Meditation, Mindfulness, and Self-Awareness
The link between meditation, mindfulness, and self-awareness is clear, meaning it’s no surprise that practicing the first two will naturally lead to more of the third.
When we meditate or practice mindfulness, we are paying attention to the things that can often get ignored in our busy day-to-day: the present moment and our own internal experience. Those who get to know their thought processes and patterns are more able to adapt and improve them, both by simply being aware of their processes and patterns and by giving themselves a mechanism for practicing and improving.
Indeed, a program intended to enhance self-awareness (among other things) through yoga and meditation resulted in a range of improvements, including more positive affect, less stress, greater mindfulness, enhanced resilience, and even greater job satisfaction (Trent, Borden, Miraglia, Pasalis, Dusek, & Khalsa, 2019).
Self-Awareness & Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence can be defined as the cluster of abilities that allow us to recognize and regulate emotions in ourselves and others (Goleman, 2001).
According to the most popular theory of emotional intelligence from psychologist and author Daniel Goleman, self-awareness is not only crucial for emotional intelligence– it’s one of the five components.
These five components are:
- Self-awareness
- Self-regulation
- Social skills
- Empathy
- Motivation
Other popular theories of emotional intelligence also include self-awareness as a core component, making it one of the factors that virtually all researchers and experts agree on.
Self-awareness is a necessary building block of emotional intelligence; it is the building block upon which the rest of the components are built. One must have self-awareness to self-regulate, and social skills will be weak and of little use, if you are not aware enough about when and how to use them.
If you’re looking to build your emotional intelligence, self-awareness is the first stop. Make sure you have developed strong skills in self-awareness before giving the other elements your all.
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