IT ALL STARTS WITH AWARENESS
Awareness is a funny thing. We think that we know it, that we are aware. We function in our busy worlds after all, don’t we? We must be aware!
Well … sort of. I think of awareness as being a spectrum. Where we sit on it, well that can vary - A LOT! Have a think for a minute, can you remember a time where you’ve been driving or walking and you get to your destination, but you don’t remember any of it? What about turning off the hair straighteners - this one is me everytime my sleep gets knocked about!!!
We think that we are aware, but how much we are aware of, well that is another thing. We get distracted an outrageous amount of the time, in all honesty, our entire modern world is designed to distract us. Unfortunately, the more that we are distracted, the further that we slip down that awareness-spectrum, the tougher life becomes. We disconnect from our mind and our body. We start to feel distance in our relationships with others, we make mistakes more frequently and the self-chatter, you know that trickster inner voice, that gets louder. It can impact how we feel about ourselves, how we feel about our world, about how we feel about others. It can quite literally kill our dreams. It most certainly dulls our intuition.
Awareness is the first step of any self-development journey. It’s important to know that when I talk about self-development, I’m not talking about changing who you are, rather stepping back into who you are. Everything starts with awareness. Awareness of thoughts, emotions, behaviours, beliefs and triggers. When we are aware of ourselves, what it means to be our unique and authentic self, we can adapt all of these things and live with freedom. Imagine if you didn’t have to keep those same unhelpful thought patterns - and then the unhelpful behaviours. Imagine if you could actually see great opportunities, ones that could propel you forward instead of that internal mean girl (or boy!) that is always there to hold you back.
It really does all start with awareness. This is one of the most powerful gifts that mindfulness has given me. When I first started out on my journey of mindfulness (and back then I was only doing it to tame my out of control nervous system!) I was terrified that if I learnt to meditate that I wouldn’t be ‘me’ anymore. I’d be a beige, dull version of myself that had few opinions, felt little and didn’t feel as passionately. How I was wrong. It was the opposite. I now feel things, my emotions, feelings far more strongly. I’m way more conscious of them, however I don’t merge with them and wallow in them for days/weeks. I know the ones that are going to wreak havoc on my sleep and stress levels and I can address them. For those things that I feel passionately about, I still do, I’m just a little smarter in how I approach them. For example, I’ve been notorious at starting things and not finishing. It became almost numbing behaviour! I know really see why I’m attracted to a new project, I think it through and I move through all of the stages, not getting stuck at the beginning. It really does all start with awareness. This is why these tools are used for performance enhancement as well as healing. You get to see you again!
So, cultivate the practice of awareness and get into the habit of checking in with yourself, regularly. Ask questions like:
Ohhhh, what triggered THAT response? How long as this pattern (of behaviour, thinking) been around?
Ask yourself the questions that can really help you uncover what is actually going on. Where you need to heal, where you need to change. It’s the first and foremost step!
How will you start to cultivate your awareness?