Interactive session on Developing Life Skills and Self Awareness in Kotdwar

On 18^th and 19^th February, Ms. Sangeeta took an interactive educational session on “Developing Self Awareness ” in Kotdwar. Ms. Sangeeta enlightened our residents about Self Awareness through power point presentations,  ‘The Johari Window’ model and concluded the sessions with activities on life skills. According to Ms. Sangeeta, Self Awareness is having a clear perception of our personality, including strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivation, and emotions. Self Awareness allows us to understand other people, how they perceive us, our attitude and our responses to them in the moment.

We might quickly assume that we are self aware, but it is helpful to have a relative scale for awareness. If you have ever been in an auto accident you may have experienced everything happening in slow motion and noticing details of your thought process and the event. This is a state if heightened awareness. With practice we can learn to engage these types of heightened states and see new opportunities for interpretations in our thoughts, emotions, and conversations.

Sangeeta ji broke down  the Johari Window model of Self Awareness into simpler two different types, either public or private.

Public Self-Awareness: This type emerges when people are aware of how they appear to others. Public self-awareness often emerges in situations when people are at the center of attention, such as when giving a presentation or talking to a group of friends. This type of self-awareness often compels people to adhere to social norms. When we are aware that we are being watched and evaluated, we often try to behave in ways that are socially acceptable and desirable. Public self-awareness can also lead to evaluation anxiety in which people become distressed, anxious, or worried about how they are perceived by others.

Private Self-Awareness: This type happens when people become aware of some aspects of themselves, but only in a private way. For example, seeing your face in the mirror is a type of private self-awareness. Feeling your stomach lurch when you realize you forgot to study for an important test or feeling your heart flutter when you see someone you are attracted to are also good examples of private self-awareness.

Our residents then joined in an activity aimed at identifying their own Self Awareness using johari Window. The aim of this session was to enable our residents to develop Self Awareness. As we develop self awareness we are able to make changes in the thoughts and interpretations we make in our mind. Changing the interpretations in our mind allows us to change our emotions. Self awareness is the first step in creating what we want and mastering it. Where we focus our attention, our emotions, reactions, personality and behavior determine where we go in life.

Having self awareness allows us to see where our thoughts and emotions are taking us. It also allows us to see the controls of our emotions, behavior, and personality so we can make changes we want. Until we are aware in the moment of the controls to our thoughts, emotions, words, and behavior, we will have difficulty making changes in the direction of our life.