For the purpose of this program only, “Conscious Awareness” will have a very limited meaning as it is a vast and complex subject. This program does not have the capacity to go into the subject in depth. What we will discuss is enough for our purposes here.

Stop reading for a moment and ask yourself how much of your life is lived in an unconscious and reactive way?

Below and for the purpose of this program the following are some examples of what I am referring to:

 

  • Conscious awareness is living consciously/mindfully.
  • Conscious awareness is when you are conscious enough to recognize and be in control of your thinking so that it doesn’t control you.
  • Conscious awareness is where you are consciously aware of your negative feelings and don’t react to them.
  • Conscious awareness is when you are conscious enough to stop your negative behavior in its tracks.
  • Conscious awareness is when you look at a flower and really see it.
  • It is when you eat your food and really taste it.
  • It is when you shower and feel the water on your body, smell the scent of the soap, and feel the contours of your body as you wash.
  • It is not being somewhere else in your head at the same time as you are showering.
  • Conscious awareness is being here with our selves, not off in some dream of the past or future. Mind and body together in the same place.
  • Conscious awareness is being completely present when we are awake.
  • Conscious awareness is when we are not distracted by other thoughts in our head when they try to come in.
  • Conscious awareness is when we consciously recognize our negative behaviour, question, test and evaluate it in a conscious way
  • Conscious awareness is when we stop reacting to conditioned thinking and reactions.
  • Conscious awareness is when we are so focused and not distracted by other thoughts.
  • Conscious awareness is when we focus on one thing and keep that focus without becoming distracted by anything at all.
  • Conscious awareness is NOT drifting off into the past or future; it is living and being in the present moment with ourselves.

 

In conditioned thinking for example there is NO conscious focused thinking going on. It is all reaction and connected to the past and how we reacted then, whether that past was yesterday or ten years ago. We tend to relate the present situation to a past similar situation and use that as a measuring stick for now.

It can also be that we drift off into the future in a purely mindless way thinking of “What might be”.

 

When we are depressed or suffer from anxiety related problems we often simply react without thinking to our own negative thoughts instead of thinking consciously. As a result we often don’t question thoughts as we should. These negative reactive thoughts might have been around for so long they become a part of us and maybe we believe we never need to consciously question them.

.

We go on auto pilot, the unconscious mind takes over and before we know it our conditioned mind has reacted for us and has decided for us. Where were we in all this? No where in the equation and definitely not using our conscious mind.

 

Due to experience that repeats itself, we often repeat the same thinking and behavior when we are not consciously aware. This is not action, but reaction. It then becomes conditioned reaction. We are not conscious of our reaction and we automatically react because we are conditioned to do so.

 

Conscious thinking means we are in control of our thinking, and unconscious thinking means we are not. Conscious thinking means we dictate our thoughts they don’t dictate to us. If we are not in control of our thinking we cannot be in control of our behavior. If we are not in control of our thinking or behavior we are not masters or mistresses in our own lives.

 

If you suffer from anxiety or depression and are not in control of your thinking and behavior-you will NEVER overcome your symptoms of your own accord.  Negative thinking goes together with negative emotions; therefore it stands to reason that when your negative thoughts are out of control, your emotional state will follow. This is not where you want to be. What is important to learn is that conditioned unconscious thinking is your enemy, just as NAT’s are your enemy. Conscious awareness is your friend because being consciously aware will protect you from unconscious and reactive negative thinking.

 

It’s about having the conscious awareness/mindfulness to recognize when you are not conscious and are in reactive mode so you can change it.

If you are not conscious, you will simply go back to old conditioned habits. A trigger will go off and you will be back there in reactive mode if you cannot control your thinking or the conditioned reaction in a conscious way.

 

This is how it is when we are depressed or suffering from stress or anxiety:

  • If we are not consciously aware, we cannot think rationally and we will react to negative thoughts, emotions and situations.
  • If we are not conscious we cannot stop our negative thoughts or our behavior because we react instead of being conscious of them and STOPPING them.

If you want to be in control of your thinking, emotions and behavior, one of the vital ingredients in your learning will be conscious awareness. Without it you will find it difficult to be in control of your mind, (especially if you are depressed, have anxiety or stress elated problems.) You need to be consciously aware enough to control your negative thoughts, emotions and behavior

As an exercise, start to notice how you operate in your daily life. Look at how much of what you do and say is simply an automatic reaction and without thinking consciously.

I don’t have to remind you here for example that when you have any anxiety related problem, part of it will be that you react to situations and people without thinking. Your reaction can be triggered off in situations where you are afraid and feel out of control, or it might be in reaction to a situation you have been in previously that has negative memories for you. It is especially difficult when it’s Anxiety related

At those moments you are more likely to become vulnerable and be more likely to react unconsciously instead of consciously. When you react you are not conscious or in control.  When you are not in control the situation is, it will control you and take you where it chooses. When you don’t react but think consciously, then you are in control, and YOU take the situation to where you choose.

Do you want to be in control of your life, your thinking, your emotions and behavior? If yes, the first lesson is conscious awareness.

For example, In order to stop Automatic Negative Thoughts it is essential to be aware you are thinking them!

If you are not mindful enough, aware enough, and conscious enough, how on earth will you ever be in control of yourself? You have to be mindful so that you can consciously work at it.

If there is no awareness or consciousness, there can be no control. If you have no control over your anxiety or depression, how can you stop it? And if YOU don’t stop it, who will? NO ONE!! Not the therapist or your partner or a friend, just you yourself… but you need to know how.

In order to be in control, you firstly need to be in control of your thoughts. For this you need the right tools, otherwise it is like going on diet… You will never lose weight if you eat too much, for that matter it is difficult to diet without being conscious of what you need to eat and what you don’t need to eat. It takes more than that of course but conscious awareness helps remind you what you can and can’t eat. You then choose whether to stop your self or not. Conscious awareness allows you to choose.

In every situation you find yourself in, you will want to choose what the best solution for you is, how you need to behave and what you need to consciously do to achieve the outcome you want.

Make sure you succeed…..

Carole