Without self-awareness, here is what Jenn’s example might have looked like: Jenn empathized with her classmate and decided to find someone who was playing by themselves. She thought about the situation from her classmate’s perspective and realized he was already playing with someone else. Rather than getting angry at the classmate she decided to use her coping strategies and take a few deep breaths. She realized she was angry because of how her body was feeling. One of Jenn’s classmates didn’t want to help her with a puzzle and she began to frown and feel warm. The danger in not acknowledging them is we forget about the reasons why we felt that way making it more difficult to find coping strategies that work best for us and anyone else involved. The first step as an educator or parent is to establish the importance of acknowledging our emotions, even if it is after they have already occurred.
Many children, such as the preschoolers I taught, often express big emotions on an impulse and don’t have time to realize why they are upset or angry.
Activities about self discovery for kids how to#
Recognizing when and why I was anxious or frustrated helped me feel more confident that I could use healthy coping strategies when reconciling these big emotions.īuilding this skill will look differently for children as they are still developing and learning how to put words to the difficult emotions they may feel at times. I had spent some time identifying my strengths and weaknesses but it wasn’t until I spent some time navigating through my emotions and the situations that were behind them that I realized what it meant to be self-aware. I truly recognized self-awareness myself a year ago as I was finishing my first year of graduate school. When we lack self-awareness, we have a harder time understanding and improving our reactions, thereby undermining our self-management, social awareness, relationships skills, and responsible decision making. Identify our triggers, which helps us better plan how to react next time and make more responsible decisions regarding our behavior and our emotionsĮmpathize with others and take on another person’s perspective, which helps us resolve conflicts and build positive relationships. Indeed, how can we regulate our anxiety, anger or sadness if we are not able to recognize those emotions in ourselves in the first place? Recognize our emotions, which is the first step for regulating our emotions. The ability to accurately assess one’s strengths and limitations, with a well-grounded sense of confidence, optimism, and a ‘growth mindset.” As one of the core competencies of social emotional learning, the Collaboration for Academic, and Social Emotional Learning defines self-awareness as, “The ability to accurately recognize one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior. What does it mean to be self-aware? While self-awareness can be characterized as having a sense of one’s personality and character it is also important for understanding one’s emotions.
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