I think that what I have been truly searching for as a person, as a writer, as a thinker, as a daughter, is freedom. That is my mission. A sense of liberty, the liberty that comes not only from self-awareness but also from letting go of many things. Many things that weigh us down.
— Jhumpa Lahiri

Self awareness is freedom because it asks us to become aware of and let go of the things we’ve held onto, very often these things are ideas and assumptions that we didn’t even realise we had. The effort to break free of these things often hits at the core of our identity thus challenging the very idea of who we are and of the world we live in.

Self awareness was the overarching theme in both IFG groups this week. Framed in the context of noticing our habits, whether as our natural default setting or as aversion, one of the self centering habits we use to avoid things that challenge us or that we’re not comfortable with.

In the SOC IFG we used David Foster Wallace’s speech “This is Water” as the touchstone for a discussion of our natural default setting and how as POC, when we fall into that habitual stance we unwittingly find ourselves fighting the dominant narrative discourse (white supremacy, male dominance and heteronormativity) instead of using that as an opportunity to create space for exploring/discovering who we really are and not fighting against those false narratives which is combative rather than generative. In the All Student IFG we took a closer look at aversion, what it is and how it relates to self care. We discussed how developing awareness of our aversion tendency and taking care of ourselves in those challenging moments allows us to find true freedom and groundedness in reality.

Self care starts here: Check out this lovely exercise from Tony Robbins for resolving internal conflict.

Have a good week and as always stay tuned, stay interested and stay awake.