Let’s take the opportunity that Mental Health Month brings us to talk about these issues and stop the stigma surrounding mental health or, as we like to refer to it, mental well-being. A key element for that well-being is self-awareness, a deep and clear consciousness of one’s emotions. Self-awareness is currently considered one of the main learnings people need to develop in their lives.
Just like the body needs exercise to stay healthy, the way we recognize and deal with our emotions needs it as well. So, in order to flex our emotions, we need to go back to basics and start this process of understanding ourselves.
Self-awareness 101
According to behavioral sciences, brought back to layman’s terms, self-awareness is the ability to identify which emotion you’re feeling, detect what caused or triggered it, and what consequences it can bring to your health, relationships, and work. People with heightened self-awareness are known to make better choices for their lives, achieve higher levels of overall happiness and overcome problems and crises in a faster way.
Case in point, a person that understands what causes them anxiety or angers them and recognizes how that feels, even physically, can in time learn how to detect and regulate those emotions. It’s not an easy task, many people find it quite difficult, but the effort, discipline and dedication are completely worth it once people realize that having self-awareness can reap plenty of benefits.
Self-awareness in a work environment
Making sense of your emotions at work provides a competitive edge because it makes cognitive biases disperse faster, and makes a person act less impulsive and have a more rational approach. It makes for clearer goals and objectives, and helps manage frustration due to failed projects. These days, the largest benefit of self-awareness at work comes from the ability to detect when you are at risk of burnout and be able to stop any harmful behaviors that are leading to that state. On a positive note, self-awareness can also point us in a positive way, when we can notice that we are highly engaged at work and motivated, in order to keep up the great work. This can ultimately lead to better job opportunities because you gain a better understanding of what tasks you enjoy, what type of work environments you thrive in, what type of managing styles you respond better to, what keeps you motivated and engaged.
Meet your trainer: Talkit
Exercising your mind takes the same consistency as doing your weekly cardio workouts. Fortunately, Talkit doesn’t require a mat and your mind exercise can be done within your work day in 2 minutes tops. How can Talkit help?
- Act as a sort of thermometer for your emotions by reminding you daily to take the time to stop and think about what you’re feeling right then and there, that way you get a general feeling of how you’re doing.
- Help you build the tools to achieve a better understanding of what keeps you engaged and motivated at work, as well as what leads to burnout. You can decide to maintain your current situation or perhaps you want to use it as an opportunity to speak with your leaders, in one-on-one sessions, to improve your overall position at work.
- Keep consistency. Building your self-awareness and keeping that awareness is a life-long goal. To do so, Talkit will ask you to take two 2-minute breaks to think about what you’re feeling, by simply clicking 6 boxes. At the end of your day, it will ask you to briefly describe why you felt certain emotions. Also, much like regular exercise where you target certain muscles, Talkit can be a reminder of your daily emotional goals, like keeping anger at bay. When the time comes to respond to how you’re feeling in the morning, and you realize you’re angry, you’ll take the time to regulate that emotion, using your tool of choice (be that breathing exercises, meditation, mindfulness, or what works best for you).
Self-awareness can’t be taught in a week, will not happen overnight, there are no quick fixes or shortcuts. With Talkit, you can build a habit, for a consistent act of reflection that leads to better understanding of yourself, better decision making and, ultimately, increased competitiveness.
Let the (emotional)muscle flexing begin! There’s no better time than today, you’re most likely home, in front of a screen already, start your journey to self-awareness with Talkit today.
