Thrive and Awaken® Tip

Thrive and Awaken® Tip: Pure awareness calls us…are you listening?

We all get lost in the shiny objects that draw our attention. These moments can remind us to return to the part of ourselves that is aware, rather than being absorbed by what awareness notices.

In Survival Mode, our sensory systems are focused on an immediate danger. For example, if faced with a bear in the woods, you will not be listening to the frogs calling each other or see the birds flying across the brightly lit moon. You will be fixated on the bear.

This heightened focusing kept our ancestors alive and has been passed along to us. This ancient fixation continues to shape our reactions during everyday stress. As a result, we don’t fully take in the richness of life around us. This focus on objects consumes our life. Even when we don’t feel threatened, we are consumed with scanning objects that may include a song you don’t like or a car you do like.

Our normal state of being is focusing on something. Anything. Often with judgment. Such scanning consumes our mind and feeds the life stories that make up our identities. For example, I’m shorter or not as attractive as my friends.

In Thriving Mode we learn to calm the mind and expand our perceptions which allow us to choose what to focus on. This helps us monitor our emotions and behaviors so we can respond rather than react.

In Awakening Mode there is another shift in perception. We begin to experience the awareness that is aware of the objects. We still notice objects (for example, people or movies) but we don’t get lost in the objects. We are pure awareness. Imagine being the vast blue sky and feel the openness, the stillness, and the awareness that you are. You feel its expansiveness surrounding the Earth. You are consumed with how vast it is. There are birds and planes flying through the sky, you notice them, yet your attention remains as the vast blue sky that holds them all.

Contemplation:

Ground and breathe. Let your awareness expand from being the sky to the vastness of the universe, to all of reality. It is calling you to shift your perception from all the alluring objects to aligning with the whole of reality.

 Be the greater consciousness/pure awareness of reality. It’s calling. Are you listening?