Self-awareness is defined as the ability to:

Self-awareness is fundamentally about recognizing and understanding one's own emotional states, moods, and behaviors. This ability allows individuals to reflect on their feelings, recognize how these feelings affect their thoughts and actions, and ultimately better navigate interpersonal relationships and their own reactions to various situations.

By identifying your emotional state or mood, you gain insight into what drives your actions and reactions, making you more equipped to handle situations with clarity and intention. This self-recognition is essential for effective self-regulation and personal growth, as it lays the groundwork for emotional intelligence as a whole.

While understanding the emotional states of others is a component of emotional intelligence, it is primarily associated with social awareness rather than self-awareness. Controlling responses to stress and changing mood at will involve aspects of self-regulation, but they require the foundational skill of being self-aware to be executed effectively. Thus, identifying one’s own emotional state is the correct definition of self-awareness.