Let’s get aware!

So, what does that even mean? It means to notice. To get curious. To watch. To place your focus on what is happening.
To become aware is not to attach meaning on things, it does not mean you are better than anyone else or that you are right.
Awareness simply means you are noticing, you are aware. Aware of what? Of yourself. Aware of reality verses the conditioned mind.
To become aware is to have an open perception of reality.
It’s time to become aware!

Thoughts

“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.” — Mahatma Gandhi
Recent studies show we have more than 6000 thoughts per day. Majority of these are negative and the same sentences over and over again. It’s easy for our brains to think negatively, we’re just wired that way. When we think negatively, our cortisol (the primary stress hormone) goes up, so it’s not as easy to think positively. Negative thinking generates more negative thinking.. unless we catch ourselves and choose again.
Start to become aware of your thoughts and their patterns. Usually these thoughts aren’t what we would choose if we became conscious of them. If it isn’t serving you, let it go.
Add “Up until now” at the end of a negative sentence. Eg. “I’m struggling.. up until now” or “things never work out for me.. up until now”. This tricks your brain into solving its problems and you can then start a new thought pattern.
Replace your negative thoughts with positive ones. For EVERY negative there is a positive. This is the best practice to retrain your brain to think positively. You are changing your perception.
We become our thoughts, so let’s start choosing ones that serve us.

Perception

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see” -Henry David Thoreau
Two people can be looking at the exact same thing and see something completely different. This doesn’t mean one is right and the other wrong, it is simply two perceived views. The brain learns to filter the information based on the response from our five senses.
Our perception can change. You can choose to look at something differently. You can become aware of the way you see things and step back to have a more neutral view. Awareness is key.
Ask yourself, is there another way of looking at this?

Past and Future

Memory and Imagination are another two faculties of the mind; our past and future. Neither of them are here, but we spend so much time there in our heads.
Where does your mind take you? Memories of the past or future imagination? Can you become aware each time your mind drifts off?
Bring your attention to right now. If you don’t control your mind, it will control you. Past and future only exist in your head, it’s up to you how much power you give them.
It’s an ever returning to this moment.

Choice

There is always a choice, always.
In every moment you have a choice, whether it’s what you do, eat, say, wear.. you have a choice in how you react, in what you take on, in what you say yes to.. everything in your world is created by one choice after the next.
It may be time to slow down and bring your awareness to how the choices you have made up until now have created your current situation. Every decision is a step towards the path of mediocrity or the path of desire. Inaction is a choice too.
Your freedom, your power, your reality all lay in what you choose.

Reality

You can create new thoughts.
When your thoughts change, you change your perception.
Your perception of the world is your reality.
So.
Your reality is just a choice.
Thoughts -> Perception -> Reality
.All choice.
You create your reality!

Presence

“Presence is the key to freedom. So you can only be free now.” -Eckhart Tolle
Presence is awareness. Are you here? Like really here. Shift your awareness to this moment, always.
Your mind can’t wrap its head around the present moment, but you can feel it. You notice when you’ve had moments of bliss, of timelessness or joy. That’s presence.
You always have now to return to.

Time

Time is the ultimate illusion, it keeps us fixated on the past or future. You can imagine time on a horizontal axis, but we are here, vertical.
Time is simply a tool to measure and live accordingly, but we are so fixated on it.. time left, time lost.
Time serves its purpose, but not more than now. This moment gets forever lost whilst we’re looking for the next one.
Can you see time for what it is? Can you bring your awareness to now? The present moment transcends time, you exist here.

Human

Let’s take a moment to acknowledge our humanness.
We make mistakes, we fuck up, we feel scared, we feel alone, we think fucked up thoughts, we judge, we compare, we don’t know what we’re doing..
We’re all just doing our best with what we know.
It’s when we know better that we can do better. It’s when we can become aware of what we’re doing that we can make better choices.
Being human is meant to keep us connected, not separate us. If you’re experiencing something, chances are someone else has experienced it too.. or they would in the same situation. Can you give someone a break today? Maybe yourself. We’re all just human after all.

Acknowledge

To admit the truth. To admit the existence of that truth.
Awareness has to lead to acknowledgment if you want to start actively choosing your life. It might be acknowledging that you have been doing something up until now that is not healthy, that goes against who you want to be or feels uncomfortable to admit. Acknowledgement is big. It can feel really vulnerable. It takes balls.
When we can acknowledge something, we put ourselves in a very powerful position. We get to decide what’s next. Continue the same patterns, or make a new path?Let go. Choose again.
After you bring your awareness to something, particularly yourself.. start to acknowledge what you see, no judgment, just acceptance of what is. You’re proclaiming the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Now

Now is all there ever is. Moment to moment awareness. Consecutive moments of now.
Our mind can’t grasp the present moment, so it lives through our memory or imagination. But if we practice being present, if we can let go of the mind chatter and just be here.. there is so much peace and joy available to us.

-Chelsea-