SELF AWARENESS
Understanding a problem is the best way to solve it
Understanding ourselves is the best way to unlock our potential. Whether we are aiming to alleviate stress, generate self-esteem or improve our relationships with others, it is as important as it is to look inwards as it is to look outwards.
When we can understand the core of the issue, we can combat it effectively.
Meditation is a tool for self-knowledge in two ways:
Change through insight
Firstly, as studies show [1], meditating allows us to see our mental starting point. This is important because throughout life we can act out habits and traits which we are unaware of or mistakenly see as unchangeable. Meditation helps to realise actual change by allowing the meditator to ‘look’ internally and recognise the negative thought patterns and processes. Without tackling our negative behavioral tendencies, it’s hard to install positive ones. Meditation has been shown to facilitate a state of mind that is conducive to the kind of introspection that helps us identify who we are and who we’d like to be – a key step on the path to self-actualization.
The method that meditation teaches works by showing the impermanence of our thoughts. Whether that thought is angry, self-deprecating, or if it inspires damaging , meditation shows us that it will pass, and we don’t have to act on it. When we acknowledge and see the impermanence of thoughts, they start to lose their power.
Meditations multiple applications to self improvement
Secondly, meditation has been proven [2] to increase the mind’s problem-solving ability. Once we increase our self-knowledge, meditation will help provide us with a clear mindset and cognitive skillset to handle these new insights in an effective and productive way.
If we were to truly analyze meditation we’d see that it’s not an end, it’s a multi-tool. It has the multiple applications necessary to help create the person we would like to be. As self-knowledge is the cornerstone of self-improvement, and as the important element of gaining knowledge of any kind is knowing where and how to look;
Meditation is the perfect compass to navigate the mind with.
