Self-Awareness and Therapy

This post, as well as the next few, are a continuation from my initial post. They follow a common theme related towards getting to know yourself as an individual.

As you will soon find out - sometimes my posts will be aimed more towards those I see for counselling while others will be very specific to speech, voice, and accent modification. This post serves both groups. In fact, it is something for all to instil into our daily lives. It can only make us better... and this is why.

Gaining a sense of self-awareness opens up a part of yourself that you may not know is there. It can be a good part of yourself, or a part of you that is hindering you from obtaining what you truly desire. To make this relevant to speech pathology - lets talk about those of you who come to see me for accent modification. Most of you are not happy about how you sound, for whatever the reason.

I can testify that many of you are not truly aware of how you sound, or how this really impacts your life. Others envision becoming this 'professional sounding executive, educator, or speaker' that they long for in order to be seen as successful. Depending on your career path, you may be right. But, are you willing to make the changes that you need to - or are you fighting an inherent part of yourself that feels "I am intelligent, successful, and extremely competent in my job' and 'I don't need to do this'. It is time to take a step back and do some self-reflection. The only way you are going to change your speech is by truly wanting that change.

Many of us are not aware of our own behaviours - even though we genuinely think we are. I recently read this quote by Gretchen Rubin " I get so distracted from the way I wish I were, or the way I assume I am, that I lose sight of what's actually there." In my own opinion, nothing could be farther from the truth. I know that I am a testimonial to that statement. 

It is something I need to work on.

So what is the best way of becoming self-aware? There are many strategies and this comes down to personal preference. The one I find most helpful is monitoring or becoming accountable towards your actions. Your world will open up if you start keeping a record of the habits you have come to form.

Scheduling is another related strategy. If you schedule a task that you strive to do more, because it will provide you a sense of self-awareness in terms of accountability - e.g. pronunciation homework, then you will be more aware of how often you practice this behaviour. Instead of 'believing' you practice this behaviour, seeing no change in behaviour, and left wondering why. Scheduling an exact time, instead of a more nebulous scheduled event, will also dictate more success in maintaining this new behaviour.

Most of what I have written about today it not new. However, sometimes it is good to revisit, reflect, and rethink.