text: Self-Awareness Analysis essay - EPLover
  SELF-AWARENESS ANALYSIS	1
  Self-AwarenessAnalysis
  Emotional intelligence entails the ability of a person to understandand manage his/her emotions as well as those of people around him/her(Batool, 2013). Individuals with a high level of emotionalintelligence understand their emotions and how these feelings affecttheir interactions with other people. According to Batool(2013), the key attributes of emotional intelligence areself-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and socialskills.
  First, self-awareness involves having an in-depth understanding ofone's emotions and how they can affect one's actions. Also, itinvolves a person understanding his/her strengths and weakness. Apart from self-awareness, the other key characteristic of emotionalintelligence is self-regulation. Self-regulation entails restrainingone's emotions. One can regulate him/herself by knowing his/hervalues. For example, one should be aware of the things that he/shecan compromise and the ones that he/she cannot. The other strategyfor self-regulation is holding oneself accountable. This entails aperson desisting from blaming others every time something goes wrong.As such, self-regulation comes about when a person starts admittinghis/her mistakes. One of the most effective strategies forself-regulation particularly when one is experiencing the feeling ofanger or fear is taking a deep breath. One can practice on how totake a deep breath to calm him/ herself whenever he/she isexperiencing negative emotions. The third key trait of emotionalintelligence is motivation and it involves the willingness to delaygratification for long- term success. Empathy is also a crucialelement of emotional intelligence. Empathy entails putting oneselfin other people's situation. To achieve this, one need to payattention to other people's body language. Ioannidouand Konstantikaki (2013) define empathy as the ability to understandand share another's "state of mind" or emotional. The twoscholars also say that empathy entails "recognizing other people'sfeelings, the causes of these feelings, and how to participate in theemotional experience of an individual without becoming part of it(Ioannidou &amp Konstantikaki, 2013, 119 ). Through face-to-facecommunication, a person can learn about other people'semotions and feelings regarding several issues such as promotion,transfer, and performance evaluation, among others. Besides, holdinga face-to-face communication helps a person to know how his/heremotions are affecting other people by examining their body cues. The last trait of emotional intelligence is social skills. Socialskills involve having good relationships with other people. Some ofthe signs that a person possesses social skills include being able tocommunicate well with others, resolving conflict, and appreciatingother people for their outstanding performance.
  "Self-awareness entails the capacity of becoming the object ofone's attention" (Morin, 2011, 807). This definition emphasizesthe need for a person to understand him/herself before he/she caneven think about knowing other people. This definition summarizes therequirements that must be met by a person seeking to succeed in acareer in the human service industry. In the human service sector,one can only serve others if he/she is at peace with him/herself. Besides, a person's actions are a reflection of his/her innerfeelings and thoughts. Morin (2011) differentiate betweenself-awareness and self-conscious. While self-awareness entails beingcognizant about oneself, self-conscious takes into consideration aperson's environment. Self-awareness entails a person activelyidentifying, processing, and storing information about him/herself.As opposed to self-conscious which may be accidental or passive,self-awareness is active as a person must make deliberate efforts toreflect upon his/her experiences. Some of the issues that one canreflect upon about him/herself include his/her thoughts, preferences,goals, emotions, preferences, perceptions, intentions, andpersonality traits.
  A person may come to the realization that he/she tends to be biasedtoward a certain group of individuals such as persons from theminority races, the disabled, or women. For example, a manager maylearn that every time, he/she is allocating duties to his/he juniors,he/she never assigns women leadership roles. Besides, an employeeworking in a supermarket may learn that he/she tend to concentratemore on people of color whenever he/she is preventing people frompilfering. Apart from a person becoming aware of his/her racial orgender prejudice, one may also learn about how he/she tend to be apoor listener/communicator at work. For instance, upon reflecting onhis/her experience, a person may realize that he/she never establisheye contact whenever he/she is communicating with his/her colleagues.
  There are several ways in which I can use self-awareness in my careeras a family counselor. For example, I know that I tend to be biasedagainst certain people particularly those who abuse alcohol and otherillicit drugs. Secondly, I know that when I am talking to a personface-to-face, I hardly get my eye away from the other person. Thismay have detrimental effects on my clients as it may make themperceive me as overly judgmental.
  Some of the strategies that I will use to improve on myself-awareness include keeping a journal, slowing down, ratingmyself, and being prompt, among others. At the end of every day, Iwill spend a few minutes to write down my thoughts and feelings aboutthe day`s activities. Secondly, every time i experience strongemotions such as anger, I will always slow down and examine thereason behind these feelings. I will also seek other people`sfeedback about the various facets of my personality. In addition toasking about other people`s opinions, I will always rate myself. Bybeing aware of my strengths and weaknesses, I will be more confidentabout the things I can and cannot do. I will also seek to develop ahabit of self-observation. Lastly, I will improve my self-awarenessskills by being prompt in responding to tension or loss of energy.
  Self-awareness is important for human service professionals since itpositively affects a person`s communication and self-esteem(Ünal, 2012).Through self-awareness, a person gets to knowthat he/she not only communicates verbally but also through his/herbody cues. It affects human service work by improving workersinteractions. When services providers understand themselves, theyare more likely to control their emotions and adjust their behaviorsin a way that every employee works in a stress-free environment. Italso ensures that a person's emotions do not affect his/her work. Aperson can only control things that he/she is aware of.Self-awareness does not involve a person getting rid of all thenegative feelings or thought. Instead, it seeks to empower a personto manage his/her emotions to prevent them from interfering withhis/her work (Batool, 2013).Self-awareness also affects the quality of service delivered. If uponconducting a self-assessment test, a person comes to the realizationthat he/she has some weaknesses on a certain aspect of his/ her work,such an individual can take the initiative of seeking help. Besides,self-awareness enables a person to recognize the gap in his/herskills and knowledge base and explore ways of improving on the sameto enable him/her become more efficient in his/her delivery of humanservices (Batool, 2013).
  In conclusion, emotionalintelligence involves a person being aware of his/her emotions andfeelings. It comprises of self-awareness, self-regulation, socialskills, re-examination, and empathy.
  Batool, B. F. (2013). Emotionalintelligence and effective leadership.&nbspJournalof Business Studies Quarterly,&nbsp4(3),84.
  Ioannidou, F., &amp Konstantikaki,V. (2013). Empathy and emotional intelligence: What is it reallyabout?.&nbspInternationalJournal of Caring Sciences,&nbsp1(3),118.
  Morin, A. (2011). Self‐awarenesspart 1: Definition, measures, effects, functions, andantecedents.&nbspSocialand personality psychology compass,&nbsp5(10),807-823.
  Ünal, S. (2012). Evaluating theeffect of self-awareness and communication techniques on nurses'assertiveness and self-esteem.&nbspContemporaryNurse,&nbsp43(1),90-98.