What is Awareness?
©Dan McClure, all rights reserved
Awareness is a necessary component for anyone studying how to expand their consciousness. Awareness is not thought. There are several definitions of awareness: state of elementary or undifferentiated consciousness; "the crash intruded on his awareness," "Listening from within," "Being in the moment," Zen one pointedness.
Being in the moment is comprised of two overarching skills. The first is awareness, and the second is attention. We are well aware of what is going on around us, but are hardly ever aware of how we process what is going on. A reactive cycle takes us out of the moment, so we’re less effective. Awareness of how we process what is going on is important for leaders and organizations because it saves time and energy.
Attention means the thing we are focusing on; what we are ‘thinking about’. With awareness, we have the opportunity to direct and control our thinking in a manner that yields the best results.
This is vastly different from howLearn to we in the West have been taught to think a) we confuse our thoughts with awareness b) and spread our attention thinly by multitasking.
Stay Curious, be persistent and and explore, explore, explore, the universe for the sheer fun of it! Find joy FIRST then extend it to the joy of exploring the universe. One of your first goals should be to move easily thru the "spaces" of consciousness easily & fluently. To move easily & fluently thru those spaces you need to spend time in the atypical spaces.
Learning to be present in-the-moment takes practice. It's not what you think, but where you think it from that is the more important. Thus being in-the-moment is the most powerful place to be in order to change your reality!
Just about everyone in Western culture is trained from adolescence to live forward "move thru the moment," I.E. "waiting for the paycheck, where to go on vacation, when to leave home to pick the kids up from school, what time to start dinner, appointments, schedules, etc. By this I mean our thoughts are constantly focused on the future. With this way of living our lives, we are pulled out of the 'NOW', the present time is forgotten. By living in forward time, we are not allowed to remain centered within ourselves. We are constantly lurching forward. We are kept off-balance. Learn to live and be in the NOW.
To learn/practice being in the moment watch a young child at play, they do it effortlessly. Cats are another source of being in the moment effortlessly. Yourself, lost in something is another example of being in the moment. In other words: smile, breathe, and go slowly.
"Every breath is sacred, every moment divine"
STAY CURIOUS
SHIFT HAPPENS.....
Have you played with the universe today? - Dan McClure
You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." — Plato
References & Links
What About Now?: Reminders for Being in the Moment
Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness
An Introduction to Awareness
Awareness
