The Awareness Technique

Have you ever been upset about something and had thoughts and feelings swirling around in your mind, making you feel dizzy, sick, angry, confused or irrational?  Have you felt furious and unbalanced and not knowing what end is up?  This is an awful experience, but a very real human one.

Fritz Perls, the Founder of Gestalt Therapy called this MindFucking.  It is a good description, isn’t it?  If you don’t like using that description there are plenty of other ones to use like: Monkey Mind, Junko Logic, “Bull Shit”, or Bologna.  No matter what you call it, this mind garbage is an unpleasant, frustrating and completely unproductive behavior that can lead to real mental and emotional problems.

I have a tool to help you get your control, center and resourcefulness back. I call this tool, The Awareness Technique.  You practice this technique by simply stating, out loud, “Now, I am awareness of _____________.”  In this blank, you say some specific, raw, factual data from one of your five senses.  Then, you say the basic sentence again, “Now, I am aware of ___________” and put in another piece of sensory data of which you are aware.  It goes like this, “Now, I am aware of a burning sensation in my eyes. Now, I am aware of the music playing. Now, I am aware of my fingers moving.  Now, I am aware of a taste in my mouth, Now, I am aware of breathing.  Now, I am aware of a pain in my right upper arm. Now, I am aware of my bottom on the seat of the chair. Now, I am aware of an itch on my cheek.” Notice, that you say only the specific sensory data.  You leave out all judgment, qualifiers and adjectives (except for color), and use as little description as possible.  In other words, you wouldn’t say, “Now, I am aware of the slight pain in my right upper arm.” “Slight” is a qualifier and you know saying this qualifier tells you that you have gone back into your mind instead of staying in the moment.  Your mind will fight you on this.  You might hear things from your mind like, “This is stupid.” “This doesn’t do anything.” “This doesn’t solve anything problems.” This is just your mind trying to gain control back as you minimize its catastrophic storytelling and negative interpretations and projections.

You do this Awareness Technique while you are doing your daily life. It is an active meditation and is to be done out loud while you are washing the dishes, folding your clothes, walking out to your car, walking into work, jogging or whatever.  This technique will actually get you OUT OF YOUR MIND and INTO YOUR SENSES, OUT OF YOUR THINKING and INTO YOUR BEING.  When you get yourself back to the MOMENT you automatically tap into your resourcefulness, your capacity, your inner wisdom and objective observer. You then have the chance to gain your center or grounding back, gain a balanced and possibly new perspective and tap into your freedom of choice.

Give this little active meditation a try.  Practice it for three minutes, three times a day and see how you approach your difficulties in a better way.  If you have any questions, confusions or concerns email me at jan@theawarenessoption.com.  And, Keep Your Eye Out.  Soon to come is a little video where I teach The Awareness Technique in more detail.  Good Luck!!! I would love to hear from you.