5 Tips for Increased Self Awareness

Five Steps to Increased Self-Awareness

By Susan Nefzger—Author of A Practical Guide to Awareness

Why do most authors write a book? It may be due to inspiration, motivation, life changes, contract requirements, or all of the above.

I wrote a book titled, A Practical Guide to Awareness because I was inspired to do so. The book is a step-by-step guide to finding fulfillment through self-awareness.

Apparently, I could no longer ignore the little voice in my head. The voice was whispering to me practically my entire life. As a native of West Palm Beach growing up, I had always known I was to write a book, but little else about it. I went on to a career in public relations and had a family and settled down thinking that was it for me.

Flashback—December 2014 to an email I received containing the information regarding a "Conscious Writing Retreat" in Glastonbury, Somerset, U.K. The originator of the email was a group I had joined a few years earlier, the International Association of Conscious and Creative Writers, founded by Julia McCutchen. This message attracted me and my gut instinct told me to follow through on signing up for the retreat. I did and was supported in doing so from that day onward. I followed the inspiration and wound up in England that Spring of 2015 participating in what would prove to be a life changing experience in every way.

To describe the process as transformative is the most accurate way to understand how the process affected my soul and existing life at that time. I arrived in Glastonbury as one person and left as a totally different entity with a new way of looking at the world. How did that occur? You may be wondering...

The process of Conscious Writing is meant to help align oneself with the creative consciousness in order to write what you are meant to write. It works, trust me.

The first day of the retreat, I wrote the outline for the book and started writing the book itself within the gardens of the Glastonbury Abbey ruins. The rest is history as they say and in January of 2018, I self published the book.

Here are a five steps toward awakening from A Practical Guide to Awareness.

1) Self-Perception Activity

Try to sit in a quiet place and visualize your dreams.

See your perfect world. Assemble images that depict an ideal world for you.

These images represent how you see yourself. After you have an album of images, see how much better you feel by changing it to reflect your inner happiness. See how specific changes to the album reflect your feelings. Pay attention to your inner discourse and journal it. It will assist you in clarifying your needs and thereby knowing yourself better.

2) Creating Space

Create space in your daily life that brings you to awareness.

This can be done through affirmations, meditation,or even by the practice of recognizing the commitments in your life. It forces us to review our responsibility to ourselves and others with calmness and patience prior to any issues arising. We then see what may cause a problem later on in the day or month and we can reconcile it.

3) Self Care

Self care is most important because, in order to care for others, we must be happy and healthy. If not, we cannot fulfill our commitments to our family, friends, and colleagues. Put your needs first by recognizing them. Then put those needs ahead of any other.

What is it that starts your day off on the right foot? A cup of coffee on the porch, a walk in the park, meditating for five minutes? Do it. Like being thirsty for water, being thirsty in your soul can lead to unhappiness. Consider how your continued unhappiness affects others in your life.

That means being self aware. Practicing self care leads to enhanced energy and greater happiness.

4) Mindfulness Exercise

Take a walk. Do you notice what surrounds you?

Try describing to yourself what is in the present moment.

We can only be alive right now in the present. It is all we have. Being aware of the present allows us to be open to all possibilities.

Try it without electronics, technology, or being preoccupied by the future for 15 minutes, then longer as your progress in being aware develops. Note how you feel afterwards.

5) Committing to Awareness

If you feel that something is missing in your life, then begin to apply a few of these practices.

Opportunities for awareness present themselves in many forms. Be open to change! Stay alert to what makes you feel excited, happy, and grateful. Whatever leaves you feeling positive and contributing to something greater than yourself, pay attention. That is the beginning and the answers will appear, if you are seeking. Trust in the process.

Now, I am living in Atlanta, divorced, having reimagined a dream which includes writing and doing book signings and self-awareness workshops. My second book is a companion workbook, Putting Awareness Into Practice, which is utilized in my workshops. I am also working on two other books! Crazy, I know... but the key is to follow your dreams and get to know your self in order to find your true purpose. For once you do, you'll be so happy that you did!