Awareness: one step away from change.

Imagine you're in a dangerous situation but can't fight or run away. You're stuck. What do you do? You freeze.

Part of the freeze response means cutting off the feeling. It makes sense. You're expecting pain to come, so you want to prepare for it. The problem starts when you freeze for a long while.

You would need some powerful stimulation to feel anything at all. You feel completely disconnected from your body, living only inside the head. It's more common than you think.

Of course, you might THINK that you feel everything. Until you start paying attention to those really subtle changes happening from one moment to another in your body. The entire universe of new sensations opens up.

And you have to admit to yourself that:

• No, you have never noticed that your breath is rapid and shallow.

• No, you have never realised that you clench your fists and teeth long before you blurt out a curse and yell.

• No, you never noticed that you're still tensing your neck muscles even when your head rests with all its weight on the ground.
  This holding became your default years ago. Meanwhile, your body has entirely forgotten that it could ever release.

• No, you never noticed you don't even try to place any weight on your knees because you had an injury ages ago.
  You started believing that your knees were too fragile to kneel.

• And you never paid attention that you stop breathing to push yourself deeper into the twist.
  Just because you want to do it 'well'.

Just as you move by default, you also act, speak and think by default. You're so used to reacting according to a particular pattern that it becomes a fully automated response.

You're so used to the Inner Critic in your head that you don't even consider that inner voice could ever acknowledge and accept you the way you are right now. With no striving for more. No judgement of success or failure.

Awareness is the pre-condition for ANY change. If you DON'T know about something, surely you can't change it.

Let's reverse it: the fact you KNOW something (FEEL it on an experiential level) means you're halfway towards changing it already.

Mindfulness gives you the gateway to your inner landscape. You learn both about your sensations and emotions. EVERY emotion shows itself as a sensation in your body!

With awareness, you discover places where you hold chronic, subconscious tension. You notice your patterns, both in movement and thought.

That’s why awareness is one of the cornerstones of my teachings.

But the awareness is NOT enough. Left alone, it could turn into obsessive criticism. Acceptance and loving kindness (I wrote more about them in THIS post) are necessary complements.

What does it take to notice? Most of all, slow down.
Tune your attention inward, without external distractions. Let your inner landscape become the most fascinating thing in the world.

Would you like to try it out?
I recommend starting with this practice on my YouTube channel.