Self-awareness unfolds through three movements: observation, reflection, and agency. Observation is the immediate, prereflective noticing of bodily and mental states that appears from infancy and can be shaped by social mirrors. Reflection is the deliberate return to those observations to make sense of them, engaging critic and critical thinking to produce meaning. Agency is the enactment of awareness through choices, commitments, and change, translating insight into action. Each movement complements the others: observation guards reflection from fantasy, reflection guides agency beyond blind reaction, and agency ensures observation and reflection have practical consequence.
Self-awareness unfolds in three movements. First, we observe. Then, we reflect. Finally, we act. Observation is the spotlight: the capacity to notice what is happening in the moment. Reflection is the mirror: the effort to make sense of what has been seen, a process that includes the self-critic and critical thinking. Agency is the enactment: carrying awareness into the world through choices, commitments, and change.
This ability is present at birth. Infants only hours old imitate facial gestures, suggesting an inborn capacity to monitor their own states (Meltzoff & Moore, 1977). Gallagher (2005) calls this the "minimal self": a prereflective sense of being a body that feels and acts. Even without mirrors, infants startle at their own movements, proof that the body is already watching itself.
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