Awareness
Awareness is an intentional broadening of focus to include all that can be seen, felt, sensed, and intuited in the external world around us, the internal world inside us, and the energized spiritual world that infuses and inspires us.
- Awareness gives us information to help us survive.
- Expanded awareness gives us inspiration and possibilities to support our thriving.
- Awareness is an always available starting point, something we can always “do” to bring us guidance on what we need and how to get those needs met abundantly.
- Being intentionally aware protects us from being “unaware” — disconnected and checked-out from life.
I Know… But I Can’t Explain Why
Awareness has a language of its own. It’s not just logical.
Quite often, people have a “sense” that something or someone is not a yes for them… but because they cannot explain “why” they go forward anyway.
Awareness deepens after we take a powerful pause. Go within and listen. Feel. Bring awareness to different parts of your body — head, heart, gut, groin. There’s wisdom in body guidance, even if it cannot always be explained logically.
Our body has sensors that pick up energies that are not necessarily visual or auditory. Our “spidey-sense” comes from millennia of evolution in dangerous environments. Perhaps the threat isn’t to life and limb… but it can be to our sense of well-being or distract us from what truly matters to us.
Distracted and Avoidant
When we don’t want to deal with painful feelings or overwhelming situations, our brain says, “Ok! Let’s binge-watch! Next, social media scrolling! Now, cake and chips!”
We all have this capacity to check out, numb, avoid, and distract.
Bringing awareness in such times is hard. Often, the breakthroughs come afterwards when we, perhaps with some compassion, ask ourselves:
“What feelings were too much for me to cope with at that moment?”
“What needs of mine are not being met?”
“How did I not feel free?”
“What messages from my body guidance was I refusing to hear?”
Awareness is a survey. It helps us to map our emotional world to better navigate the physical one. We can look at a situation close up and personal. We can step back and see a broader vista. We can bring forth empathy and sense what others might be feeling, too.
Allow yourself time and space for awarenesses to come to you. Even if you get an Ah-Ha, continue surveying and being with what you’re sensing… before you move into accepting and adapting.
Why pause and allow for awareness to grow? We’re not simplistic beings, nor is the emotional ecosystem we share. If the situation and people matter to you, or it could have a significant impact on your thriving, an extra hour or three staying with awareness will absolutely help you clarify your choices and next inspired action.
Useful Questions
- What feels like “just too much”?
- If I took 100 steps back from this, what might I notice?
- What am I aware of inside my body?
- Am I triggered (my primitive brain is activated)?
- What does this remind me of?
- Is there a feeling about this situation that I can’t put into words?
- What is my emotional state of being right now? And their emotional state?
- What do I “know” here that is true for me?
- If I were calm and confident right now, what might I be aware of?
- Is there a need of mine, particularly for safety, respect, or freedom, that applies here?
Resources
- Confused?! What if nothing is wrong? - Real Skills Workshop
- Free Yourself from Subconscious Blocks - Real Skills Workshop
Related Concepts
Powerful Pause, Body Guidance, Discernment, Mindfulness, Clarity, Consciousness, Acceptance, Adapting, Trauma Informed, Grounding, Ecosystem, Inspired Action
Links
- Discuss Awareness in the Community Center
- Share this link to the Concept of Awareness: https://www.thrivingnow.com/concept/awareness
