We Need To Be Fully Aware

This is the seventh of seven key understandings.

To be aware is to be fully conscious, fully awake, fully alive! Awareness is the primary quality of our mind – our natural state of being. Being awake and aware and in the present moment is the foundation of being able to think, speak and act wisely and with love. It assists us to remember and apply everything we may have learned about how to live.

Being fully aware in the present moment is fully connecting to life – being fully alive. The present moment is the thread that runs through our life. Things are always changing but what doesn’t change is that it is always the present moment and we are always here experiencing it. It’s always NOW. We are always HERE. We are always BEING. We need to Be Here Now – where life is happening. Now is the time to be at peace. Now is the time to be fully alive. Now is the time to be happy.

We could describe this as surfing the wave of the present moment. We can’t surf the wave before it arrives or after it passes, we can only surf on the moving wave. We can only live in the present moment, moving forward with it. Yet we can foresee what is coming and be prepared to go with the moment and the changes it brings.

We can reflect on the past and learn to act more wisely in the present. We can make predictions and preparations for the future but there is no certainty. The present is real here and now. We can watch our thoughts to see that we don’t let regrets and sorrow drag us back into the past or let fears and anxieties take us out of living positively in the present moment. We can focus on appreciating and enjoying what we have now.

When we are fully present we are most fully aware of what is happening and what we are saying and doing and where we are going. It is when we are most appreciative, most able to enjoy life, most able to flow with life, most able to love freely, most able to be ourselves. We can be fully in the present and come fully into our being.

We need to be in REALITY and not think or imagine things are different to what they really are. We need to remain aware of where authentic happiness lies or does not. We can discover that real life has a “magical” quality that can’t be experienced in dreams and fantasies. We can still creatively play with our imagination but without getting deluded, and we may find that “daydreaming” is sometimes a source of creativity.

Being present, being in reality, alive to the moment, allows us to be responsive to situations and able to adapt to changes. Now is the only time we can actually change anything. We can’t remain in the past; we can’t just dream about the future. We need to be present in each moment with a clear mind and giving our best to each moment. We can flow with time and cease always resisting the changes that time brings.

Living in the present is not the same as living for the present. We need to remain aware of where we have come from and in which direction our life is heading. We can have a vision of where we can go and be aware of how the present moment fits into that vision.

Being fully aware means being aware of time passing and not letting it slip by. If we think this way we apply ourselves to each day, each moment, each interaction. We don’t put off living our lives. We give what we have to the moment keeping in mind all that we know and understand.

If we remain aware and act wisely in the present we can trust that the future will unfold positively for us. Our life goes well when we are making the most of life and not mindlessly drifting into negative actions or life decisions.

When we are not aware, we do things we would not do if we were aware – we may not be fully aware of what we are doing. Alcohol is something that can greatly impair our awareness.

Peaceful awareness is a good starting point for every activity. We need to go into every situation in a state of calm, clear awareness. It is difficult to think properly without a calm mind. When we meet events with calmness, stress may not even arise. Once stress arises emotional control is much more difficult. When agitated, re-establishing peace within oneself is always the first priority.

When peaceful we are less reactive. We are more able to give our full ATTENTION to the task at hand rather than being focussed on ourselves and our feelings; more able to stay with the present; to engage with the present; to work with the present; to be present for others.

Awareness is an active state of mind. We learn to live through living when we are settled and aware. Being aware means noticing things – being fully sensitive and giving full attention to what is happening and to whom we are with.

Developing STILLNESS and calmness leads to greater awareness. When our mind is still and calm we change from being preoccupied with our thoughts to a wider awareness of ourselves and of others and of our surroundings. Our thinking is clearer and has a wider perspective.

We become a peaceful person. We can watch our mind and be aware that some thoughts are beneficial, and some are harmful. We also begin to see that our states of mind come and go and that we don’t need to get caught up in thoughts that make us unhappy. They will pass. Many problems don’t seem as bad when we have a better perspective on them.

Ultimately, we can become aware that beneath the ever-changing outer self, that we are normally aware of there, is an ongoing consciousness that is unchanging. We can’t fully grasp this self which is our very being, but we can experience its qualities of peace, constancy, love, bliss and awareness itself.

With awareness we can live from the true nature of our being and avoid acting from negative states of mind. We can live with full consciousness. We can be always aware that genuine happiness is what we all need and always remember our true worth and our interconnectedness. Awareness makes it all possible. Without awareness our thoughts and actions default to instinctive or habitual or conditioned patterns.

We will need to develop our ability to be fully aware. In the meantime, we can expect that we will “doze off” from time to time. Consider this to be like waking up in the morning – we may fall back to sleep a few times before we fully emerge into continuing wakefulness.

Focussing our attention on anything that is happening in the present moment brings us into the present moment. The sound of the surf, feeling the wind on our face, the rhythm of our walking, listening to music, or being aware of our breathing, all bring us back to the present moment. By letting ourselves be absorbed by these things our mind settles and our awareness grows. Qualities such as peace, stability, patience and thoughtfulness emerge as we come back to our natural state of being.

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Main Ideas for WE NEED TO BE FULLY AWARE

Being fully aware in the present moment is fully connecting with life.

Having a clear mind is fundamental to our life.

We need to be in reality and not think or imagine things are different to what they really are.

Developing stillness and calmness leads to greater awareness.

Some quotes about AWARENESS

Only in the reality of the present can we love, can we awaken, can we find peace and understanding and connection with ourselves and the world. – Jack Kornfield

Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. – Leo Tolstoy

We are living in the eternal now and in the eternal now we shall always continue to live. – Christian D Larson

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