Practicing Awareness
Practicing Awareness
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Awareness must be practiced daily. We can understand the concepts, but it is not until they are applied that we fully appreciate them. Here are just a few methods designed to help you slow down, smell the roses, and develop a heightened sense of awareness in your everyday life.
The Pause (Mindfulness)
The Pause (Mindfulness)
Stop what you are doing and pause for a moment.
Be unbothered; don't check your phone; don’t think about your next item on your to-do list.
Instead. Simply observe.
Ask yourself the following questions:
What can I hear right now?
What can I feel touching my skin?
How am I feeling right now, in this very moment? Name those emotions.
What thoughts are passing through my mind? Capture them and observe.
Research shows that momentary pauses and intrinsic reflection can improve your ability to manage attention bandwidth and acknowledge mental status (Kabat-Zinn, 2013; Payne et al., 2021).
Most of us move through our day without giving a single thought to these questions. We can start practicing intentional awareness when we make the time to pause long enough to observe ourselves.
Enviornment Awareness
Enviornment Awareness
This time, take in your environment. What is the room or environment telling you? What details might some overlook?
Look for:
Possible exit options
The lighting, smells, and sounds
Other people's body language
Does anything feel out of place?
You are not necessarily looking for danger or issues in your environment; you are simply practicing observation.
The idea is to train your brain to notice what is in your environment instead of drifting through it.
Over time, you start to develop what is called situational awareness or the ability to perceive elements, understand their meaning, and anticipate what might happen next (Endsley, 1995; Endsley & Garland, 2000).
Locus of Control
Locus of Control
Reflect and organize the following questions for yourself.
Things outside of your control
People’s opinions and actions
Expected and Unexpected Events
External Circumstances
Things within your control:
Your thoughts
Your Words
Your reactions
Your decisions
Your effort
Those with a solid internal locus of control tend to acknowledge that while external situations and events are unpredictable, their behavior remains within their influence (Rotter, 1966; Lefcourt, 2014).
Understanding what is and is not within your control will help to reduce anxiety and allow you to focus on what matters.
Reflection
Reflection
Awareness is a skill, not a place to be. We must continually practice it.
As with any other skill, some are naturally inclined, but at the end of the day, practice is where opportunity and preparedness meet.
Not raw talent. You don’t need to be like Sherlock Holmes, but the more you observe yourself, your thoughts, environment, and behaviors, the more clearly you will see the patterns that shape your life.
The only thing you can truly control is yourself, and being aware of that will help you to live a fuller and happier life.
References
References
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2013). Full catastrophe living: Using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and illness (Revised ed.). Bantam Books.
Payne, P., Crane-Godreau, M. A., & Khalsa, S. B. S. (2021). Mindfulness-based interventions in health care: A systematic review of the literature. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 27(2), 88–102.
Endsley, M. R. (1995). Toward a theory of situational awareness in dynamic systems. Human Factors, 37(1), 32–64.
Endsley, M. R., & Garland, D. J. (2000). Situation-awareness analysis and measurement. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lefcourt, H. M. (2014). Locus of control: Current trends in theory and research. Psychology Press.
Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 80(1), 1–28.
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