Awareness is a superpower. 

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Nobody ever thinks that they are lacking awareness. The opposite of awareness is living in auto-pilot, which is an unconscious and automatic way of behaving and relating to people and the world around you. Being in auto-pilot can be quite helpful sometimes such as when you just need to get through something during a difficult/stressful situation. It's actually very normal (and helpful) to 'dissociate' and not be in the present moment sometimes. However, if this becomes the norm... it's much more likely to get your buttons pressed and become reactive because old habits of thinking and acting get triggered by people, events and body sensations. 

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By becoming more aware of your thoughts, feelings and body sensations - you are giving yourself the possibility of greater freedom and choice. You create space between a trigger and your response so you don't have to go into the same old patterns of thinking, feeling and/or behaving.

 

Because you are shining a light onto thoughts, memories and emotions that you have disregarded for a long time, developing awareness tends to elicit anxiety. The sensation of anxiety has been there to serve to protect you from those unwanted memories... while helpful at some point, this protection is now interfering with the healthy processing of emotions.