Coffee Talk #210: 5 Ways to become Self-Aware

It’s Tuesday! Grab your cup and let’s start chattin’.

If we were having coffee together today, I’d tell you that I’m still in disbelief that we’re able to continue outdoor fitness. I’m slowly starting to move classes to earlier times, shorter durations, and some practices to virtual-only, but I’m amazed that we’re still kickin’ it outdoors. With increasing restrictions and rising numbers, I’m still not comfortable teaching fitness indoors. I know next month may make me wish I’m inside, but I’m determined to stay outdoors until we have to move to virtual-only.

That being said, I’m LOVING the virtual challenge groups. We’re still going strong with at least one virtual group each month. This month’s group, Daily Dose of Gratitude, has us reflecting daily on something we’re grateful for, within the past 24 hours. I’m sharing a daily 10 minute stretch and weekly yoga and yin sessions. I love the pace of this group and the daily movements mirror the changing season.

If we were having coffee together today, I’d tell you that my body is telling me it’s time to slow down movements and provide some focus. With that in mind, I’m super excited to share the next THREE virtual groups (via facebook):

Muscles & Mistletoe (Nov 30 – Dec 25)  Building strength, connection, and more this holiday season. This group features 4 weeks of strength workouts: 2 Full Body weighted classes each week, 1 bodyweight class each week, a weekly strength challenge, and a weekly restore/stretch session.

Barre BLAST 2.0 (Dec 21 – 31)  Moving through the holidays with grace and blasting our way into 2021! This group features daily 10 minute Barre Blast workouts for the arms, core, glutes, and thighs. It also includes two 30-minute Barre classes and two 20-minute stretch sessions.

Mindful Magic (Jan 5 – 25) Starting the year with mindfulness and intention. This group features 6 Yoga Flow sessions, 6 Yin session, and 4 guided meditations. I’ll also share daily mindfulness prompts.

If we were having coffee together today, I’d tell you that I’m working with HS juniors right now on recognizing and building skills and how those can translate to future careers. It made me reflect on self-assessment and awareness. Even though I’m sharing tips and tricks to find good-fit jobs, I’m also teaching them how to reflect on their own skills and abilities. This made me think about practicing self-awareness.

Self-awareness is the ability to focus on yourself and how your actions, thoughts, or emotions do or don’t align with your internal standards. If you’re highly self-aware, you can objectively evaluate yourself, manage your emotions, align your behavior with your values, and understand correctly how others perceive you. It’s about PAYING ATTENTION.

It’s a practice because skills can always be improved. I’m always learning! Here are my top 5 ways to become more self-aware:

1. Reflection — write shit down. Really. The most effective way to track your progress or to learn anything about yourself is to track it. Take 5 days. Take a week. Take a whole month. Every single day, just dump your thoughts. How did you feel that day? Did anything make you angry or happy? I’m an analog person – I love putting pen to paper. You could keep a digital journal, too.

2. Practice being present — My favorite ways to do this: meditation, yoga class, any fitness session. Be here now. When you’re focusing on the breath or the movements or the sequences, you don’t have time to think about anything else. You get a PAUSE from regularly scheduled programming and a chance to dig deep inside yourself.

3. Acknowledge triggers — One of my favorites! Did someone say something that pissed you off? Why? What was the reason for that feeling? Do you get a feeling in your gut around someone or something? Where is that feeling coming from? Start to notice when your mind or body gives you any type of response to a situation. There’s a reason you feel that way – start to unpack it.

4. Ask for feedback — Survey 3-5 people in your world, not your spouse, not your mom, not your grandmother who thinks you can do no wrong, not your best cheerleader. You want to ask them three things: 1) What am I really good at doing? 2) What can I improve/what are my weak points? 3) How do you feel when we talk/chat/are around each other? The answers to these questions will start to illuminate how others perceive you!

5. Self-assessment — I’m a huge advocate of self-assessments. If you’re totally unsure of your personality or work flow, these assessments can help point you in a good direction to follow, to learn more about yourself. Some of my favorites: Enneagram, StrengthsFinder ($), DISC assessment, Myers Briggs/16 Personality Types.