 Self-awareness is the ability to know that you are trapped in fearful thinking, but you can refuse to be afraid. In other words, you can consider something scary and consider something frightening without being afraid. Instead, what most of us are doing is the moment we think it, we're feeling it, and now we're in a whole cascade effect. In our emotions and our chemicals, we are now on a downward slope fast because we are thinking about things that are frightening to us, but experiencing the fear emotionally when actually there's nothing to be afraid of. Or you're feeling anxious, but self-awareness lets you know that this anxiety or feeling has certain thinking attached to it. What is the thinking that's making you anxious? Anxiety is simply a roadmap to freedom.