Is Self-Awareness Conscious-Awareness?

What is Self-awareness? It seems to be talked about a lot these days. 

There are benefits being listed from the act of learning the self. We find people have better control over their feelings and also reports of a higher state of well-being.

Should we all become self-aware, would this help us as individuals and collectively as humans?

An obvious answer to what is Self-awareness: conscious knowledge of one's own character, feelings, motives, and desires.

A simple reflection of the self you can say. But I would yield at saying these are the only benefits. Through the act of learning our own awareness, I believe we simultaneously learn how to comprehend the presence and awareness of others.

I see self-awareness as a time for self-reflection. A time to sit and be quiet and listening to the beating of one's own thoughts and a presence of mind. Faintly hearing the mumbling of your own inner persona.

You know, the one that is talking to you all day every day. Most of the time going unnoticed and camouflaged in the ruckus of life. 

The act of taking time, whether that be a walk in nature, meditating or just sitting at your desk focusing on your breathing patterns for a few minutes. These times of quietness and solitude and be of great importance to obtain the true reflection of who you are and how you are going about showing yourself to the world.

Taking time to notice what is working for you and in what ways you actually might be working against yourself. Lots of time we are acting out of habit or on autopilot, not realizing that are very actions are not in alignment with our purpose or who we are trying to become. 

Time like this leads to what was defined above, Self-awareness. Giving you better insight into what you truly want out of yourself and your relationships with others. 

Because a lot of the time we don't know what we truly want. We often perceive happiness in a form we saw on TV or read about in magazines. Some people seem to have extravagant lives and we idolize them to an extent. Often thinking, "if I was there or could have that, I feel better and be happier."

The problem is that many of our definitions of happiness differ. Some think money will bring more joy when really they want closer relationships. Or maybe someone thinks closer relationships will make them happy when in reality they would prefer more solitude to just be.

Learning our own level of being self-aware cdan constitute changes in our actions, behaviors, and speech. Opening up new levels of insight and intuition that help us better dictate our decisions, synchronistically guiding us towards a better path for us as individuals.

Though it seems that this act of self-reflection actually creates a better awareness and understanding of the human beings around us. I think the act of self-awareness brings on higher levels of understanding and that every person is learning the same thing, themselves.

This brings upon feelings of empathy and understanding that each character is being created on a personal basis. Each person learning and creating new states of being and knowledge that are specific to them.

It seems that as we become self-aware by self-reflecting, we grasp a greater open mind towards each set of beliefs that a person may have. We realize the struggle of what we must go through to learn ourselves and the guiding forces that are prevalent to each one of us directly. 

I believe self-awareness is not just an understanding of the individual but a better understanding for Life. A broader realization of the infinite ways we learn and through living, teach ourselves how to become....Who We Are.

Better knowledge of oneself seems to lead to better understanding of the collective knowledge we all share. A boundless awareness that we all add to and take from. 

For the reality is, everyone should have the opportunity to do what makes them happy. Each person should be excited to be who they are, while at the same time knowing that there is a never-ending way of being. 

If we can all learn to be a little more self-aware, than maybe we will also learn to be more collectively aware. Knowing ourselves while in concert learning to understand and respect each other.

Could the inner self knowledge and guidance be a stepping stone to understanding and compassion? Are we all a little confused on another's perspective because we fail to truly delve into our personal perspective and experiences? 

-RA BAR