Awareness is the Gateway to Change

Triumphing Over Emotional Challenges Begins with Awareness:     

• Being fully present
• Seeing reality clearly
• Recognizing choices
• Making choices based on the present

The experience of life is already taking place.  It just keeps coming at us, one event after another, and it includes a myriad of experiences from joy to sorrow.  Being aware does not change that.  However, being aware does put us in the driver seat of our lives.  It allows us to pay attention to what is going on and interact with it proactively rather than reactively.

We can't change whatever we are unaware of or refuse to admit.  Lack of awareness includes living in the past, distorting reality, reacting, making choices based on the past, or being passive and dependent.  The consequences of being unaware include making mistakes, getting into accidents, being inefficient, letting others decide for you, communicating poorly, or being reactive rather than proactive.

We are effective and successful in most aspects of our lives.  This is important to remember as we are often unduly negative and critical of ourselves.  When we have self-defeating feelings and behaviors, the strategy for changing them is to do something – anything – that is incompatible with, or short-circuits, our negative feelings and behavior.  For example, if we are down and depressed, we want to select behaviors that are active and energetic.  If we are agitated, we want to choose relaxing and calming behaviors.

In our next blog we continue to look at some strategies for understanding our adversities and dealing with them effectively.

Until next time...







Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/