How To Improve Consciousness And Awareness

September 29th, 2009

Defining Consciousness

Consciousness: “the state of being conscious; awareness of one’s own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc.” – reference.com

As kooky as this sounds, most people can relate to it a little. Have you ever experienced what Abraham Maslow coined “a peak experience”? Where you are totally in the moment, in a state of flow, where future and past have no hold over you. People strive for these states of total momentary awareness by taking alcohol and drugs, or fighting to be in that state of flow which forces all their sensory perceptions to be in the present moment.

Consciousness in the world at the moment is at a very low level.

If you don’t understand what I mean, have you ever spent 20 minutes on a bus or in an elevator thinking about something, only to come out the other side and realise that you don’t remember a single thing from that journey? What colour was the mans shoes in front of you? How many floors are their in the building? That’s because only the physical element of you was in that lift, you were trapped in your world as thoughts.

Accessing presence

Recently I’ve read a lot of books and articles on becoming present. I use several techniques to become present depending on the situation and convenience. There is more than one way to become present, paraphrasing Eckhart Tolle, all these techniques do is remove the rubbish and clutter between you and truth which deep down you know already. A lot of these techniques involve stepping out of and beyond the mind.

• Eat slowly and deliberately – As you eat, eat slowly and concentrate on the feeling, texture and taste of each bite. Usually when you eat, you don’t appreciate the flavour of food, you simply consume it and onto the next thing you were going to do.
• Walking Meditation – Go for a walk in the local park or another area of nature and concentrate on each footstep you take, listen to the birds.
• Listen to someone you disagree with – When somebody says something that you disagree with, listen to them as they speak, don’t be formulating your reply or thinking about what to eat tonight. Just listen and look them in the eyes. This is a simple truth that is overlooked and probably the hardest on the list.
• Concentrate on your breathing – I often do this before sleeping as its helps get rid of useless mental chatter about the day ahead. Concentrate your focus on the rising and falling of your chest as you breathe, try not to control your breathing but simply become aware of it.
• Taking a long shower – By taking a long shower, you can feel the water hitting your back and concentrate on the physical feeling of it. This is a great way to start the day because it focuses your mind before the workday begins.
• Try looking at something without calling it something – For example, see a cup on the table and don’t call it a cup just recognise it as being here at this moment, observe it with your eyes and don’t mentally label it, you then step outside of your mind.
• Get up and watch the sunrise, or watch the sunset and stars before bed – There’s hardly anything that brings you present and bypasses the mind more than a sunrise. Just watching it, gives you that mental clarity and breathless feeling, similar to when you look up at a night full of stars and getting a feeling of connectedness.

The beauty is that none of this except for the slow down one needs to take time out of your day, its a question of concentration and focus on what you are doing at his moment, which is not related to time slightly

Benefits of presence

• Laser-like Focus: because you focus on only what is happening now. You are not pulled by your next activity or still mentally lagging from your previous activity so can give your undivided attention.
• The ability to see others for what they are – When you are truly present, you don’t label others with tags who you come across, you simply are aware of them. This makes it hard to make enemies of others and bring a sense of peace into your life.
• Banishing the self: Because you are presence, becoming more present means becoming closer to the real you. You are a constant stream of current moments. Not a person with a history. You are never last Thursday or tomorrow, you are neither today, You are the here and now. I realised this after reading a post by Steve Pavlina on presence, which I can’t seem to find.

As you go around your daily life, slow down – I know what you’re thinking, heaven forbid! I have enough things on my plate without this guy telling me to stop going so fast. Most of us are racing through life at 150 mph and never slow down to appreciate the current moment and what it has to offer, as Eckhart Tolle accurately puts in his paradigm shifting book “The Power of Now”. The only moment we have is the present moment, all past is a memory, and future is a projection of the mind. So as you type at your computer, stop for a second take a deep breath and start to feel each key as you type it and you will step out of past/future being and into the present, increasing your consciousness.