To be self-aware is to feel like you're equal parts cursed and blessed.
On one hand, you're insightful and committed to personal growth. On the other, you have a mind that just won’t quit. It'll keep going and going and going until you burn out or die. While you're grappling with human existence and wondering why people do the things they do, others are living a life of blissful ignorance.
Being inside your own head has its good and bad sides. Here are just a few of the unique struggles that self-aware people experience:
1. You're aware of your surroundings to an almost exhausting degree.
Being at a party is like being exposed to an onslaught of stimuli that your brain wants to process right this minute—because, when you’re self-aware, you’re not just acutely aware of yourself, you're also acutely aware of everyone else.
That person feels left out. This person is sad. That person is angry at this other person. Can you ever just attend a get-together without leaving it feeling completely depleted? Probably not.
2. You can process a situation so quickly that you’ll forget why you were upset in the first place.
You’re so good at following someone else’s thought process that by the time you’re ready to confront them for being hurtful towards you, the moment has already passed.
You’ve worked through it to the point of feeling compassion for the person who hurt you. Oh, they’re just going through a hard time; no need to get upset with them! This makes you a great friend, but it also allows people to slide by, unaware of their own hurtful behavior.
3. You're so logical sometimes that you don’t allow yourself to feel any emotions.
You may get a pang of sadness, anger, guilt, or frustration, but your mind processes emotions so quickly that you often forget to feel them in the first place. For the crappy emotions, that’s great—but you move through the good ones quickly, too.
Basically, you’re a robot.
4. You can talk yourself into or out of anything you want.
You can go inside your brain, rummage around, rearrange some stuff, and come out with a whole new perspective. Pretty powerful.
And because your worldview affects how you interpret life, you don’t always accept reality; you just change reality to fit what you want. It’s a useful skill—albeit one that makes you seem a little flighty.
5. You find it nearly impossible to turn your brain off.
6. You're acutely aware of how others feel.
7. You're sensitive and compassionate.
You have a low threshold for people who don’t own their shit. You know being self-aware can sometimes feel like you're riding the struggle bus, but that it’s also incredibly freeing to face yourself honestly, and not let unexamined pain or past issues ruin your life.
Your “tough love” is often just love. You want others to free themselves from being at the whim of their wild emotions.
8. You refuse to blame others for your problems.
