Self- Awareness.

To know and understand yourself, your emotions, needs and desires is probably the most important thing in life. It means you are more likely to live an authentic, fulfilling and happy existence alongside people and places that add meaning and energy to your world. Knowing yourself means you are more likely to assert your own values, maintain personal boundaries, understand your strengths and weaknesses and make decisions that are realistic and intelligent while remaining equanimous and empathetic to your peers. The intimate knowledge you have of yourself is called self - awareness and those who have a lot of it are more likely to achieve their goals, cultivate nurturing and meaningful relationships and feel connected and engaged with their lives and jobs. Being self-aware means you probably have good means to adapt socially, you are aware of your own impulses, desires, limitations and are able to adapt and accommodate to different social and cultural situations. This flexibility to adapt, manage and shifting emotional and social needs of others is a skill that many can envy.

Daniel Goleman on Focus: The Secret to High Performance and Fulfilment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTfYv3IEOqM (Daniel Goleman, psychologist and award-winning author of Emotional Intelligence and other books on EI, challenges traditional measures of intelligence as a predictor of life success) Self-awareness is part of an intelligence that is far more important than book smarts and forms part of the golden quadrant of emotional intelligence.  People with a high EQ have these four characteristics:

• They were good at understanding their own emotions (self-awareness)
• They were good at managing their emotions (self-management)
• They were empathetic to the emotional drives of other people (social awareness)
• They were good at handling other people’s emotions (social skills)

Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer coined the term ‘Emotional Intelligence’ in 1990 describing it as “a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action”. The concept of EQ reshaped our belief of what makes someone successful and has helped us to fill the divide between why some people who have a really high IQ still flounder in life. It answered the mysterious question as to why people that are really successful, wealthy or famous still feel miserable, unworthy and unsatisfied. Daniel Goleman, a science journalist and the author of Emotional Intelligence (1995)  argued that EQ was the deciding factor in success over IQ. People that have strong emotional intelligence make better leaders are often more successful and experience greater life satisfaction than those without it because they have a deeper understanding of human emotions and can think and resolve problems creatively and empathetically. The science of emotions - Jaak Panksepp @ TEDxRainier Developing your emotional quota begins with developing your self-awareness and one of the best ways to develop this is to practice meditation, cognitive behavioural therapies and mindfulness. These practices are all designed to help you self-examine, self-soothe and become self-reliant and resilient when it comes to life's obstacles. When you can learn to identify your emotions, feel and connect with them, understand their place and engage with them appropriately you are able to communicate and interact with the world more effectively. Guest Contributor: Emily Rack Business Name: Horatio's Jar Publisher: Digital Schools

Emily Rack is a yoga teacher, meditation instructor, freelance writer and visual content creator. She incorporates a unique creative flair into her yoga and meditation classes, courses and workshops. Emily hosts events and classes in schools and the wider community & is passionate about teaching the art of mindfulness.

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14.0px}
span.s1 {text-decoration: underline ; color: #dca10d}
——- PUBLISHER’S DISCLAIMER: The publisher of this blog post (Digital Schools PTY LTD) works in partnership with the school as a 3rd party provider to help build and maintain the school website. Digital Schools sources a range of experts who provide products and/or services to educational institutions and we work with them to produce and publish topical information in the form of blog posts that we think  may be relevant, interesting or topical to families within the community. The views, opinions and content listed in this blog post are that of the guest contributor and/or publisher (Digital Schools). It should be noted that whilst the publisher and guest contributors are acting with the best intentions and in the best interests of the school and their community to provide helpful or interesting information, sometimes the content may not necessarily reflect the views of the school. The information in this blog post is not meant to be used, nor should it be used, to diagnose or treat any medical condition. For diagnosis or treatment of any medical problem, consult your own physician.  The school and the publisher of this blog post  are not responsible for any person reading or following the information in this article who may experience adverse effects. Any references to external websites or sources are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute endorsement by the school or publisher in any way and the publisher and/or school cannot guarantee accuracy of information listed. If you have feedback on any content on this platform, you can submit it to the publisher using the feedback link provided at the bottom of this page.