When I was in my 20s and early 30s, I thought I was very self-aware.

I had read the books, I'd been to therapy, I could explain all my neuroses and dysfunctional patterns. I knew so much, supposedly. And yet, nothing was really changing for me. It wasn't until I discovered coaching that I learned what self-awareness really means and why I actually knew much less than I thought I did about myself. In today's episode, I'm going to

teach you the first skill of the confidence compass, which is self-awareness. I'm going to explain what

self-awareness really is. It's not just explaining all the ways your parents fucked you up, and how to

identify areas where you could increase your self-awareness. Welcome to unfuck your brain.

I'm your host, Cara Lowenthal, master-certified coach, and founder of the School of New Feminist Thub.

I'm here to help you turn down your anxiety, turn up your confidence, and create a life on

your own terms, one that you're truly excited to live.

Let's go.

All right, hello, my friends. Today we are talking about the first element of the

confidence compass, and that is self-awareness. Self-awareness is the foundation of confidence

because you cannot actually resolve your insecurities and your negative self-belief

unless you actually know what you really think about yourself. Because most of us have no

idea what we really think about ourselves. So we aren't able to create more confidence because

we don't even know what thought problem we need to solve. I have gone through this myself

firsthand. Like any good Jewish New Yorker, I spent the majority of my 20s going to therapy.

And this was traditional talk therapy where I showed up every week, hanging out of pocket to talk mostly about my childhood.

And I fancied myself very self-aware. I had been studying psychology and using professional terms,

probably incorrectly, for years. In fact, in my high school, we had a senior project where for the last

six weeks of senior year, you did a full-time internship, honestly a genius idea for getting

kids who are really done with school out of the school to stop distracting

everybody else. And I had chosen intern at the Shepard Pratt Psychiatric Hospital, which is a private

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