Choose To Live With Awareness

There are many aspects of awareness – awareness of reality, awareness of the presence of others, awareness of the environment, awareness of choices and options. Let’s talk about self-awareness - your belief system, values, thoughts, feelings, and emotional responses.

“Know yourself and you will win all battles.”- Lao Tzu

Awareness is the essential first step toward living and playing your game, your way. Self-awareness is the foundation for change. In order to be at the top of your game you must be completely aware of what is happening within you at every moment. When you are aware, you have the choice to respond differently and to create a different outcome.

Observe and stay objective. Think of awareness as your ability to know “what is.” I refer to your ability to discern what is actually happening from your mind’s interpretation of what is happening. When you realize that what you believe, see, and think are a result of your own internal filters, you can open yourself up to considering other possibilities.

Self-awareness is being present versus seeing a situation from the past. The present is the only opportunity you have to make change, because the past no longer exists. The decisions and choices you have made have brought you here, and you cannot change them.

So how do you practice being more self-aware? Try to become aware of your awareness and observe how you focus your attention. Try to focus on your breath or body scan or walking meditation, and you would often get distracted and become lost in your thoughts, feelings, and memories. Notice the distractions and simply refocus on your target repeatedly. Do not listen to a judging voice that critiques your progress. It’s like developing a muscle in the gym during a workout. You strengthen your attention to your intention through repetition.

Practice observing exactly what is happening, not your thoughts and emotions around it. Practice becoming more aware of your physical body. Practice to recognize your emotions and physical state. Be aware of your assumptions, interpretations and limiting beliefs, and how they are affecting you. Become aware of what you are thinking about, and which events elicit those thoughts.

And of course, what is awareness practice without journaling? Journaling lets you observe your internal and external experiences and reflect on the workings of your mind. It reveals your blocks and helps embrace the concept of detached involvement.

Over time awareness becomes an expanded presence in your internal world enabling you to free your identity from the storms of your mental sea.

When you approach your inner world with openness and acceptance, and you attune to what is, you become more receptive rather than reactive. Notice what happens when you embrace what is. Amazingly, you might discover that letting things be also allows you to change and come to unconditionally accept yourself and your experiences. Just observing your own inner world with acceptance might have a strong soothing effect on you. Looking directly at your thoughts, not running from them, might help you reverse the flow of your feelings and thoughts.

Your feelings don’t define who you are. Try to see how paying attention to your feelings changes what these feelings do to you. As you no longer take them so personally, they just melt away.