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Self-Awareness Onion

Junkyard Dawg

Ex-Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 31, 2017
Messages
59
I've been doing some reading and found some interesting opinions, regarding so called self-awareness.

The underlying model in this opinion is that there are three predominant layers to self-awareness.

The first layer is simple understanding of one's emotions; "I feel happy when things are like this", "this makes me sad", etc. This is the most basic level of self-awareness, according to the model.

The second layer of the onion is an ability to ask why we feel certain emotions. Sometimes these question we ask ourselves can take months, or even years to answer accurately. Why do I feel angry - is it because I failed some goal I set for myself? Why am I feeling lethargic and uninspired - is it because I am feeling hopeless at some aspect of life? If there is a root cause for these feelings, it should be our aim to get to the bottom of it and answer correspondingly.

The third layer is an even deeper level of understanding of these emotions and values. Why am I considering this to be a success or failure? How am I choosing to judge myself, and by what standard do I judge those around me? What value is it ingrained in me which is causing me to think and act like this?

It would appear that values underlie everything we are and do. Nearly everything we think and feel about a situation comes back to how valuable we perceive it to be. Quite often, especially in the world of drug-taking, decisions are made based on valuing and chasing highs, not generating true happiness.

So, then, only through an honest self-analysis throughout our life, with the ebbs and flows as they come, can we truly understand ourselves. Peeling back the layers one by one, working out who we are and where we fit. What is best, and what is right - for ourselves and those who we love.

Quite often, the pains we experience are a far better measure for who we are, as opposed to our successes - since the values we use to evaluate these successes are largely formed through our interaction with environment. And it is the pains we experience day to day which allow us to learn and grow.

I would postulate that wisdom is a far better value than monetary wealth. Otherwise we end up with a society who thinks they are all the shit, even with nothing to show for it.
 
Great post, I think the 3 layer onion concept is quite illustrative and accurate. In the past few years of my life I've been very intentionally working on residing in the second layer at a minimum all the time by developing a mental process to step back and observe my own thoughts before acting... over time it's become second-nature. By thinking about how I should act, and even about how I should feel from then on about something, it helps me to act in ways that are more harmonic with people and their needs, and with my own internal self. I truly do feel I have achieved a higher level of awareness, both self- and otherwise. I have gotten to know myself far better during this process. It's a process that will continue to evolve throughout my life.

Agreed that wisdom is more important than monetary wealth. You can only gain wisdom through time and experiences. But you can intentionally work to help it develop as well.

Thanks for the post. :)
 
I read somewhere it's actually counter-intuitive to ask why, how does one develop enough to peel back the onion a little more?
 
needs more onion layers.

Good points though. Just saying....there's usually another level deeper. And what is the layer that is pulling back the layers?
 
just here to say I enjoy the OP and the post above me made me smile
 
Great post, I think the 3 layer onion concept is quite illustrative and accurate. In the past few years of my life I've been very intentionally working on residing in the second layer at a minimum all the time by developing a mental process to step back and observe my own thoughts before acting... over time it's become second-nature. By thinking about how I should act, and even about how I should feel from then on about something, it helps me to act in ways that are more harmonic with people and their needs, and with my own internal self. I truly do feel I have achieved a higher level of awareness, both self- and otherwise. I have gotten to know myself far better during this process. It's a process that will continue to evolve throughout my life.

Agreed that wisdom is more important than monetary wealth. You can only gain wisdom through time and experiences. But you can intentionally work to help it develop as well.

Thanks for the post. :)
You are most welcome, my friend.

Life is about progressively finding your way

We all get lost sometimes

If we look at our values and what they are causing within us, we can isolate the negative values and overrun them with values which will give us a prosperous life....whatever that may be for each person, as we are all different.

Introspective analysis is so important to living a wholesome life. When we are at peace within ourselves; our emotions, our actions, the situations we find ourselves in, then we are on the path of a peaceful and mindful existence.
I read somewhere it's actually counter-intuitive to ask why, how does one develop enough to peel back the onion a little more?
I don't know where you read that, but it sounds like garbage. You develop by looking within yourself for the goodness, and by ridding yourself of the bad values which cause you to continually end up finding yourself up shit creek.

Keep searching. Externally and within. You will find your path.
needs more onion layers.

Good points though. Just saying....there's usually another level deeper. And what is the layer that is pulling back the layers?
What is the deeper layer?
just here to say I enjoy the OP and the post above me made me smile
ty ty I too enjoy your posts, from what ive read so far
If you're finding it just doesn't quite taste right, you might not have stimulated the onion's flavor meridians quite enough. Instead, you can start by putting the onion inside the onion as a self-awareness ceremo–
Do you like pickled onions?
 
I like this concept. I have always been a very emotional person and this, when I was a child, was very overwhelming. Looking back I realize that I was comfortable enough with my stormy self but I was instantly aware that all emotions needed to be tamped own or repressed around other people (adults in particular) because they were definitely uncomfortable around strong emotions.

I never subscribed to the "good emotions/bad emotions" paradigm. Much of our (collective) most amazing art and intellectual thought is generated or at least invigorated by depression, anger and fear and yet we are taught to run from those emotions or to find pills to make them go away. In my own artistic life I am well aware that when I am melancholy or even deeply sad, art is often a way through it. Because they go hand in hand like this, I can welcome the state of being sad as I would welcome the state of happiness or contentment.

As far as how many layers there are to peel back in this human onion....the 3 outlined in the article seem useful. The relationship to judgement is usually a tangled mess for most of us. We learn it early in so many unconscious ways that we are often not even aware of how much we manifest it daily in our lives.
 
Thanks you for your input there Herbivore. I think we are all emotional beings, though the males are often mistakenly of the opinion that emotions are better not felt at all, at least from my interactions. This pushing down of our emotions into delusional non-existent territory are what can cause dissonance when there comes a time for the bottle to pop. This will sometimes lead to some situation which they would not want to find themselves in.

I agree that feeling sad is just fine. In fact, I have always been one to just let it flow. However, when I am communicating with people who are not of this mindset, I try to frame this idea in a way that may be more understandable to them, particularly males. It's like in society, to be a man, you cannot show your emotions when you are feeling sad. There is a culture of burying deep those emotions, whether it be sad or anxious, and to exhibit that you are feeling nothing at all by grinning and bearing it.

It is indeed a tangled mess, as far as recovery from addictions go, but the majority of females I have encountered do not have a problem communicating their emotions to me and that has allowed me to do the same.

I think the psychology of the 60s and 70s has a lot to answer for, as well as progressive advancements since then, by telling us early that we all have unlimited potential - we are all special. Well, we are not. We are really just average. While we might be good at one thing, we would usually suck at another thing. We have potential to choose what endeavours to adventure upon, but by no means do we all have superior abilities to anyone else.
 
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