Awareness appears when you stop using your mind to look and start looking at your mind.
The human mind is an ocean of memories, conditioned behaviors, and perspectives born from experience. While we’re in the driver’s seat of our consciousness––being the rider on the horse, as they say––it feels like we’re aware of what we’re doing and are making every decision along the way. In reality, most of our actions go unexamined. It’s tough to come to terms with this at first, but with a small amount of self-examination, we can see that it’s true.
It’s worth the effort to look inward in this way because by gaining a clearer view of ourselves, we gain more awareness of our thoughts and actions. This self-awareness is a tool with which we can positively shape our lives in a real way instead of a fictionalized one that yields no results.
A simple example of the difference between living with and without mindful awareness can be seen in the act of eating ice cream. When the mood strikes, one normally stands up, walks into the kitchen, pulls out the ice cream, and starts eating away. A person that’s cultivated awareness would notice the craving to eat ice cream arise in the mind, and the impulse to go into the kitchen and get some. They would then be able to make the choice to do so or not.
That window of mindful awareness is where all the action is. It’s when you have the power to choose who you are, and who you will be, in the effervescent flow of time. Every word we speak and action we take is preceded by a chain reaction of subconscious activity that’s pushed through the filters of our memory, conditioning, and current physical/emotional state. Those things then manifest into impulses, cravings, reactions, and so on that blurt out of us as unexamined behaviors. Cultivating a sense of mindful awareness strengthens your ability to turn who you hope to be, into who you actually are.
Meditation is one method of developing mindful awareness. Another that's easy to practice during daily life is called 'noting.' Essentially, this is the act of mentally ‘noting’ every action you take as it happens. For example, if you’re going to take a drink of water, you would think “thirst, thirst” > ‘grabbing cup, grabbing cup’ > ‘lifting, lifting’ > ‘drinking, drinking’ > ‘swallowing, swallowing’ > ‘setting cup down, setting cup down.’
Monks in training practice this 24/7 for months or even years. Assuming you’re not a monk, don’t worry about keeping it going for too long. Just try it when you remember for a few minutes at a time. Even while you're walking you can notice ‘stepping, stepping.’ After you play with this a few times, start looking at what happens right before the thing you note. You’ll start seeing more deeply into your impulses, like ‘the desire to move my leg’, instead of 'moving leg' or ‘I want to move my hand to scratch my shoulder’ instead of 'scratching shoulder' or ‘I have the urge to speak’ instead of 'speaking, speaking.'
With a little practice, this will blow your mind. You’ll start having clear insights into a whole new dimension of your Self. You’ll see your impulses and conditioned behaviors arise in your mind in every situation. Then, you’ll be able to either mindfully ignore or follow through with them.
With greater mindful awareness, you can not only be a greater version of yourself but a freer version, no longer controlled by unexamined impulses.
This begs the question: Would a bit more practice help you look even deeper? How much more free can you be and how might that change your future?
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Sounds: Binaural Beats
Vibes: Guided Meditations
Book: Now Is the Way
Thank You for this one, Literally Mindfulness is a game changer...Keep sharing knowledge on Mindfulness Cory👍👍👍
"have mind blown, have mind blown"