On Self-Consciousness

This is a very simplified formula, and the entire process is ongoing throughout life, though it might get more refined with development.

The first step in adult consciousness is youthful folly and overconfidence.  We can, during this stage, be joyfully confident and blissfully unaware of the impact of our actions, especially of the impact on other people, and we have a shallow view of how we are perceived.  — “I don’t know what I don’t know.”

The next step is self-consciousness, where our words and actions are cast into doubt, as we question how we are perceived, and whether who we think we are corresponds with who we are to others.  This can be painful but is necessary to improve ourselves.  — “I know what I don’t know.”

Next it is possible to chastise ourselves for our self-consciousness, as it is generally regarded as a negative personality trait, and because sometimes the doubtful impulse becomes overactive and actually inhibits any action.  It is, however, not necessary to self-punish for having these doubtful thoughts.  If we can exercise discernment in which doubts to give credence to, then we can feel the difference of having real, rooted confidence to modify ourselves or else disbelieve the thoughts, rather than the foolishness of never having had the thoughts at all.  Self-consciousness will continue to help us, as we discern which thoughts are worth heeding, and our resolve will be much stronger for having had them.  — “I know what I know.”

We use the terms self-awareness and self-consciousness to mean very different things, self-awareness widely regarded as a favorable personality trait and self-consciousness deemed a defect, but it is no coincidence that the words are synonyms.  Self-awareness is merely the integrated form of self-consciousness, the other side of the coin, that arises from this caring about how we are perceived and how we impact others.

There is a popular word nowadays, “cope”, that I relate to the yogic concept of Asmita, which is a limited sense of self or false identification of self.  Sometimes a little bit of cope is necessary.  Sometimes cope is a cloak we wear to preserve us until we get to the next stage of our development, a survival function of the mind to keep us from rumination and inaction.  The heightened self-consciousness/self-awareness of the next stage will show us what cloaks we need to shed, but these are truths we would not previously have been able to face.  — “I don’t know what I know.”

— “I don’t know what I don’t know.”

The first step in adult consciousness is youthful folly and overconfidence.  We can, during this stage, be joyfully confident and blissfully unaware of the impact of our actions, especially of the impact on other people, and we have a shallow view of how we are perceived.  

— “I don’t know what I don’t know.”

The next step is self-consciousness, where our words and actions are cast into doubt, as we question how we are perceived, and whether who we think we are corresponds with who we are to others.  This can be painful but is necessary to improve ourselves.  

— “I know what I don’t know.”

Next it is possible to chastise ourselves for our self-consciousness, as it is generally regarded as a negative personality trait, and because sometimes the doubtful impulse becomes overactive and actually inhibits any action.  It is, however, not necessary to self-punish for having these doubtful thoughts.  If we can exercise discernment in which doubts to give credence to, then we can feel the difference of having real, rooted confidence to modify ourselves or else disbelieve the thoughts, rather than the foolishness of never having had the thoughts at all.  Self-consciousness will continue to help us, as we discern which thoughts are worth heeding, and our resolve will be much stronger for having had them.  

— “I know what I know.”

We use the terms self-awareness and self-consciousness to mean very different things, self-awareness widely regarded as a favorable personality trait and self-consciousness deemed a defect, but it is no coincidence that the words are synonyms.  Self-awareness is merely the integrated form of self-consciousness, the other side of the coin, that arises from this caring about how we are perceived and how we impact others.

There is a popular word nowadays, “cope”, that I relate to the yogic concept of Asmita, which is a limited sense of self or false identification of self.  Sometimes a little bit of cope is necessary.  Sometimes cope is a cloak we wear to preserve us until we get to the next stage of our development, a survival function of the mind to keep us from rumination and inaction.  The heightened self-consciousness/self-awareness of the next stage will show us what cloaks we need to shed, but these are truths we would not previously have been able to face.  

— “I don’t know what I know.”