Shannon S. McKee has 30 years of experience coaching and mentoring women in all seasons of life. She is a certified Enneagram Life Coach, helping people get unstuck, understand their own identity and gifting, and experience transformation and growth as they gain greater clarity. Using the tool of the Enneagram, she comes alongside individuals, couples, and teams so that they can understand their own story and see a path for continued growth and flourishing. Find her at www.theartofyou.us.
RHG Magazine TM - March 2022 © All rights reserved.
flourish in 2022 will ultimately say a lot about who you are and what you want from life. Self-awareness is a critical first step in your dreaming and goal setting in the coming year. You really need to know yourself before you can choose the goals you want to pursue.
The journey to self-awareness can take several different avenues. It usually begins with becoming more mindful in our everyday. And as you do, it is crucial that you learn to listen attentively to what’s happening beneath the surface with curiosity and kindness, not judgement and shame.
How can you begin to be more mindful? Simply asking yourself can be an effective tool. Another tool I have found to be incredible helpful is diagnostic assessments. My favorite is the Enneagram, it is a personality theory that yields self-awareness by providing a window in yourself. It does so by looking past behaviors to the motivations and fears beneath those behaviors. Just taking the assessment is a helpful practice but utilizing the information it gives is what unlocks the true beauty of who you are. (If you’d like some coaching in how to use this powerful too, you can find me at www.theartofyou.us.)
Other helpful practices are engaging in silent meditation, deep breathing, or other meditative activities. Things like walking, sewing, painting, listening to music, and journaling are all powerful techniques for calming the mind so that you can hear your emotions speak.
Whatever avenues you choose, the crucial part is that you learn to listen attentively to what’s happening beneath the surface without letting your mind suppress or distort what emerges. Start with greater self-awareness. Then use that information to help you set goals that will move you out of languishing into the space of flourishing – no matter what is happening in the world around you! And then you will make the most of time given you!