Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Self-Care

The emotional support that facilitators give to others, they also need themselves. Not just facilitators, anyone. The responsibility of our soul is self-preservation, and of our mind, recognising the fact that our physical, mental and emotional health is our main asset. Before you can support others, you need to take care of yourself in order to be balanced.

That’s why ‘self-awareness’ is such an essential concept for any transformation, personal or organisational. It’s the aeroplane situation where we have to put on our own oxygen mask first - sleeping, meditating, walking, eating etc., to guarantee that we have enough energy to help others.

If asked what my critical personal insight into human development is, my reply would be quite simple: ‘The last person to find out who you are is YOU.’ Most of us think we know who we are because of the image of our self. We seldom recognise that we are a bottleneck in our own lives. Self-awareness means to be aware of our needs, self-management is about managing our energy more than our time, self-care is about our capability to recharge and restore. Sleep, for example, is as vital as water, diet and exercise. During sleep, our energy restores, growth hormones are released, and information that we later use to make decisions is processed. But rest is not only about sleep, it’s also about taking the time for things that help us to recharge our batteries. The purpose of meditation, for instance, is a decrease of the rigidity of the self to make us kinder and calmer with ourselves and others.