I was on Facebook a few days ago and I came across an article that was a pretty interesting read. The author, Simon Murray, talks about the three levels of self-awareness. This article is very relevant to some of the subjects I cover in my work at the Center for Mindfulness, which is a meditation practice based on the notion of mindfulness.
The first level of self-awareness, as Murray describes it, is the level of awareness that comes when we’re aware of ourselves as a person. While we may not know our exact thoughts and feelings, it’s easy to say, “I’m a person and I feel that way.” We can then proceed to label and categorize ourselves as either a person or not.
In the second level of self-awareness, we can begin to recognize our thoughts and feelings as such. We begin to recognize that we are a person, and that our thoughts and feelings are thoughts and feelings. This doesn’t mean we identify our thoughts and feelings as our thoughts and feelings, but that we can say “I am a person” and we can label them as thoughts and feelings.
I think the most helpful self-awareness work is to develop a sense of self-worth. In many ways, we identify with ourselves by how we feel about ourselves. So if we are to feel better about ourselves, we must be content with our identity. So, if we are going to feel better about ourselves, we must recognize that we are a person.
This is one of the most important self-awareness exercises I recommend. We can tell ourselves that we are a person by how we feel, but that doesn’t mean we identify with our feelings. As it turns out, our feelings are just feelings. So we can have all the feelings we want but we can’t have who we are.
We can recognize ourselves as a person by how we feel, but without recognizing our feelings, we are nothing. We can realize that we are a person by seeing that we are a person. This is one of the most important self-awareness exercises I recommend. We can tell ourselves that we are a person by how we feel, but without recognizing our feelings, we are nothing. We can realize that we are a person by seeing that we are a person.
The first step to recognizing ourselves as a person is to “be who we are,” or “recognize our feelings,” which is usually done in another way, we are a person. The second step to recognizing ourselves as a person is to “be what we are.” This means “we are our feelings,” not “we are a person.
So you can see why we tend to do a little bit of the mental gymnastics that we do. But if we don’t, we can’t truly be a person.
Simon Murray is a character who plays a role in the game. He is an autistic savant who has trouble connecting with others. His goal is to become a computer programmer, which he does by making an app that is, in essence, a chatroom. He is constantly telling us that he’s just one more person. In this way he is like an embodiment of the human condition.
Is this person just making up all of the things we say? Or is there something at work here? We’re not sure, but the more we play Deathloop, the more we’re starting to understand why he does what he does. There are several things we’re wondering, though, such as what is it about us that makes us so difficult to be around.