How to Teach Your Girl to Nurture Self-Awareness

Isla Ann Wright - 27 Apr 18

Self-awareness in children is an extremely important quality at every age. It allows them to understand any potential issues they might have, learn from their own mistakes much more easily, and maintain their confidence even when facing more difficult challenges. It also enables them to control their emotions and behavior, as well as to think more positively in general. And in this day and age, children need self-awareness more than ever before, which is why you should do your best to teach your child how to nurture it. With that in mind, here are a couple of suggestions that should help you teach your girl how to develop and improve her sense of self-awareness.

Self-reflect

Asking your girl questions about her thoughts and feelings is a great way to increase her self-awareness. She would learn how to describe what’s on her mind and, with the right questions, understand the reasons for her thoughts and actions.

This way, you could also teach her to analyze her mistakes and think about what she could have done differently in order to achieve a better result. For example, if she made her best friend cry by not wanting to share her favorite toy, you should ask her why she didn’t want to do it and how she would have felt if her best friend didn’t want to share toys with her. By talking about it, your girl is more likely to realize how her actions can impact other kids and, thus, react better the next time.

Separate the feelings from actions

When it comes to teaching your girl about self-awareness, it’s important to teach her that how she feels is always alright – but how she behaves can be both good and bad. Your girl needs to know that even when she’s angry, for example, there are right and wrong ways of expressing anger. 

For instance, throwing a book at the wall because the homework is too hard is not an acceptable reaction; talking about the problem, taking a small break, and asking for help is. Once your girl learns and understands that, she will be more likely to control her behavior even when she’s overwhelmed by emotions. She will also be less harsh on herself, because she will know that all feelings are natural and okay – it is how she expresses them that really matters.

Teach her about values

If your daughter is a bit more grown-up, a good way to nurture her self-awareness is encouraging her to think about her priorities. You can ask her to make a list of the things that she values the most, and you can discuss those things in detail. For example, if she wants to study at a good university, you should, for example, talk to her about what it takes to get into Cambridge or some other Uni from Ivy League List  that is known for hardworking students.. Or, if she cares about her friendships, you should talk about different ways of nurturing relationships and being a good friend.

As she becomes aware of her priorities and goals in life, she will be more likely to think about the ways of achieving those goals and nurturing those priorities. This means that she will also become more aware of herself and more confident in her abilities.

Let her have a say

Practice makes perfect, so if you want your daughter to be self-aware, you need to encourage her to show her self-awareness. In other words, let her make her own decisions about things that are appropriate for her age. For example, if you’re doing a home makeover, let her decide on the color of her own room. Or, if you’re planning on spending some quality time together during the weekend, let her choose how you’re going to spend it. In case she’s having a hard time deciding on her own, give her a couple of options and let her choose one. The thing is, by making decisions, your daughter will learn what she likes and what she doesn’t like; she will become more aware of her own needs and wishes – and she won’t be afraid of expressing them.

Moreover, if she happens to make a bad decision – like choose to wear her sandals on a field trip after a rainy day –  and doesn’t want to change it even after you discuss other possibilities with her, let her bear the consequences. Emphasize with her about soggy socks later on, and remind her of her decision. Then give her a choice of changing into her rain boots (of course, you should still bring them with you). This way, she will learn to deal with her choices, but she will also learn that she has your support.

Increasing the sense of self-awareness in your girl can help her become more comfortable about her feelings, more in control of her actions, and less afraid of making decisions. It will also teach her about what matters to her in life, whether it is education, family, hobbies, or something else. All of these things are guaranteed to make your daughter grow up into a healthy and mature person who knows what she wants in life – and how to get it.

Isla Ann Wright

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