It remains an on-going challenge of mine to clarify for people what I do professionally. Without trying to be fancy about it, I am an "Awareness Guide." The idea of awareness as a commodity seems quite unfamiliar to many people, even though their levels of daily struggle and effort, as well as stagnancy and dissatisfaction demonstrate just how valuable and needed this assistance really is right now. We've all been taught to focus on the outcome, so that's where most of us put our attention when we focus on change. This focus at least helps us to know what we are ready to either move away from or move toward. However, most people do not have the knowledge they need to manage and participate in the process that leads to their desired outcome. This is when it is time to learn something new – about yourself, about your habits, your strategies & coping skills, about the way you think & feel, about what you desire and believe is possible, and how all these factors can bring influence to your outcome. This is the time for receiving guidance, to expedite your progress and bring integration to your results. This is the perfect time to engage the next level of your capacity in the cognitive developmental process that guides every human being toward the fulfillment of their potential. This is a time for developing awareness.
Cognitive development naturally occurs within each individual, yet it also influences the development of our collective consciousness – what we bring agreement and reinforcement to as a society and world. This is the process of how we acquire knowledge through the use of reasoning, intuition and perception – how we organize the information that assists us in navigating our daily lives. In simpler terms, it's the process of how we learn to "connect the dots." These tools give us the ability to recognize patterns and learn new strategies in the way we respond to life, ourselves, others … everything. The recognition of patterns is a natural skill of the nervous system, rather than the mind. The mind can out-smart itself, get confused, or fall under the habitual influence of familiarity and routine. However, with the help of the nervous system, body & mind can learn to coordinate the informational cues that are gained from reasoning, intuition and perception through a much more comprehensive and efficient means. Sensory awareness informs the mind of the subtle nuances that are influencing a particular pattern in the moment, allowing us to adapt and respond to this new information as we become aware of it. Knowledge combined with sensory awareness brings about a new state of consciousness called "connection."
The more we operate from habit, the less connection is needed. In the same way, the more we operate from connection, the less habit is needed – which shows us the path toward breaking through old habits when we have come to the point where they no longer serve us or the trade-off is too costly. When we are in greater degrees of distress, we tend to rely more heavily on habit – though, we do have other options. We are very capable of learning how to tell the difference between the internal states of connection & disconnection. Without this discernment, we risk generating too great a disparity in the way we assess and respond to our needs. For example, you may assess that you need to relax; however, without the self-connection to support your choices, you are likely to generate an interim response as a substitute for the real support you need – like smoking. All you wanted was the support to relax, but your state of disconnection generated a response that also put you at threat for developing an addiction and at risk for disease, while also perpetuating the gap in your self-connection to threatening degrees. The trade-off for this transitory relief comes with too much loss to the self. Your body & mind – your entire being – is meant to resist and defend against too much "loss of self." In somatic terms, this loss of essence is synonymous with the spirit leaving the body. Awareness brings light to our ability to make choices that lead toward death, as well as our capacity to choose life.
Each phase of the developmental process brings a tangible value to the self. The "doing" phase allows us to demonstrate our Self – "This is what I did. You can see it & know it, and I can see it & know it. It is real; I am real." Through "doing-ness," we portray who we want to be, how we want others to know us, and how we want to be valued in a group. These actions help move us along the path between "point A & point B," practicing what it's like to make things happen. This is the process of actualizing, making ourselves real. The mind likes this range of expression because it is visible, measurable, substantial, and easily translates into a sense of significance. We need this quality of importance to be real, so that the meaning of who we are can translate into the meaning of the lives we live. We need to know that this meaning is valid, even in the most basic way – we need to know that we matter enough to be alive.
While this basic need for significance is a driving rhythm in the courses we chart for ourselves, the momentum of the developmental process keeps us moving forward into new levels of self-connection. What happens next when we have demonstrated and accepted the significance of the self? What comes of mastering the "doing-ness" of life? What other level of functioning can we expand toward to satiate our underlying need to matter and make a difference? When things have been made real and have been verified – "I exist and I matter" – where does the self journey take us next?
Every phase of development has a saturation point, which is a condition of maximum absorption, a state of order allowing for the comprehensive use of resources, a fullness and completeness. When this saturation point is reached, we naturally build energy to evolve, allowing us to convert old resources – to reorganize – and develop a more comprehensive, inclusive and advanced way of processing information. From the mastery of "doing", we are meant to transition into the next developmental stage of "experiencing." There are many techniques and disciplines that can assist us in learning how to be more in our experience, giving us ways to practice and refine our ability to access this expanded state of consciousness beyond knowledge. Experiencing emerges from the natural momentum of our growth, and brings forth a maturity within our living system.
Each developmental step demands an increasing need for advancing states of awareness. Awareness is a natural response in a healthy nervous system – encompassing body and mind. Our survival depends upon it being an integral part of how we function and live. However, it must be reinforced in order to be "active" within us. Awareness is the link that reorganizes new responses in the brain. In the beginning stages, the focus is primarily in learning how to notice, which is the skill of observing the self at a sensation level. This sensory information acts as the raw ingredients to form our thoughts & feelings and is eventually organized into our perceptions – how we see ourselves, others and the world.
As new information is gathered through observation, the next level of focus is narration, which is the skill of describing whatever your awareness notices. This practice moves the vagueness of the disconnected body-mind into greater specificity as you bring a more detailed version of your experience into conscious focus. Narration is different than "explaining" in that it is not attempting to account for how or why things happened. Instead, it simply brings into the light the conscious acknowledgement that "this is what happened," referencing both the external (events & actions) and internal (thoughts & feelings) aspects of your experience. The ability to activate consciousness through reflection is a higher-brain function that we have been blessed with for the purpose of growth.
First, you develop the ability to infuse awareness into your experience after the fact. What can you notice that you missed while reacting out of habit? What did you want to have happen? Notice if you feel deprived, let down, disappointed, or frustrated, as clues to your expectations. Notice your thoughts, like "I didn't get what I wanted again." These are all signs that your ability to choose, as well as your desire or intention for a different outcome, was thwarted because your experience was on auto-pilot. Techniques and disciplines like meditation, yoga, Pilates, somatic guidance, focused breathing, body work, physical exercise, Tai Chi, dance, martial arts, singing, etc. – all support the development of a different baseline of focus to generate greater awareness. But the challenge isn't to just generate or develop awareness. Integration occurs only when we apply this awareness to our current experiences.
Many people learn how to develop awareness, but remain tethered to the technique or discipline. So even though awareness is brought into the equation, the developmental focus remains stuck in the "doing" – "I do this as a way to raise my awareness. And I enjoy the shift in my experience while in this state of heightened awareness. But eventually, my focus returns to habit as I encounter the challenges of my daily life. Therefore, I must keep going back to this discipline or technique to get back to that place of (openness, fullness, peacefulness, quiet, calm)."
This cycle of behavioral reinforcement helps us to anchor the experience of awareness as an actual state of consciousness that is real, a connection that we can lose but also regain, and therefore, can revisit as often as needed for support in our daily lives. This anchoring or imprinting is a part of the process of developing awareness. However, here is where a common challenge is encountered. The brain likes mastery, and many people become stuck in the identity that is gained from mastering the access of awareness. However, the momentum has been built within the nervous system to connect this dot to the next. Now that you have access, what comes next? Like reading the fine print of a contract, now that you are aware at this level, what are the new thoughts & feelings that emerge into your awareness in this moment? This is the step of application. Gaining access to awareness can initiate the process of change, but its impact can also be stifled by compartmentalizing it as part of the "doing-ness" – like holding it as an accomplishment. The potential of awareness becomes fully realized as we apply it to our experiences. Awareness holds the power to change our trajectory, to alter the course of our lives, and to bring our lives into alignment with our purpose for being alive. And since we will continue to have experiences until we die, the application of awareness is a life-time process of integration. It is this path of integration that is the full expression of our developmental capacity as human beings.
Even though developing new states of awareness is a natural body-mind function, in the "doing" phase of our development, awareness isn't yet recognized as a high value. Awareness requires moments of pause, which are seen as a delay or distraction to the focus of "doing." "Doing-ness" produces movement, but often either without enough focus (busyness) or with a compartmentalized focus for each action (tasks). This is a picture of many dots, but without lines connecting the dots. Awareness is the line that connects the dots. Think about a childhood coloring book with a connect-the-dots picture. Your brain sees a page full of dots. However, this developmental activity helps your brain practice a new skill by numbering the dots so that you can perceive that they exist in an order. As you draw lines to connect the dots in order, your brain sees with more efficiency a pattern that reveals new information. You eventually realize that it's not just a page full of dots, but it's actually an elephant! And this insight brings you into a new state of consciousness as you step into your own experience. Your experience is where your imagination and creativity reside – so now you perceive options, and you can choose … to envision the elephant in the jungle or at the zoo, eating an ice cream, taking a bath, assume it to be fierce or friendly; even making your own rules to invent a rainbow elephant! Anything is possible.
This is the gift of awareness – unlimited possibility. It doesn't matter whether you "believe" this state of unlimited possibility to be real. Your ability to believe or not believe in the realness of something reflects an internal state of connection or disconnection in your mind. "Realness" is not an external state of evidence. All you have to do is learn to allow your awareness to integrate into your "doing-ness." The more time you spend in the experiential realm of your experience, the more your brain will recognize that "realness" is influenced and reinforced through the way you participate in the process of your experience.
Like the signature slogan of BASF Corporation – "We don't make a lot of the products you buy. We make a lot of the products you buy better."™ – Awareness is not what you do or who you are. Awareness is what makes everything you do and everything you are better. Awareness translates your significance in an experience so you gain the nourishment you need at the core of who you are. Awareness transforms information into meaning so that you can reach beyond the access of the mind and move into the body where your spirit resides. Awareness gives you the power to change your relationship to anything. Whatever you believe is possible, whatever you have learned is true, whatever you have proven to yourself as real – awareness is the key that will unlock your full potential and give you the chance to not just live a better life, but to be the best you.
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