Self-Awareness as Path to Healing

We are taking  time in our blogs to reflect on self awareness. Self awareness is the most important part of your path toward healing. We cannot heal something we are not aware of! We cannot address emotions or behaviors we are not conscious of.  One of the strategies I offer my clients is learning how to attune for oneself and then contain the emotion, eventually getting to a place of validation and recognition of what one needs.

It may look something like this…

1. What am I feeling?
2. Validate the emotion
3. Be curious about what other emotions might lie beneath the initial one
4. Validate again.
5. Work your way through this process until you get to the bottom place of asking oneself what one needs.

For example:

I feel anxious, so I tune into my body. I ask myself what has been going on in my life lately.  There have been some stressful times in my relationship with my husband. Upon further reflection, I realize the root of my anxiety is a feeling of disconnection from my husband. I validate this feeling. “Of course I feel like this! We have been so busy and have not spent enough time together lately.”

I ask myself what I need. “I need to schedule some quality one on one time with my husband.”

This can all take place in a short time. It is a way to feel your emotion without being overwhelmed by it and ultimately taking you to an action step.

I practice this daily in my own life and have found it to be most helpful. This form of self awareness creates a sense of security within oneself and lessens ones fear of their feelings.

Here’s to the path of healing!

Find out more about the author and therapist, Maggie Jobson, here.