Step 1 to Self-Awareness: Learn where you come from and why you think the way you do.
How do we measure our own Emotional Intelligence? If we are lacking in the self-awareness category, can we even begin? I believe we can and I believe that the Book of Mormon gives us a good guideline for becoming self-aware and helping us with our relationships with others.
The questions I’ll be bringing up in this series of posts will be coming from Alma chapter 5.
The first question he asks is this:
“…have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers?”
The first step is to apply the question to ourselves. For many of us, our fathers weren’t in captivity, so how can this possibly apply?
Let me suggest this…
We were raised by our parents/guardians. We think and act the way we do, largely because of how we were raised. Many people even try to justify making bad decisions on their upbringing and lack of opportunity. It stands to reason then, that our parents’/guardians’ actions stemmed from the same place – how they were raised. Our parents likely taught us what they knew, the best way they knew how.
Now let me ask the question again.
Have you, sufficiently, remembered or learned where your parents came from and why they taught you the things they did the way they did?
Do you know where your thought processes come from?
Until you do, you can’t change them (if that’s what you’re looking to do).
Step 1 to Self-Awareness: Learn where you come from and why you think the way you do.