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So you think you’re in charge of your life? Radical Awareness is the means by which we can become aware of the stories running us. Radical Awareness-in a nutshell is becoming aware of what we’re thinking, feeling, saying, doing and why.
So, for example, Law of Attraction aficionados are all about maintaining a positive focus and keeping one’s eye on the prize. Yet many who practice this focus aren’t even sure of what the thing they think they’re wanting, will bring them.
Greater peace? Greater wisdom? Greater insight? More compassion? Nope, usually, it’s a need to create more stuff, more status or more approval from others-at its root.
Whoever said: “Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it,” was a very smart being..
We often get what we want and feel disappointed, empty, or ready for the next thing soon after. We’re constantly seeking the things we believe will fulfil us. We spend our lives trying to get the perfect girl or guy, or the house of our dreams, or generate income surplus to our needs.
Yet all we’re truly seeking is inner peace. All we’re ever seeking at our core is to know and feel that we are already enough. This is where Radical Awareness comes in. Its subtext is always: “Do you know you’re enough right now?”
Do you consider yourself to be enough without all of your stuff or without anyone’s approval? Are you enough whether you’ve dropped or gained that 50 pounds?
When we become more aware of what we’re thinking, doing, feeling, saying and why; then we get to be in a conscious relationship with life. Life is movement, a happening. It unfolds and evolves endlessly. Yet at its root, there is deep and unchanging stillness and peace.
When you understand that you are not separate from life that must mean you are also here to unfold and evolve. Yet at your core, you too are deep and abiding peace. Once you understand that, then what you think you need, and what you actually need, become much clearer to you.
Radical Awareness, allows you to become more aware of your unfolding thought. You then get to ask:
- Where did that thought come from?
- What story or memory is that thought attached to?
- What feeling is that thought engendering in me?
- Am I at peace with that thought-story or not?
Whether our thought-stories are about our bodies, our love relationships, our family dynamics, or who we’re being in the public arena; the same applies. Are we really aware of what we’re doing, saying, thinking, feeling and why?
Is it our story that’s running us or someone else’s? Are these our expectations, or someone else’s? Are we just blindly accepting norms and societal values and calling them our own without questioning? If so, why?
These questions free us up. They expand our perception and awareness. When we expand in awareness, we are more open to how life wants to authentically unfold through us. We become more surrendered to that unfolding and no longer need to look to others to define who we are or to decide whether we are deemed worthy or not.
Creating a conscious relationship with life by becoming radically aware, lays waste to our comfort zones and prejudices. We can see where we’re being driven by ego-boosting or ego-diminishing thoughts. We also see just how many judgements we make towards ourselves or others daily.
So next time you’re out in the public arena, perhaps on the bus, train or in a restaurant somewhere, try observing yourself and your thoughts. As you do, ask yourself:
- Is this thought bringing me more peace and joy, or less?
- Is this judgement of another, connecting me to my inner stillness or not?
- Is this desire to have this or that object a way to make myself feel like a better person?
It’s fascinating what we discover when we explore who we are in this in-depth way. But it is also a challenge. For what you begin to discover about yourself may shift everything you thought you knew about yourself, or life.
This article was previously published on LinkedIn and is reprinted here with the author’s permission.
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