Our School Counsellor, Kerry Hulbert, has been looking at themes of self-awareness every day this week and has provided some wonderful displays for each of our boarding houses (Wootten's Wellness'o'clock is featured above). Here are a few words from Kerry:

“What does the word ‘awareness’ mean? ‘Awareness’ is the gathering and processing of information from the surrounding environment. It’s about what we notice as we go about our daily business, and this comes from our perception of the world and how we experience life.

If ‘awareness’ is about noticing stuff in the world then ‘self-awareness’ is about focusing awareness on ourselves. It’s about becoming aware of all the different aspects of ourselves as if we were being seen by another person and it’s about paying attention to our gut feeling.

It’s about being honest with ourselves and noticing the reality of our behaviour rather than the stories we tell ourselves. So, how can we build and practice self-awareness for mental wellbeing that can positively affect those we interact with?

We can be gently curious about the thoughts and feelings we have. We can ask ourselves, “Where does that thought or that feeling come from?” so that we can notice those that appear more often than others.

We can pay attention to what bothers us about other people because so often what irritates us the most in others is often a reflection of something we don’t like about ourselves. 

By noticing patterns and trends we can better define our purpose, our values, our motivations, and anything holding us back from what we want to do and be."

KNOW YOURSELF, GROW YOURSELF. 

BE YOU. BECOME MORE.