Self-aware: เรียนรับ/รู้โดยตนเอง

บทความนี้น่าศึกษา ( เขียนโดย Leland R. Beaumont เรียบเรียงโดย ม. โชคชัย)

Humans have the remarkable, and unique ability to think about their own thoughts. This strange loop allows us to become aware of our self, to plan for the future, reflect and ruminate about the past, think about our selves as separate from others, imagine the thoughts of others, project our experiences into the minds of others, and judge our own actions. Self-awareness provides us the unique ability to control ourselves intentionally by imaging ourselves in the future and talk to ourselves about options for our future. It allows us to imagine the world from a variety of perspectives. Not only can we contemplate what we are perceiving now, but we can reflect on the past and imagine a variety of futures. We can also imagine what others are thinking now, or were thinking in the past, or will be thinking in the future. Self-awareness allows us to travel through time and read minds., but it may be less accurate than it may seem.

Humans were earthbound for millions of years. Their only experience of earth was the limited view each of us could gain from our village on the earth's surface. Mountain top vantage points gave a somewhat broader perspective, but even the most expansive view was of only a small portion of the earth. World-wide travel eventually allowed us to experience other regions on earth. When the Apollo 8 spacecraft broke free from the earth and gave us stunning images of the whole earth, we then understand that the earth is small and alone in the vast darkness of space. Likewise, we can achieve similar perspective when we can detach our consciousness from originating among our thoughts and move our awareness above, or outside of our own thoughts. Self-awareness, and self-consciousness open us to the emotions of pride, envy, jealousy, guilt, shame, hope and self-appraisal.

We constantly live in two worlds, one outside our heads and visible to others and one inside our heads known only to us. Because we have only a limited capacity for attention, our self-talk distracts us from the outside world and the outside world distracts us from our self-talk. Self-awareness is often excessive, worrying about events you cannot change produces unhelpful anxiety, sometimes it may be helpful to quiet the self-talk. Meditation, either undertaken as either a spiritual or secular activity can be effective in quieting the self and breaking the cycle of rumination, allowing you to relax, and return your attention to the world present outside your head. Our self-awareness disappears when we we are sufficiently absorbed in an activity and we experience the state of flow. Many of our emotions are generated or sustained by how we talk to our selves. We imagine ourselves as similar to people in some groups and different from others. We invariably demonstrate favoritism toward people in the in-group. This affiliation with the in-group and dissociation from the out-group can be triggered even when only trivial characteristics or differences define the groups. Our self-awareness provides us the powerful ability to control our self intentionally. This requires us to be aware and monitor what we are doing, establish and pursue goals for the future, control our impulses and delay gratification to pursue our long-term goals, and act on the strength of our own decision. Our self is an essential but often pesky companion. Learn to tame it. When you hear your self-talking, recognize it is only one voice among the crowd. Be skeptical of what your self is telling you. Remember what Confucius said " Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." or as Leonardo Da Vinci said, " One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself." คนที่รู้จักตนเองนั้นคือยอดคนจริงๆ

คำศัพท์ที่น่าสนใจ
control our impulses  ควบคลุมความรู้สึกของเรา
dissociation from  การแยกตัวออกจาก
cycle of rumination  วงจรของความหวลหาสิ่งที่เคยเป็น/เคยรับมา
to distract  ดึงเราออกจาก
to detach  ปลดปล่อยตัวเอง
be absorbed in  หมกมุ่นอยู่กับ/วุ่นอยู่กับ
stunning images ภาพที่น่าตื่นตาตื่นใจ
establish and pursue  ตั้งเป้าและติดตาม/ กำหนดเป้าและดำเนินการติดตาม
characteristics   คุณลักษณะต่างๆของคน
to project  นำเสนอ/นำเข้าไปสู่/นำไปสู่
be earthbound  อาศัยอยู่บนผืนดิน
pesky   ชอบก่อความรำคาญ/วุ่นวาย