5 Quizzes To Help You Step Into Self-Awareness
The better we know ourselves, the better we can support ourselves and help others around us support us.
I’m a huge advocate for self-awareness, as it can lead to a happier, healthier, more fulfilling life. When you know your own needs, you can communicate them to others, find ways to address those needs that work for you, and let others know how they can support you in those needs.
The best way to learn about yourself is to live really mindfully and be honest with yourself, seeing where your strengths and weaknesses lie, where you utilize certain coping mechanisms, etc. The more objectively you can monitor your behavior, the more you can truthfully learn about yourself. If you have the attitude that your way is the best way, that you are always right, etc., then you won’t succeed. You have to be open to learning about both your light and dark sides, your yin and your yang.
How you react in certain situations can tell you a whole lot about yourself.
For example, I have essentially “shut down” twice in my life. Once was before and after my total thyroidectomy, and the other was after I was diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome. Both times I had such a heavy mind and heart that I basically dropped out of society (wasn’t going to school or working and rarely left the house) and spent much of my time in a zombie-like state.
Now I have to say, for a long time I was really ashamed that this was how I reacted. I wanted to be able to say I had been strong and fearless. That I had carried on without letting these medical obstacles get in my way. But that’s simply not the truth. When faced with a daunting, frightening, life-changing event, I shut down. But now, instead of being ashamed of those periods of my life, I choose to learn from them. They taught me how I react to immense stress, and I can use that information to help me next time I face a stressful event.
My shameful reaction is exactly why monitoring their own behavior proves very difficult for a lot of people. As humans, we like to think that we are the best, we are always right, and nothing is out fault. In order to accurately discern any information about yourself, you have to be as objective as possible, and be able to tap into viewpoints other than your own.
Since learning about yourself by objectively observing your own behavior is so difficult, I want to provide you with some quizzes that can help get you started with your self-awareness.
There is oh-so much to learn about oneself, but the quizzes below are all ones that I have taken (often multiple times) and have found beneficial. Unlike those infamous Buzzfeed quizzes (I shouldn’t knock them considering how many I’ve taken in my life, but I digress), these quizzes actually hold value and can teach you about who you are and what you need.
1. Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator
The Myers-Briggs test was first introduced to me in a college psychology class (so it’s gotta be pretty legit). It contains a series of questions that determines if you are: extraverted or introverted, use sensing or intuition, use thinking or feeling, and use judgment or perception. Based on your answers to the questions, you will be put into either one category or the other for each of the four characteristics. This means that according to the Myers-Briggs, there are sixteen total personality types.
Here’s a quick breakdown of each of the eight possible characteristics (once you take the test, you can research your individual characteristics more and find a wealth of information on them!):
Extraversion
Focus on outer world
Energy is directed toward people & things
Introversion
Focus on inner world
Energy is directed toward ideas & information
Sensing
Focus on information you’re given
Process things with facts & the known
Intuition
Interpret & add meaning to information you’re given
Process things with ideas & the unknown
Thinking
Look at logic and consistency
Make decisions using reason & objectivity
Feeling
Look at people and special circumstances
Make decisions using values & beliefs
Judgement
Like to have things decided
Lifestyle is planned & structured
Perception
Like to stay open to new options
Lifestyle is flexible & “go with the flow”
The official online Myers-Briggs test costs $50, but there are many online quizzes that you can take for free to get the same information. I’ve taken the one from 16Personalities that is just called “Free Personality Test,” and it gives you your four letter personality types, as well as which percentages of each of the eight characteristics you showed, and tells you all about what this mean
2. Zodiac Sign
This one’s not really a quiz, but you may have to look up your sign if you don’t already know it. While this is probably a little less scientific than a psychology-based personality quiz, I still believe it can shed some light on one’s personality. Your zodiac sign is determined by your birthday. You can figure out yours below:
Each zodiac sign is associated with an element and a symbol.
Signs in the same element have some common characteristics:
Water signs: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces – very emotional & sensitive
Fire signs: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius – passionate & temperamental
Earth signs: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn – grounded & down to earth
Air signs: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius – social & communicative
Individually, each sign’s symbol can give you more insight into that particular sign:
Aquarius: water-bearer – generous with time and resources, like a man carrying a pitcher of water
Pisces: fish – mysterious and dreamy, like the fish who lives in a secretive place
Aries: ram – full of life and vitality, high energy, curious
Taurus: bull – methodical, deliberate
Gemini: twins – communicative and love sharing
Cancer: crab – homebodies, like the crab who carries it’s home (shell) on its back; grasp onto things and hold on tightly (like crab’s pinchers)
Leo: lion – proud, natural leaders
Virgo: maiden – cool & calm on the outside, but inside mind is always turning
Libra: scales – crave balance and may be considered wishy-washy as they weigh decisions heavily
Scorpio: scorpion – great self-control, but aggressive when provoked
Sagittarius: centaur – craves freedom & discovery through traveling, meeting new people, learning, etc. (a centaur is a half man, half horse who shoots with a bow and arrow and follows the arrow wherever it goes).
Capricorn: mountain goat – goal oriented & driven, like the mountain goat who climbs higher and higher
3. Ayurvedic Dosha
Ayurveda is the sister science to yoga and a form of holistic medicine. There is a heavy emphasis on utilizing healing herbs and eating a plant-based diet, but sleep and exercise are also considered important. Many trendy wellness practices (such as oil pulling, tongue scraping, and dry brushing) are traditional ayurvedic practices.
In ayurvedic medicine, there are believed to be three different types of energy that we have within us. These energies, or doshas, are pitta, kapha, and vata. We all have all of them, but in different amounts. Everyone has a primary dosha and secondary dosha, which can tell a lot about their personalities.
Here is an overview of each dosha:
Every called someone fiery or a spitfire? Probably primarily pitta.
Every said that someone’s head is in space? Probably primarily vata.
Every said that someone is down to earth? Probably primarily kapha.
Dosha quizzes determine what your primary energies are by asking questions about your body type and bodily habits, as well as your lifestyle habits. Different types of foods, movements, and practices are ideal for each dosha, so you can learn which ones may be beneficial for you, as well as which ones may hinder you.
Here are some good online dosha quizzes you can take: The Chopra Center, The Ayurveda Experience, and Banyan Botanicals. They do all require you to put in an e-mail address, but you can easily unsubscribe from their mailing lists. With many of these tests, I like to take a few different versions, and if I get the same results in each one, I know that’s my true results, or else I take the average of all of them.
This test is based off of the book The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman.
The quiz gives you a series of questions and asks which option is more meaningful to you. Based on your answers, it determines how much you value the following:
Physical touch – you appreciate meaningful touches, like hugs, kisses, high-fives, handshakes, back rubs, etc.
Words of affirmation – you appreciate hearing words like “I love you” or “I’m proud of you.”
Quality time – you appreciate having someone’s undivided attention.
Receiving gifts – you enjoy receiving thoughtful tokens of someone’s love for you.
Acts of service – you appreciate when someone helps you out with something that is burdening you.
5. Learning Style Quiz
There are many of these out there (most people take them at least once in middle or high school), but here are two that you can do online: this one asks detailed questions and gives you your percentages for each learning style, and this one (which actually offers three formats) asks generic questions and tells you your most prominent learning style.
Knowing your learning style can be very beneficial when it comes to learning something new. Whether you’re studying for a test, learning to play an instrument, or figuring out how to use a new blender – you can cut out a lot of frustration by utilizing strategies that work best with your particular learning style.
You can either be a visual, auditory, or tactile learner. Of course, we all utilize all three sometimes, but most people identify best with one particular style. Here are brief description of each:
Visual – visual learners learn best by seeing things written or drawn out. They like to read and write out what they learn and gain insight from pictures.
Auditory – auditory learners need to hear things said out loud. They can remember oral instructions well and like to recite information out loud.
Tactile – tactile learners learn by touching and doing. The have to do things for themselves, and learn best from experience.
