It is important to regularly give yourself the time and space to reflect on: What makes you, YOU?
When your connection to self is severed, life becomes a series of “to dos”. Days can become a grind and autopilot the norm.
Life is a journey, filled with highs and lows and unexpected twists and turns. As you fulfill your life roles and responsibilities and navigate through transitions and challenging times, it’s easy to lose sight of who you are.
The good news is it doesn’t have to stay that way.
Open the door to you.
With a self-discovery mindset, you can discover or re-discover the essence of who you are—the unique blend of experiences, aspirations, and values that makes you, YOU!
In your quest to connect, your desire to understand what inspires, motivates and energizes you takes center stage. When you step away from your day-to-day responsibilities and focus on self-discovery, you open the door to you. It’s in these moments that you connect to your authenticity, fostering a richer sense of self.
It is paramount to know what anchors you—what makes you resilient, joyous, and uniquely who you are.
A strong sense of self not only acts as a stabilizing force during challenging times, it also becomes your compass directing you toward your fulfillment and joy.
Ready to look within to uncover the layers that make you, YOU?
The first step is to prioritize YOU by scheduling uninterrupted alone time. Keep in mind, alone time is relative. Everyone is different with respect to what and where they find comfort. It is possible to be alone in a public space. A coffee shop, library, or park bench can be just as effective as a quiet room in your living space.
Identify when and where you feel comfortable. A place where you can engage in deep thought can be found inside or outside your home. Your objective is to find a place where you are relaxed and free from distractions.
Be Hyper Aware of Your Body
If you have been living life on auto-pilot, it is necessary to reconnect to yourself by being hyper aware of your body. You can do that by setting the intention to be mindful of what your senses are taking in, moment by moment. Living in the present moment is rewarding but it takes work and effort to achieve.
Engaging regular self-checks as you go through out your day helps you strengthen your present moment and self-awareness sensibilities. Especially today, with technology biding for your attention, you have to make a conscious choice to step away from the distractions in order to strengthen your relationship with you.
Self-checks can offer insight into what makes you, you?
As you proceed throughout your day, scan your body. What are you seeing, hearing, tasting smelling, touching? Are you getting positive or negative vibes? Are you experiencing comfort or discomfort? Are you feeling tense, relaxed or something in between.
Self-checks offer valuable information and insight into who you are and what elevates or detracts from your core essence.
Journaling is a great tool to use in the self-discovery process.
Journaling helps to organize your thoughts, detect patterns and document your journey. If you find a blank page intimidating, stream of consciousness is an easy way to start a journaling practice. There are no rules. Incomplete thoughts and sentences and random thoughts are encouraged.
Stream of consciousness journaling is an opportunity to release your uncensored and unfiltered thoughts. It can provide insight into what is on your mind and warrants your attention. Also known as a brain dump, it helps you unload and declutter your mind to make room for constructive thoughts and ideas.
Examining Your Layers
Once you get use to filling a blank page, you can move on to reflecting on your past and current life experiences.
Who you are and how you navigate the world today is connected to your backstory. Your childhood and coming of age experiences are particularly important. These experiences contain life changing defining moments and life lessons. Acknowledging your defining moments is an important part of your discovery process and offer insight into what makes you, you.
Think back to your childhood.
What comes to mind immediately? Is there a time period or set of experiences that stands out? Make a list of those experiences. Journal about them and describe what life was like as you navigated through them. How did it change you? What did you learn about yourself?
Don’t be tempted to gravitate toward your triumphs; your struggles are equally, if not more, important. Think about how you made it through. What did you do to cope? How did it affect your self-esteem? Your struggles represent your ability to persevere through tough times and helps you understand who you are and what matters most.
Fast forward to the present.
How do your childhood and young adult experiences show up in your life today.? Can you connect your values, interests and passions today to your younger life stories and experiences? Is there a connection between what motivated you then and what motivates you today?
All your life experiences offer valuable insight into who you are. They helped shaped you into the person you are today.
The more you engage in your self-discovery journey and reconnect with your core essence, the closer you get to finding peace, living with purpose and identifying your joy. When know who you are, you are in the best position to fulfill your life roles and responsibilities in a way that serves you rather than depletes you.
Want to continue discovering What Makes You, You?
Here is a FREE Discovery Starter Guide, full of self-discovery prompts, to kickstart your exploration.
You matter. Your story matters.
Happy Discoveries!
Photo by Karolina Grabowska
