Mike Tyson might be the last person from whom you’d expect to get a lesson on the importance of self-awareness (okay, well maybe not the last – but close to it), but a lesson in self-awareness is definitely what the former heavyweight boxing champion who’s suffered some serious out-of-the-ring life blows over the past few decades offered during a recent interview with Oprah.

Actually, rather than an actual lesson in self-awareness, Tyson’s interview offers a glimpse at how important it is to be aware of oneself – and maybe even a tip on how a person can achieve that awareness.

The key development in Tyson’s life stems from what seems to be a newfound self-awareness following his participation in the movie “Tyson,” a documentary about his life filmed as he went through rehab two years ago. “If I’m not conscious of who I am, I’m just going to let myself run [wild], and I’m going to destroy my beautiful family, and I’m going to destroy myself, and I don’t want to go down that road any more,” he said. (Yahoo! TV Blog)

Tyson hit the nail on the head when he admitted he needed to be conscious of who he is – or else run the risk of destroying himself and everyone and thing in his life. We all need that. Self-awareness is important to one’s emotional awareness and self-confidence, and can come “from taking an inventory of your own strengths and abilities as a human being.”

Of course, not all of us have cameras following us around documenting our every move to help with that self-awareness, so, for those of us without spotlights and microphones, what should we do?

Below are a few articles and websites I’ve checked out that might be of interest. Note that I am in no way affiliated with any of them (besides Psych Central, of course); rather, I’ve simply found articles or information within each one that I think might help:

• Know Thyself: The Role of Awareness in Psychotherapy: Gary Seeman, Ph.D discusses the importance of awareness and how it applies to various kinds of psychotherapies.
• What is Emotional Intelligence (EQ)?: Steve Bressert, Ph.D. lists self-awareness and its major elements (emotional awareness and self-confidence) as one of the factors that make up your emotional intelligence.
• Building Self-Esteem: Lynn Ponton, MD points out that “meditating twice a day to increase your awareness of the current moment and of the goodness of being alive.”
• SelfCreation.com: This site points out that YOU are the expert when it comes to being aware of yourself, and offers a series of basic self-awareness questions, more specific self-awareness questions, and tips for answering those questions.
• Psychological Exercises for Insight & Self-Awareness Groups: If you choose to, you’ll only be able to complete a few of these as most of them are geared toward groups; however, even the ones you can’t complete on your own are interesting and offer more insight into self-awareness.

How’s your own self-awareness? Is it something you think you’d benefit from working on (we all would, I believe!), or do you already have experience working on self-awareness that’s worked for you?

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Mental Health Assoc. (October 13, 2009)

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    Last reviewed: 13 Oct 2009