What Is Self-Exploration in Psychology?

The quest for self-knowledge has been a long one. The roots of self-exploration can be found in the Ancient Greeks, the meditative Eastern philosophies of Taoism and Buddhism, and modern psychology (Iacovou & Weixel-Dixon, 2015).

Self-exploration, self-knowledge, and self-discovery are closely related concepts within psychology that point to our need to evaluate and make sense of our “self” and our relationship to others and our environment (Bench et al., 2015).

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Modern psychologists describe such self-awareness as metacognition — the ability to think about our thinking and turn our thoughts on ourselves. Self-exploration is the process of getting to know our mind, and it is something that is an intrinsic part of the human experience (Fleming, 2021).

According to psychology, the process of self-exploration has many benefits, including the following (Dweck, 2017; Fleming, 2021; Bench et al., 2015; Iacovou & Weixel-Dixon, 2015; Niemiec & McGrath, 2019; Brown, 2015):

• Improved awareness of our thoughts, beliefs, values, and behaviors
• Better understanding of our inner landscape, helping us identify and use our strengths
• Heightened self-awareness that facilitates personal growth as we confront our limitations, fears, and unresolved issues
• Enhanced decision-making, when we become clearer and surer of our values, priorities, and aspirations, helping us set goals that create our desired transformations
• Improved relationships, allowing us to connect and maintain bonds that meet our needs, desires, and communication styles
• Becoming better at managing stress and coping with challenges, allowing us to recognize and prepare for what triggers us and identify learnings from the difficulties overcome
• Being less judgmental, which by knowing and accepting our strengths and weaknesses, enhances our self-esteem and overall psychological wellbeing, allowing us to be more accepting of others
• Discovering our authentic selves and being vulnerable while able to pursue more fulfilling lives and a deeper connection with ourselves

Self-knowledge — the product of self-exploration — increases confidence in who we are, allowing us to make decisions more easily while being adaptive and ready for change (Fleming, 2021).

The Self-Exploration Process: 4 Examples

There is no single process for self-exploration.

Instead, self-knowledge and self-awareness can be gained by combining several different approaches.

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Here are four of our favorites.

Mindfulness

Mindful self-compassion can be a powerful and transformative process of self-exploration.

By cultivating a nonevaluative, nonjudgmental awareness of our experiences, we can observe the continuous stream of mental phenomena as they arise (Shapiro, 2020).

This metacognitive monitoring involves curiosity, acceptance, and openness. Rather than analyzing or interpreting, we simply observe our thoughts and emotions as they emerge without getting caught up in rumination or elaboration. Mindfulness allows for deep self-exploration and a heightened understanding of oneself (Khazan, 2019; Fleming, 2021).

Developing intuition

Intuition offers another approach to self-exploration and increasing self-knowledge (Fleming, 2021).

By honing our intuition — when we arrive at knowledge without relying on reason or inference — we engage in the process of self-exploration, where we tap into our inner wisdom and innate “knowing” (Epstein, 2010).

In doing so, we cultivate a deeper understanding of our instincts and allow them to guide our decision-making and behavior.

Intuition is a potent path to self-knowledge and improved performance in the workplace and beyond. Studies show that intuition, as a form of self-exploration in business (Maidique, 2014) and medical professions (Nalliah, 2016), can boost decision-making and creativity.

Engaging in introspection

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“A common metaphor for introspection is that it is like an archaeological dig, whereby people attempt to excavate their hidden mental states” (Wilson & Dunn, 2004, p. 504). And it can be a valuable tool for self-exploration.

Self-exploration often involves shifting the focus away from analyzing the reasons behind an attitude and our emotional states and instead examining the nature of how we feel.

By redirecting our introspection, we can increase the accessibility of our feelings and boost our predictive power for future behavior (Wilson & Dunn, 2004).

Writing as a form of introspection can be a robust process for engaging in self-exploration.

We can promote mental and physical wellbeing by dedicating a short amount of time (15 to 30 minutes) to writing about emotional issues over several days. This practice helps us gain self-understanding, reduce rumination, and alleviate intrusive thoughts and worries.

Visualization

Visualization is a process of self-exploration that involves imagining future scenarios and observing how we feel, think, and behave. It can be used individually or as part of a therapy session (Thomas, 2016).

By visualizing possible future situations, we can uncover implicit and explicit motives behind our behaviors. Also, by revealing our thoughts and feelings, we can better manage our stress and enhance feelings of self-belief and self-confidence.

This technique allows us to tap into the feelings associated with unconscious motives and attitudes, providing valuable insights into ourselves (Hall et al., 2006).

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