What Did You Do With Your Summer?

In this continuing pandemic climate, across the world more and more people are finally realizing how others have been working and living. Summer and the easing of some quarantine requirements, meant to keep us all healthy, have caused some people to reflect on what they have done in past summers—such as getting out and doing fun things!

The appeal of summer, particularly in Western societies, has been marketed as a time to be with family, friends, and romantic partners, and doing all the things the colder (in some places) winter months will not allow. However, considering what 2020 represented—the massive loss of lives, long-buried truths resurfacing, and a close look at the traumatic harms embedded social structures have caused—summers can be re-envisioned into a time of building deeper, healthier relations with others, and doing the healing of self-development.

Self-development helps reduce avoidant activities like being in denial about what is going on in the world. Soon there will be no place to go, and no space to hide from the challenges facing our world. So, self-development can become your personal human toolkit for living a meaningful life, and not just surviving in a bubble of denial, mental stressors, and harmful behaviors.

Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is as important as breathing, sleeping, hydrating, nourishing, and exercising the body. It is defined as an awareness of one’s own personality or individuality (Merriam-Webster, 2021); the ability to inwardly assess your thoughts, actions, comprehension, emotion, and whether each aligns with your beliefs and values. It also involves objectively evaluating yourself in context and how you are perceived, along with intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, taking a realistic view of your own developmental needs and commitment to shape a life based on this awareness (Perkins, 2017), a meta-awareness of self (Vago & Silbersweig, 2012).

The definitions of self-awareness are evolving, partly because self-awareness requires self-examination, an inward activity, while so much in our society encourages us to focus on outward appearances, external acquisition, and socio-economic status. We have been socialized to care about our outward appearance—believing it increases desirability and worth. Self-awareness also causes us to challenge long-held and often harmful belief systems. It gives us agency over ourselves and our lives, which can be in direct opposition to the ways things are and have been for those who require control over others. Self-awareness is vital, enabling you to know yourself so thoroughly that you can make the most informed decisions (Dishon, Oldmeadow, Critchley, & Kaufman, 2017). A first step in becoming self-aware is developing comfort with the discomfort of examining and exploring your thoughts, words, emotions, and actions.

Phenomenal gymnast Simone Biles is currently being celebrated, and criticized, for having the self-awareness to know and understand her body and her psychological wellness enough to choose what is best for her overall physical and mental health. This practice is lacking in colonized, global societies. Anyone can choose money, success, fame, and self-promotion over mental and physical health. In Simone Biles’ very public choice to be self-aware and choose self-care, we see the importance of self-awareness and self-reflection.

Self-Reflection

Self-reflection is defined as self-observation and report of one’s self-awareness as a conscious mental process that relies on thinking, reasoning, and examining one’s self-awareness (Gläser-Zikuda, 2012); that encompasses agency and access to a deeper comprehension of self-awareness (Perkins, 2017) and metacognition (Goupil & Kouider, 2019).

Consider self-reflection the daily—even multiple times a day—reflective pause to evaluate how you exist and interact in the world. Most of us have had to model the behavior of those who birthed us or were our caregivers, along with the larger social context. We have, out of necessity, complicity, or nurturing, built ourselves from the actions and beliefs of people around us and their beliefs and actions. We have also absorbed media in all its forms, from television and film to social media, including the deep influence of multimedia marketing. Bombarded with counterintuitive aspects of human culture, often dominated by U.S. American pop culture, a subtle, influential, and at times pernicious message. Now is the time for self-reflection; particularly as the pandemic has increased levels of exhaustion and frustration, mental health is an important space to occupy and explore.

A practice of self-development that includes practicing self-awareness and self-reflection can improve how you live. There are many ways to develop in these two areas, as witnessed by an increasing number of books, articles, and therapy services from qualified psychologists and mental health professionals who study, research, and practice self-awareness and self-reflection themselves.

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We live in a world that demands immediate results due to a constant sense of urgency and distraction. In the process of removing mental health stigmas and improving mental wellness, look for the positive signs of overall wellbeing for yourself and others, honestly and authentically. Consider seeking the support of qualified, committed professionals, and social support organizations. In the field of psychology, we are continuing to decolonize equitably, diversely, inclusively, and accessibly, including long-overlooked research, scholarship, and practice from BIPOC psychologists, social scientists, and social advocates with lived experiences who are invested in and dedicated to your physical and mental wellbeing.

What will you do with the rest of your summer? What plans will you make for Summer 2022?