Success in emerging adulthood entails the emotional growth necessary to navigate the demands and challenges of college life. Understanding the concept of self-awareness within this particular age group sheds light on emerging adults’ internal world and the transformative aspect of their emotional growth. Uncovering the thoughts processes that foster or hinder self- awareness is important to the understanding of how emerging adults learn to make themselves positive or negative. Little is known about the process of how college students emerging adults notice and monitor their inner thoughts and emotions. A grounded theory study using in-depth semi-structured interview was utilized. A constructionist framework was employed to generate a theory as how self-awareness facilitates specific patterns of thinking in emerging adults. Initial data analysis generated the following categories of the theory: (a) a non- judgmental perception of negative thinking and negative emotions that allow for a better understanding of the self; (b) negative state of mind is easy to overcome when it is accepted and acknowledged; (c) knowledge of the actual and desired self generates an intentional decision to shift to a positive mindset.