as a yoga or light jogging day. Do the plyometrics tomorrow. Your body is telling you this for a reason.

When we listen to our body’s we are becoming aware of not just what the body needs, but what our life needs. Many times if the body is over worked, it is because of outside stressors. These stressors play a negative roll on the body’s ability to ward off infections, diseases, and other negative reactions. When we play an active role in the prevention of these harmful effects, we are talking an active role in our self-awareness.

Physical activity allows the mind and body to work as one. This self-awareness allows you to see potential problems before they are out of control. Listening to your body prevents injury and further damage to its structure. Know your limits and know when to push yourself.

Creating Self Awareness in your body can be the difference between completing the program or injuring and starting all over again.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Jarosh
http://EzineArticles.com/?Self-Awareness-in-Fitness—Knowing-Your-Bodys-Limits&id=6089950

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