Self-awareness is partly knowledge about the self: strengths and weaknesses, vulnerabilities, passions, idiosyncrasies and normalness. It can be derived in many ways from many sources. Your thoughts are a storyteller, we tell ourselves stories about who we are and that will give us our identity. Our self-concept is our self-identity. It is our image. The conception of who we are – it is our idea of our self. This concept of self relates to how we think, understand and know our self.

Our thoughts and deeds are affected by our daily actions and interactions. Our beliefs and opinions about our self can seem to become a heavy weight for us. They can almost seem to take on substance of their own and, in effect, weigh us down. This situation can develop during our upbringing. Ideas are planted, about us and our capabilities and can be planted deep within us. Here they can lay dormant and hidden. Alas they can become difficult to affect or change or remove.

Be selfish about...