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YOUR SELF ANALYSIS PROCESS

Think of this process like this:

You have in front of you, two jigsaw puzzles. One puzzle, when completed, depicts a picture of
you, living your ideal, happiest, authentic life. The other depicts you living an unhappy life,
wearing masks and lost in a fog of denial. Someone has very kindly mixed the pieces of both
puzzles together in one box! You only want to complete one jigsaw, the right one, the one that
forms a picture of you in your happiest, most authentic state.
Your challenge, as you trawl your memory banks for this exercise, is to identify and separate the
useful pieces (events, selections and people) from the pieces that no longer serve you to your
best advantage.

To get as much benefit as possible from the exercise, once you have read through these
guidance paragraphs, write down as many detailed memories as you can recall. Recall facts,
events, circumstances, experiences, emotions and reactions as clearly as you can. Be prepared
to answer questions like “What emotions did this provoke?” and “How did this change your
emotional state?” and “Did you feel love – hate – insecurity - fear?” and “How did this cause you
to alter your behaviour for similar future experiences?”

EXERCISE | SELF ANALYSIS

Influential Events

It is important to think right back to the moment of your birth and work your way forward in age
groups to the present moment. From the moment you were born, forces were at work that would
determine the outcomes of your life. From all that you know from what you were told by your
parents, siblings and others, form a mental picture of what life must have been like in your family
at the time of your arrival.

Were you born into an under privileged, poor, dysfunctional or battle-weary family, or was life
more comfortable and enriched for you? Were there negative influencing factors such as
alcohol, violence, disharmony, abuse or financial pressure or were your early years filled with
healthy solid, happy foundations? Either way, was the correct quality and quantity of
unconditional love present in those early years?
These may be difficult issues for to even consider let alone confront, but the process is worthwhile
to get to the crux of what started the chain of events and experiences that helped form your
present self.

Take up your private notepad and allocate a separate page for the age groups given.

Consider the critical moments in your life for each group. This will require all of your powers of
recall, trawling your memories to arrive at your true analysis of self.