Mindfulness/Awareness is knowing how our CONSCIOUS mind works. And not only that.
It also means that we are aware of how our SUBCONSCIOUS mind leads us into action!
Taking a conscious decision, and action, means being fully aware of what our choice leads to, what consequences it will have. It is based on experience, and evaluation of the results of such choice in the past, knowing that we LIKED what it brought along.
If however, we find ourselves repeatedly in similar situation which we don't approve of, similar choice we made which has brought about an UNDESIRED result, we should pause.
By pressing a pause button, we give ourselves a real chance to make changes in our life. The change can only come upon realising that up untill now we have NOT been making our choices, but rather acting on AUTOMATIC, driven by our subconscious beliefs. By asking ourselves curious questions we are likely to unravel these beliefs.
The goal is to slow down the flow of our thoughts, so that we can understand what they are proposing, and investigate their validity. Some of us have such fast rumination and flow of thoughts, often repeating themselves on endless loop. We just CAN'T STOP thinking!
We do things, and live our lives, yet we don't give attention to what we are doing. Do your remember your journey home? Do you hear what is your partner, or your child, asking?
We don't live in the present moment but in our heads! We don't live in the reality of the Now, but in an artificial reality of yesterday's percetions which no longer exist, and tomorrow's assumptions which don't exist yet! We are depressed about not being able to change the past, and anxious about the uncertainty of our future. Fear, negativity, confusion is what we FOCUS on, and what drives us.
You could say that we actually dream a nightmare, that we are actualy asleep, as we automatically react from our subconscious, from mainly fearful and negative beliefs, instead of acting with awareness to what is happening right now, choosing the life we want.
....No wonder we cannot live in peace, and have a good night sleep!?
There are various techniques on how to pause our dream, how to interupt our arteficial life which otherwise is on fast forward.
Meditation for example, helps to us to discover the space IN BETWEEN OUR THOUGHTS
With its practice, and in time, it allows us to slow down our thought processes and quiet our conscious mind.
Have you ever wondered how this space in between your thoughts feels?
Have you ever stared at something in awe? Do you remember that feeling?? THAT is how this space feels. For sure you feel lost for words in amazement....
Meditation opens the door to exploration of our subconscious space. It lets our conscious mind in. Our subconscious is much larger than our conscious space, like a wonderland really.
It is a source of our unlimited potential, creativity, and unconditional love. It hides our true power.
But it also hides our DEMONS: the structure of our long standing/core FALSE SELF-BELIEFS, our worst critic and 'NO.1 enemy'.
Based on our beliefs we react to NEW situations as if they were identical to the past ones. Like an invisible filter which makes us believe and see a new situation, or person, as a copy of our past experience. And of course a painful experience makes us re-live the pain of the past. Like trough a tracing paper.
For example, if we falsely believe about ourselves that we are not good enough, we take any criticism badly, we get very defensive.
Why? Because it HURTS to feel not good enough!
Every time someone points out that we DIDN'T DO WELL, we are re-living the pain from our childhood when our parents criticised us for what we DID wrong.
So we decided that we ARE wrong! That we ARE bad....not good....or not good enough.
We take what others do and say (which points to our ‘defect'), personally. In the same way we took it personally the first time it happened to us. As children, we didn’t understand many things.... Like parents being in a bad mood, but we made everything about ourselves.
Everything others did was because of us.
Why? Because the world revolved around us! We were the centre of everything till certain age when we were forced to acknowledge other people and THEIR needs.
Another example of a false self-belief is when we get jealous with others. We kick off because deep down we believe about ourselves that we are unloveable.
Again, when we were little, mum or dad had given attention to our sibling, or prefered to finish their work, and we have falsely assumed that this is the end of it. We ASSUMED that they don’t love us anymore! In fact anything we perceived as emotional pain of rejection/refusal we translated as 'not deserving’ of love.
You see, pain is your teacher. It as an opportunity to HEAL those emotional wounds to become WHOLE again. To conceal those ‘defects’ we think we have. To stop believing we are imperfect, that we are not enough, or loveable.
Not resisting your pain allows you to grow in an emotionally mature adult, and not just a grown up CHILD.
Pain really shows you where you need to heal, like with your physical body. If you see your pain as a useless monster, it will become one....it will haunt you, and no matter how much you distract yourself, it will come back. It always does.
Try to welcome your pain as an opportunity for healing. Stand tall.
Your monster will disappear, and you will start to see who you are, that you are NOT your fear, and nor your pain. That you are not a victim of anyone else but your own false beliefs....
Thank you for reading. If my article contributed to understanding yourself, please be generous and share it with others.
Copyright © 2016 Michaela Patel