At almost every possible moment, life stretches us to our breaking points. We wake up joyful, productive, driven, and hopeful in the mornings, but later on, we find ourselves unsure of those sensations. As we all know, change is unavoidable, and our feelings and emotions are no exception. Our sentiments, ideas, and emotions, on the other hand, dictate our actions, and allowing life to control our feelings with reckless abandon would damage us and the people around us.
“We are dangerous when we are unaware of our own responsibility for our actions, thoughts, and feelings.” - Marshall B. Rosenberg
We must become more aware of our own personalities and emotions, and learn to channel them into more productive, well-thought-out actions.
Last Monday, during class, I was reminded of the importance of self-awareness. We had to work in pairs for the 'handcuff experiential,' with each pair wearing ropes tied to look like handcuffs. The handcuffs are then looped around each other to form a 'link' between them. The objective was to escape the other person without removing or breaking the handcuffs.
At first, the exercise appeared to be simple, but after a couple of failed attempts to separate myself from the other person, I realized it was much more serious. At the start of the exercise, we were all eager to solve the puzzle, but after a few trials, we became frustrated. After trying everything we could think of and seeing no significant progress, we became frustrated, angry, and helpless.
Many people gave up trying to free themselves because of this set of emotions. Others, including myself, persisted in our efforts. For me, the anger and frustration heightened my curiosity, so I took out my phone and began searching for a solution to the puzzle. I and a group of other people practiced the solutions we found on the internet, and I was able to free myself in a matter of minutes. I was astounded at how simple it was to solve problems while following a plan and being patient.
I showed the others how I got myself free, and they were equally astonished to learn that there was a solution to the 'helpless' situation.
To summarize, being aware of our feelings, thought patterns, and emotions will allow us to control our actions. When we pause between a feeling and an action to think things through, make a plan, and wait patiently, we can come up with fantastic ideas, solve problems, and make even better decisions.
Self-regulation and awareness is so important that it's easy to see how a lack of them can lead to a slew of issues in our daily lives.
- Dee.