Week 2 -Understanding
Understanding is love. If you can't understand, you cannot love. When you understand yourself, you love yourself. Our subconscious controls a huge amount of our behavior, so that's why some things you may do or say don't make sense to you on the surface. As we dig deeper and learn to become aware, we will develop a deeper understanding of ourselves. Why we make certain decisions, what makes us happy, and how we can elevate towards our higher selves. Let's find out ways we can learn to understand ourselves. Part I - Getting To Know You Part II - Analyzing Your Mind and Actions Part III - Opening Up To Reflection
Examine Your Priorities What you think is most important in life can teach you a lot about yourself. Try comparing your priorities to those whom you respect and think about what the conclusions say about you. If your house were burning down, what would you do? What would you save? It’s amazing how fire exposes our priorities. Examples of priorities that people often have include:
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money, family, sex, respect, security, stability, material possessions, and comfort.
Evaluate Your Strengths & Weaknesses Think about what your strengths and weaknesses are. Then compare your perception of them to the strengths and weaknesses identified by your friends, family, and coworkers. The things that they see that you don’t can tell you a lot about yourself and how you see yourself. Strengths: self-discipline, determination, patience, creativity Weaknesses: Judgemental, close-minded, control issues
Personality Assessment To gain greater understanding of yourself, you can try an objective assessment. Personality assessments in basic personality, career, learning style, finding your purpose, and more. Myers-Briggs
Enneagram More Tests
Emotional Check-Ins Check in with yourself when you experience strong emotions. Figuring out what sets off these stronger-thannormal reactions and what their root cause is, will help you understand yourself better. Look out for very strong emotional outbursts of anger, sadness, happiness, and excitement. Without judgement, analyze why these emotions were heightened.
You Talkin' About You? Notice how and when you talk about yourself. It can show you a lot about how you perceive yourself. It's healthy to talk about yourself sometimes, become aware of when you go to the extremes. Do you redirect every conversation back to you? Do you make jokes about yourself at your own expense?
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analyzing your mind and actions Write Your Biography Set a timer for 20 minutes. Write your biography of 500 words. Type as fast as you can and think less about what to include. This will encourage your brain to identify what it thinks is most important when defining who you are. Reserve shame or judgement about what you were able to get out in 20 mins. Remain open and kind to yourself.
Be Honest with Yourself Check in with yourself when you experience strong emotions. Figuring out what sets off these stronger-thannormal reactions and what their root cause is, will help you understand yourself better. Look out for very strong emotional outbursts of anger, sadness, happiness, and excitement. Without judgement, analyze why these emotions were heightened.
Release Defensiveness You will naturally be defensive (thanks ego) to protect yourself, but if you really want to reflect and understand yourself, you need to allow things you may not want to hear to be said. It may be hard, but sometimes it is necessary to open yourself up to criticism, things you may not want to admit, asking for help when needed and accepting it, and making amends for past mistakes.
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reflection Experience Life! You will learn so much more about yourself by actually experiencing life. Three methods to try: Traveling! Places you in different situations and tests your ability to adapt to change. More Education! Challenge yourself to think in new ways, open your mind, and discover new interests. Let go of expectations! Yours of yourself, others of you, and society of you. Live free!
Additional Resources The Gifts of Imperfection
~ BrenĂŠ Brown
Man's Search For Meaning ~ Vickor Frankl
Jam&Whine Week 2
Passcode: @01@1bR=
Character Questions 1. How would you describe yourself in one sentence? 2. What is your purpose in your life's story? 3. What is the most important thing that has ever happened to you? How did it change you? 4. How are you different from the people around you?
Mantra: Understanding myself is power. Loving myself is freedom. Forgiving myself is peace. Being myself is bliss. Meditate and repeat these words 2x each day. Journal thoughts and emotions that come up for you.