Self-Awareness
PAGE IN PROGRESS
What you see here is a page of my hypertext book Me, Looking for Meaning. Initially empty, it will slowly be filled with thoughts, notes, and quotes. One day, I will use them to write a coherent entry, similar to these completed pages. See this post to better understand my creative process. Thank you for your interest and patience! :)
What you see here is a page of my hypertext book Me, Looking for Meaning. Initially empty, it will slowly be filled with thoughts, notes, and quotes. One day, I will use them to write a coherent entry, similar to these completed pages. See this post to better understand my creative process. Thank you for your interest and patience! :)
Mystery: people have known some great wisdoms about themselves for thousands of years (example: about dharma), to present when these ideas permeate popular media (Kung Fu Panda, “you are the secret ingredient “) and yet they keep making the same mistakes. Why aren’t we learning? Half changed minds. One this is to understand the idea, accept it, appreciate it, and another thing is to fully apply it to your life.
The importance of self-awareness for a better society [add page, what does it mean “better society”? Society vs. individuals; thriving society does not necessarily mean happier individuals, but I want to find ways to have both thriving society and happier individuals]:
When we see other people’s actions that we dislike as only the result of their personalities [mean and stupid], we are limiting our potential to explain these actions [excuse vs explain]. Self-awareness would not mean necessarily accepting actions that we dislike in other. It means wondering if we may also behave in similar ways sometimes. Chances are we do. Example of [privilege].
from The Body Keeps the Score:
” Semrad taught us that most human suffering is related to love and loss and that the job of therapists is to help people “acknowledge, experience, and bear” the reality of life—with all its pleasures and heartbreak. “The greatest sources of our suffering are the lies we tell ourselves,” he’d say, urging us to be honest with ourselves about every facet of our experience. He often said that people can never get better without knowing what they know and feeling what they feel.”
Understanding our feelings and emotions.
can too much self-awareness be destructive? For example, if we become aware that whatever important things or goals we have in life are only so because of meanings that are not natural or absolute, perhaps it will be difficult to live our life “normally”. Perhaps questioning goals that give our life meaning is not a good thing?
there may be a natural limit to self-awareness (for most people) that protects them from plunging into chaos of the above-mentioned realizations
No self-awareness or little self-awareness because nobody has no self-awareness. It is a little bit like being asleep, drowsy. So, if being aware is like being awake, why do we often see pictures of self-aware people with closed eyes meditating? They look like they are asleep.
Feel the feelings at the end of a day when I am tired and everything seems worse that it did in the morning.
In the mornings I feel good and excited about the day to come. Towards the evening I started feeling frustrated and annoyed. And next morning I am fine again. It is the same life, nothing special happened during the day. It’s easy to catch up in the emotions of the evening and start seeing things in a negative light. I used to ruminate on things that seemed to be the problem in the evening, and I do this still sometimes, but much less than before. Whenever I notice that I start thinking about how bad something is and try to find a solution, I remind myself that’s it’s just my changed perception. Thinking those thoughts is not particularly helpful, so instead of just thinking the unhelpful thoughts, I focus on my feelings.
from Unwinding Anxiety:
” It might sound odd at first, yet curiosity is a key attitude that, when paired with awareness, helps you change habits—a connection backed up by research done in my lab and by others. And curiosity can become a powerful reward on its own.”
« The more you understand how your mind works, the more you will be able to work with it. The more you explore your own behavioral tendencies, the more you will be able to capitalize on your own strengths and grow and learn from the moments when your tendencies trip you up.«
» So how do we update reward values and break worry, procrastination, and other bad habits? One simple thing: awareness. We need to give our brains new information to establish that the value they had learned in the past is now outdated. »
Marble run machine (gum ball machine from hardware store) - patterns of thought and emotions. When I am tired I see things differently (in the evening), I start seeing everything is a problem that my brain should try to solve.
How to make a step from "Everything is horrible" to "I am just tired, I will see things differently tomorrow?" It helps to know your patterns.
from Unwinding Anxiety
« You can think of these tendencies as helping you see the habitual grooves you might be more likely to fall into. Being aware of this can be really helpful when you are going through the process of changing habits, because if you don’t see these basic tendencies, you can’t change them (both letting go of unhelpful tendencies and leaning into their strengths). »
Self-awareness of humanity; ancient saying “know thuself” and still it is a struggle for so many people; I feel discouraged sometimes but then I think that people have been getting better at talking about self-awareness (like I can talk about the science behind mindfulness with my kids)
Cultivating intellectual humility: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_top_10_insights_from_the_science_of_a_meaningful_life_in_2023
if we don’t understand ourselves and others, solutions will keep becoming problems Solution becomes problem: domestication of plants and animals- now we depend on them (see Harari), poverty becomes consumerism, ecological problems; hunger becomes obesity.
About this project: Start page
The importance of self-awareness for a better society [add page, what does it mean “better society”? Society vs. individuals; thriving society does not necessarily mean happier individuals, but I want to find ways to have both thriving society and happier individuals]:
When we see other people’s actions that we dislike as only the result of their personalities [mean and stupid], we are limiting our potential to explain these actions [excuse vs explain]. Self-awareness would not mean necessarily accepting actions that we dislike in other. It means wondering if we may also behave in similar ways sometimes. Chances are we do. Example of [privilege].
from The Body Keeps the Score:
” Semrad taught us that most human suffering is related to love and loss and that the job of therapists is to help people “acknowledge, experience, and bear” the reality of life—with all its pleasures and heartbreak. “The greatest sources of our suffering are the lies we tell ourselves,” he’d say, urging us to be honest with ourselves about every facet of our experience. He often said that people can never get better without knowing what they know and feeling what they feel.”
Understanding our feelings and emotions.
can too much self-awareness be destructive? For example, if we become aware that whatever important things or goals we have in life are only so because of meanings that are not natural or absolute, perhaps it will be difficult to live our life “normally”. Perhaps questioning goals that give our life meaning is not a good thing?
there may be a natural limit to self-awareness (for most people) that protects them from plunging into chaos of the above-mentioned realizations
No self-awareness or little self-awareness because nobody has no self-awareness. It is a little bit like being asleep, drowsy. So, if being aware is like being awake, why do we often see pictures of self-aware people with closed eyes meditating? They look like they are asleep.
Feel the feelings at the end of a day when I am tired and everything seems worse that it did in the morning.
In the mornings I feel good and excited about the day to come. Towards the evening I started feeling frustrated and annoyed. And next morning I am fine again. It is the same life, nothing special happened during the day. It’s easy to catch up in the emotions of the evening and start seeing things in a negative light. I used to ruminate on things that seemed to be the problem in the evening, and I do this still sometimes, but much less than before. Whenever I notice that I start thinking about how bad something is and try to find a solution, I remind myself that’s it’s just my changed perception. Thinking those thoughts is not particularly helpful, so instead of just thinking the unhelpful thoughts, I focus on my feelings.
from Unwinding Anxiety:
” It might sound odd at first, yet curiosity is a key attitude that, when paired with awareness, helps you change habits—a connection backed up by research done in my lab and by others. And curiosity can become a powerful reward on its own.”
« The more you understand how your mind works, the more you will be able to work with it. The more you explore your own behavioral tendencies, the more you will be able to capitalize on your own strengths and grow and learn from the moments when your tendencies trip you up.«
» So how do we update reward values and break worry, procrastination, and other bad habits? One simple thing: awareness. We need to give our brains new information to establish that the value they had learned in the past is now outdated. »
Marble run machine (gum ball machine from hardware store) - patterns of thought and emotions. When I am tired I see things differently (in the evening), I start seeing everything is a problem that my brain should try to solve.
How to make a step from "Everything is horrible" to "I am just tired, I will see things differently tomorrow?" It helps to know your patterns.
from Unwinding Anxiety
« You can think of these tendencies as helping you see the habitual grooves you might be more likely to fall into. Being aware of this can be really helpful when you are going through the process of changing habits, because if you don’t see these basic tendencies, you can’t change them (both letting go of unhelpful tendencies and leaning into their strengths). »
Self-awareness of humanity; ancient saying “know thuself” and still it is a struggle for so many people; I feel discouraged sometimes but then I think that people have been getting better at talking about self-awareness (like I can talk about the science behind mindfulness with my kids)
Cultivating intellectual humility: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_top_10_insights_from_the_science_of_a_meaningful_life_in_2023
if we don’t understand ourselves and others, solutions will keep becoming problems Solution becomes problem: domestication of plants and animals- now we depend on them (see Harari), poverty becomes consumerism, ecological problems; hunger becomes obesity.
About this project: Start page
