Oct 13

Written By Kate Bennis

I love this photo of Agni Handy. She is self-aware (looking at the camera, breathing, engaging), and yet not self-conscious. There is an ease about her. We all can sense the difference between the two ways of being. When we are self-conscious, our focus is inward and often self-critical. When we are self-aware, we are able to balance our presence and behavior with an outward focus on others and the world around us. We are poised between the two.

Agni is a professional actor, so she has years of practicing this balance; she has poise. Actors have to remember their lines, where they need to stand to be seen by the camera and hit by the light, AND be present, available emotionally, and fully alive to the moment.

How can we move from being self-conscious to being self-aware?

Here are two tiny adjustments anyone can practice:

Read on…