Lesson 2 // Awareness
RE LEARN
Before you begin: let’s take a few deep, grounding breaths. Place one hand on your heart and the other on your stomach, close your eyes, breathe in deep, hold, direct your awareness to your heart, and release. Repeat until you feel centered and relaxed.
Our thoughts are not "bad." As we pay more attention to our thoughts and mindset, it can be easy to pass judgment on these thoughts and ourselves. “Nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so.” - William Shakespeare. Our thoughts form judgments that ascribe meaning to the subject of our judgment. Thus suspending judgment begins with the nature of our thoughts. As we discussed in Thinking, we are both the thinker and the observer.
Our thoughts can take us on trips of discovery and inspiration, lead to innovation, creation, and understanding. At the same time, we can get so caught up in our thinking, so singularly focused, that we close ourselves to the vastness of life and the limitless potential of the present moment. When we are caught up in our thoughts like this, we identify with the thoughts as though they are us. When this happens we forget that we play an active role in this process - that it is possible to exercise mastery over our thoughts and minds. We forget that we are the observer, not the thoughts themselves nor the emotions they evoke. We are thinking and feeling; and we are consciousness in the seat of awareness, of observation.
By practicing getting into the seat of the observer - using awareness - we are able to position ourselves with the vantage point of this perspective that is always available for us to access. Utilizing our awareness helps us cultivate our ability to put distance between our thoughts and ourselves; we find our way out when we utilize awareness when we are caught up and feel ourselves closing. The more we sit in the seat of awareness, the more this translates beyond our thoughts and mindset into our everyday, present reality. We open up to witnessing life unfolding with curiosity, peace, and trust, through the ups, downs, and in-betweens.
What Awareness Feels Like
At its core, awareness is a way to experience wholeness within ourselves and throughout the present moment as it all occurs together, our inner and outer experiences, all at once. We are going to do a guided exercise to feel what it is to experience, embody, and expand awareness, to be in the seat of the observer. (You can always walk yourself through this practice whenever you need, with the following steps)
Step 1: Close your eyes and focus your awareness on breathing
Feel your chest rise and fall as you breathe. Maybe you feel your heart beating. Maybe you feel your pulse. Feel the subtle vibration of your living body as it goes about all its processes.
Step 2: Shift your awareness to the space inside of you
Feel the space behind your eyes. Feel the space around your heart. Feel the space that exists within.
Step 3: Expand that space outside of your body
As you are aware of the space within, expand that awareness externally. Feel the boundary between your body and your environment dissolve. Feel yourself as boundaryless.
Step 4: Feel yourself just being
Feel what it is to just be in awareness. You are awareness. Right now, you are experiencing your pure awareness, your existence, purely being.
When we are in our thoughts, as opposed to observing our thoughts, we are engulfed in them; we form judgments, cling to attachments and stories, and close ourselves off. Whether we want to be engulfed in our thoughts or not, we can find ourselves clinging to our thoughts, beliefs, even our ideas of who we are. When we cling, we close. When we resist, we close.
Imagine our thoughts are a river and we are paddling a canoe through them. Sometimes the river is calm and gentle, other times it is chaotic and turbulent. Calm, chaotic, it's really the same thing - just a state that will, like everything, change. That is the experience of life - it is dynamic, never just one thing, always changing, always flowing. When we resist these truths, we become closed off. When we are aware of change, multiplicity, and get to know those truths, we open up. Whether calm or chaotic, we can either cling to the canoe, closed off to all that passes by and miss the full experience or we can let go and flow, going with the river, experiencing the full journey of being in the canoe. When we cling to our thoughts, to the canoe, we are stiff - the ride is unpleasant, dreadful, and anxiety-inducing. When we let go and flow as our thoughts arise, we are relaxed - the ride can be enjoyed because we surrender to the nature of the river in each moment, chaotic or calm, and we are open enough to experience it all. Our clinging to our patterns, beliefs, and perceptions can make the ride miserable, regardless of the river’s nature. Whether our default is to cling or to let go, it makes no difference - we can choose which we actively feed. Practicing awareness is the first step in making this choice of non-resistance. Eventually, the ride will come to an end, the conditions will change; we can always count on this. Our experience will be largely impacted by our mindset during the ride. The quality of the journey, with our thoughts (and our lives), depends on our level of resistance or non-resistance, closedness or openness.
It’s easy to get sucked into our conscious thinking (a.k.a. overthinking, which we will discuss in the next lesson) and stuck in our heads, subconscious patterns, and reacting instead of responding. All of these instances are like our clinging in the canoe. As we strengthen our awareness, in the moment and through reflection afterwards, we can slowly release our clinging, process everything, and be able to enjoy the ride, regardless of whether it’s calm or chaotic.
While we are practicing awareness with our thoughts, it goes beyond thoughts. Whether our thoughts or feelings, day or season of our life are chaotic and turbulent or calm and gentle, we can choose non-resistance - we can be still, fully present, fully aware, acknowledge and experience what's happening. Eventually, the conditions will change; we can always count on this. And it is life, after all, and it's ending one minute at a time. We don’t want to miss anything on this journey; we want to be open and experience it fully. Awareness is a fundamental part of living consciously. Living consciously is to live in that state of awareness that keeps us awake to the entire experience of what it means to be alive and enjoy it!
RE FLECT
Answer the following questions in your notebook, a piece of paper, or record yourself talking through your answers on your phone and read over or listen to your answers when you’re done.
Dig Deep. Be honest. Be compassionate. Be objective. Take responsibility and accountability. It is of no help for us to be judgmental of ourselves or direct blame elsewhere. You got this!
1. When do I tend to cling? When do I tend to flow? When I cling, what am I thinking and telling myself that keeps me clinging?
2. What does my clinging look like - what situations do I tend to get caught up in? How does this make me closed off?
3. How can practicing awareness in these situations help me be open and non-resistant? How would I benefit from remaining open and non-resistant, especially in difficult or unpleasant moments?
4. Bring to mind a recent unpleasant moment or situation.
How did clinging to your story of the situation, thoughts, or beliefs make the situation more unpleasant?
If you brought awareness and non-resistance to the situation, and in turn, remained open to the entire reality of the situation, how might you have shown up or processed the situation differently? How might this make the situation feel different (not pleasant, but not more unpleasant as the result of clinging)?
For example:
A loved one is angered by what, to me seems to be a silly thing to be upset over and, caught up in his anger, our communication is hostile, which makes me feel upset so I get mad at him and yell at him for being enraged.
In my clinging to my story, my limited perception and understanding of the situation, that his anger was only because of what I believed was silly, I was dismissive and didn’t even try to open and understand his experience. When our communication wasn’t what I would’ve liked, his anger feeling directed at me disturbed me - I got upset and so things grew even more unpleasant because I reacted by yelling at him.
If I was using my awareness in the moment, I would process his anger before engaging with him. This would allow me to respond differently, rather than react the way I did. (Note the difference between reacting, unconsciously without awareness, and responding consciously with awareness.) My response would be gentle and open, maybe acknowledging his anger, asking about it, and validating it. In this way, our communication could be connective rather than divisive and I could help him suffer less, even though he is upset.
RE DO
Consider an unproductive, repetitive, or negative thought you’ve been experiencing recently. Take a deep breath. Acknowledge that you are aware of your thoughts and can detach from the thought you are holding onto, just like in the canoe, we can cling and we can release.
By releasing, you can now see the thought clearly - as a thought passing through your conscious awareness. This is your chance to get curious about it - where is it coming from? how is it making you feel? Observe it objectively, rather than the subjective experience of clinging and identifying with it.
Now that you've objectively observed this thought, replace it with two or three positive thoughts or affirmations! Repeat those affirmations over and over, out loud, as you feel and visualize their sentiment becoming your reality. (This may take 10+ repetitions, so be patient, focus, and stick with it!)
If you are looking for examples, you can find some on our Pinterest and more on our Instagram. You can take these examples and adapt them to best fit you and what you are cultivating. We encourage you to write a few down in your notebook to repeat each morning right when you wake up and whenever you feel your thoughts or mindset shifts into a negative place.
It can feel difficult when we've been clinging to limiting beliefs, but by using our awareness, we open ourselves up to the entire reality, which expands beyond those limiting beliefs. You may not believe your affirmations at first, that’s okay. Old thoughts patterns and beliefs have been engrained into your subconscious, so it takes time, your awareness, and continually choosing to no longer give attention to that which no longer serves you. Be patient, stick with it, and continue to feed your affirmations.
For example:
Say I’ve just started to learn to play the guitar. At first it was exciting, but now that it’s gotten more difficult, I feel stuck. I think “I’m no good at guitar. What’s the point of practicing?” In the past, this thought would have justified why I shouldn’t practice and would have kept me from improving, maybe even causing me to quit and give up.
Now, I bring my awareness to this thought. I observe it objectively, realizing it’s simply a reaction to the difficult point I’ve reached in my learning journey. Maybe I recognize a pattern of behavior - giving up when things get too difficult because I think I cannot do it or overcome. I decide I don’t want to let this get in my way, so I withhold my resistance to the difficulties of learning a new skill and improving. I replace the original thought with a more open perspective: “I am learning. It’s not easy to learn a new instrument, but I am up to the challenge. Only by practicing will I improve. I am going to practice today and it will make me better. I don’t give up when things get difficult. I can do anything I set my mind to.”
Notice when you do this how empowered it makes you feel and how this empowerment often leads you to take productive action whether it’s practicing a new skill or hobby, for example, or simply walking away from clinging and resisting.
In Your Day-to-Day
You are consciousness in the seat of awareness
Use the awareness exercise (What Awareness Feels Like) to ground yourself in the seat of awareness, recenter your wholeness - mind, body, and soul - and find calm
Exercise awareness and presence to pause, observe and respond rather than react from thoughts, patterns, beliefs, or perceptions that keep you closed and stuck
Practicing awareness is foundational for cultivating your mindset and living consciously in connection with the vastness of life, the limitless possibilities of the present moment, and your role in shaping your experience
Use your practice of awareness and affirmations, like in RE/DO, to set your mindset for the day and whenever you are feeling stuck or experiencing negative thought patterns
Choose to redirect your attention away from the negative thought or belief after exploring where it might stem from and feed a new one with an affirmation
To continue nurturing your mindset, access the full workshop here →
