[curiosity] self-knowledge, self-awareness

[wispfox]

Random bits of questions, more or less related to other conversations I'm having elsewhere. I'll reply to the things I ask in a comment.


-Do things in your head sometimes surprise you?

-If things in your head ever surprise you, how do you handle it?


-Do you feel like you know yourself very well?

-If you don't feel like you know yourself very well, do you want to? Do you feel like it affects your life in any way (positive or negative)?


-Do you feel like it's important to check in with the stuff in your head regularly, or are you confident that you will know about changes in your head when they happen?

-Do you feel the need to share changes in your head with other people? If so, who (names not needed; their relationships to you would probably be useful), and why? If not, and if you can explain it, why not?

[edit: I'm asking this because I'm curious as to how other people's brains might work in this regard]

Comments

[beowabbit]

Do things in your head sometimes surprise you?

Very very rarely. Sometimes I’ll react to something better or worse than I expect to. Recently I reacted to something a lot better than I expected to. But in general, no. When something does surprise me it’s usually not a Brand New Thing, but just that a particular complex situation balances differently in my head than I expect it to.

If things in your head ever surprise you, how do you handle it?

I think, “Cool!” (And yeah, I think that even when it’s that I’m not dealing with something as well as I expect to, because what’s cool is that I’m getting new data.

Do you feel like you know yourself very well?

Yes. Of course, if I knew myself very poorly, I’d still feel like I knew myself very well.

Do you feel like it's important to check in with the stuff in your head regularly, or are you confident that you will know about changes in your head when they happen?

I’m pretty confident that I will know about changes in my head when they happen. Sometimes I know that there’s some ferment going on without knowing exactly what it’s about or where it’s leading, and just trust that it will bubble to the surface when it’s gotten worked out.

Do you feel the need to share changes in your head with other people?

Yes, but changes in my head tend to be slow enough that that’s not a problem. I.e., anybody I’m close to probably picks up on stuff without me having to sit them down and make a point of talking about it. On the other hand, I’ve learned that sometimes I need to make a point of sharing lack of change in my head.

I had a situation once where (this is grotesquely oversimplified) I was in unrequited love with somebody and sat down with her and made that clear, but then a few years later when she found out that was still the case, it was a Big Problem. (Again, let me reiterate that that’s a ridiculous oversimplification of the real situation, just to give you an idea of the problem domain.) After that experience, I’ve made some effort to repeat myself so as to make sure people don’t sweep potentially uncomfortable stuff about me under the rug. (I may have overcompensated.)

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

When something does surprise me it’s usually not a Brand New Thing, but just that a particular complex situation balances differently in my head than I expect it to.

I suspect the same is true for me, as well as that I tend to have trouble remembering things about myself the first few times I realize those things. Which is annoying...