I ran into similar issue with compassion. In English it is "a social feeling that motivates people to go out of their way to relieve the physical, mental, or emotional pains of others and themselves"

In German and Slovak (my first language) and presumably others, it is usually translated into kind of remorseful feeling NOT directly related to the motivation to go out of one's way. And it just can't be explained and it drives me crazy recently.

Interestingly Wikipedia links the article of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-awareness

with

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objektive_Selbstaufmerksamkeit

I have never heard anyone using the ladder word.

What's wrong with "selbstwahrnehmend"? It's literally (pun slightly intended) a literal translation of "self-aware" and doesn't have the ambiguity that "selbstbewusst" comes with.

It's a context thing. When I say selbstbewusst it can very well have the meaning of self-aware and also would be perceived as that.

We have “selbstreflektiert” which seems to be close enough.

Does English have one word for self aware?