5 Facts About Self-Awareness

Self-Awareness vs. Consciousness

Self-awareness is often confused with consciousness, but the two are not the same. Consciousness is the state of being aware of an external object or something within oneself, e.g. being aware of one’s body, surroundings, thoughts, feelings, etc. Self-awareness goes a step further: it involves recognizing oneself as the subject of that awareness (awareness of awareness, if that makes sense), along with the capacity for introspection and the ability to recognize oneself as an individual separate from everything else in one’s environment.

As Scientific American puts it,

Another way of considering it: to be conscious is to think; to be self-aware is to realize that you are a thinking being and to think about your thoughts. Presumably human infants are conscious—they perceive and respond to people and things around them—but they are not yet self-aware.

Things get confusing because in everyday English, self-consciousness usually means being overly sensitive to other people’s opinions of you and is strongly associated with shyness, while self-awareness is used to describe the quality of knowing oneself.

Objective Self-Awareness

There is also such a thing as objective self-awareness. Whenever you look closely at yourself and evaluate your own behavior, lifestyle, and other areas of your life in order to compare them with your personal values and standards, you are displaying what psychologists call “objective self-awareness.”

It’s worth noting that a lot of people feel unhappy and unfulfilled because their behavior doesn’t match their own values. Failing to live up to your own standards can be particularly painful. This, of course, is a deep subject. In some situations, it might be wiser to lower or change some of those standards rather than constantly struggling to meet them.

Sometimes It’s Hard

A lot of the time, we operate on autopilot and may not be completely aware of what is going on inside us. For example, we may not notice some of the emotions we are feeling or understand how these emotions affect our actions and other people.

If we aren’t aware of our negative feelings, it becomes much harder to manage them or deal with them responsibly. Without realizing it, we may become hurtful toward other people or repeatedly behave in ways that create problems for ourselves.

You Can Develop Self-Awareness

Although it can be difficult to remain completely self-aware at all times, you can consciously work on becoming more self-aware. Here are some ways you could improve your self-awareness:

• Ask questions: What stresses me? What am I good at? Do I worry needlessly? What do others like about me? What do other people not like about me? Is there a particular type of person I don’t like, and why? Is there a particular type of person who doesn’t like me, and why?
• Find out what others think about you. Their feedback may contain important clues that can help you understand yourself better. However, it’s important to remember that their judgment may not be completely objective either.
• Step out of your comfort zone and try new things. Notice how you react to unfamiliar situations.

Anosognosia

Anosognosia is a condition involving limited or absent awareness of an illness or impairment a person has. It is different from simply lacking self-awareness in the everyday psychological sense.

Anosognosia is most commonly associated with neurological conditions involving brain damage, such as stroke or certain forms of dementia, but it can also occur in some psychiatric conditions, particularly schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

A person with anosognosia may genuinely be unable to recognize that they have a particular illness or impairment, even when it appears obvious to other people. This is different from simply denying a problem or refusing to admit that something is wrong.