Self-Awareness Detective: The OFFICIAL Self-Awareness Companion Journal for the Kendry Uto, Detective Series

Have you ever read a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story? One where at the end of a page YOU decide what the character will do? It’s usually something like: “If Mckenzie sneaks out to the treehouse, turn to page 7. If Mckenzie goes down to the river, turn to page 11.” Then at the end of page 7 or 11—depending on which you chose—you are faced with another decision. The story can be different every time. (If you haven’t ever read one of these stories, I highly recommend them!)

I like to think of this journal as your own Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story.

You might use it:

• To intentionally look for, or reflect on, something you did or felt so you can learn about yourself…and maybe recognize what you did well & want to repeat and/or what you did poorly and want to change (past focus)
• To think through, or process, a specific situation so you can choose how you want to move forward (present focus)
• To shape, or prepare for, a conversation you need to have or an action you need to take (future focus)

Whether you are learning from what has already happened, doing something right now, or preparing to speak or act, this journal can help you build skills to understand yourself and do what you truly want to do.

In the moment of big feelings, it’s hard to figure out what we truly want. Our feelings encourage us to fight (attack), freeze (shut down), or flee (avoid).

It’s important to react quickly when we need to act fast… like if you touch a hot cookie sheet, you need to snatch your hand back quickly so you don’t get burned.

But sometimes our feelings encourage us to do something harmful instead of helpful. Like if you see a rattlesnake, our feelings encourage us to jump back (flee), when what we need to do is freeze, and then back away very slowly, so the snake is less threatened and doesn’t strike.

So how do we get to the point where we can pause when we need to?

Picture a team of horses. Horses are good. Harnessed together and well trained they make a magnificent sight! Even better, they can pull a sleigh through thick snow, move a tree off the riverbank, or carry a load of Christmas trees down a mountain to a village. If they are spooked and don’t obey their master—or if the master doesn’t know how to guide them—they might fight each other, run wild, and take themselves and the whole load careening dangerously off the road.

Now let’s imagine our emotions are the team of horses. Like horses, emotions are good. They are powerful. When trained and harnessed, they can work together to help us move heavy loads and get places quickly. However, untrained and unharnessed, all their power can get us into BIG trouble fast! That’s why we need to train our emotions to take us where we want to go and learn how to guide them.

That's where this journal comes in! Self-Awareness Detective is designed to help kids practice the skills demonstrated by Kendry in the companion book, Kendry Uto, Detective: An Investigation of Self-Awareness for Highly Intelligent Children. With instructions, tools, examples, and 30 blank charts, children will learn to recognize their emotions, evaluate the source, anticipate the outcome of following them, and direct their choices to get what they truly want.