The Difference Between Insight and Awareness [Transcript]
We need both insight and awareness for our emotional and relational well-being. It is important to understand how awareness is different from insight. Let’s start with insight.
Insight
Insight is an understanding and explanation of our current behaviors, thoughts, feelings, and relationship patterns based on our past experiences. Insight is the answer to the ‘why’ questions, such as ‘Why do I feel this way?’ or ‘Why do I have this relationship?’, ‘Why do I engage in this behavior, when I know it’s bad for me?’, ‘Why did I form this pattern in the first place?’. These are all very useful and important questions. But knowing why we do things the way we do, and why we feel the things we feel doesn’t give us a choice in the present moment and that brings us to awareness.
Read more: 6 Ways to Master Mindful Communication
Awareness
Awareness is the process of noticing and experiencing our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in real time as they are happening and not after the fact. Awareness gives you a choice. Let’s say something happens and you are noticing that you start responding to the situation in a certain way; in that noticing, you can pause and reflect and ask is this reaction I’m engaging in right now serving me in any way or is it an automatic response, which is not serving me anymore?
This little moment of reflection gives you a choice. You could choose to continue with your reaction or you could choose to act in a different way. This reflection is a crucial difference between insight and awareness.
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8 comments
I actually didn’t really know the exact difference between insight and awareness and this video blog definitely helped! Great job
Great job Elena! It’s very important to know the difference between insight and awareness. knowing the difference can definitely change the way we behave and react to people and situations.
I really appreciate this video, Elena. You so clearly articulated the difference between insight and awareness. It is a great reminder how powerful awareness can be in making the shifts we want in our lives.
Great blog! Important for us to be functioning on both levels to be able to maximize our connection to ourselves and others.
Great blog! This is so helpful as so many people seem to confuse the two. Thanks for a clear understanding of these important emotional factors in healthy living.
Dear Elena,
What a concise and incisive blog for a novice, like me, at socio-behavioral sciences, like applied behavioral analytics. And I would like to ask if the dissonance of between insight and awareness is a distinguishing quality on OCD and OCPD patients? If yes, is cognitive therapy an appropriate treatment for them? Does any complement need?
This question is also asked for the practical approaches to effective listening about which we often get distracted after a sentence or two, instead of listening closely to what someone is saying, or starting to think about what we are going to say in reply or unrelated things. And I think awareness and insight are two of the essential skills involved, but one may outmatch the other.
I love this video. I use it all the time, but I wish the volume was just louder. It is hard to hear at times.