Written by Heather M. Burt, YIELD Coach
Heather Burt is the founder of Your Individual EvoLution Directive (YIELD) and author of Personal Evolution: Four Essential Elements For Navigating Your Life. Her passion and vision include helping others embrace an Evolutionary Mindset to align more fully with their authenticity, enabling them to share their gifts with the world.
Can something as simple as practicing Awareness fundamentally alter your life? Over ten years ago, I attended an eight-day workshop by Dr. Joe Dispenza. We spent most of our time meditating, but perhaps the most transformative moment for me came when Dr. Dispenza instructed us to "Become aware of what you are unaware of." This statement distracted and annoyed me for the remainder of the workshop. How could I possibly become aware of something I was unaware of? I felt he made the statement to intentionally give us an impossible assignment designed to highlight our failures if the techniques we were learning didn’t provide us with the transformation we hoped to experience.
I had no significant moments of enlightenment during the workshop; I was too focused on "becoming aware of what I was unaware of." Despite not feeling like I got a lot out of the workshop, an interesting thing began to happen, my Awareness began expanding. As I paid more attention to my thoughts, conversations I was having (or overhearing), and what was happening in my daily life, an almost imperceptible shift began taking place inside me.
That's the most exciting part about cultivating Awareness; the world doesn't necessarily change, but because your perception changes, the world seems to change.
The reality of your reality
In personal development, it's recognized that we spend most of our lives operating from our conditioning. Our early experiences dictate the lens through which we view life unless and until the reality we are experiencing becomes so uncomfortable as to prompt us to question it. The minute we begin questioning our reality or the limited Awareness through which we engage life, the aperture on our lens begins to open. We gain access to a more inclusive picture.
While the physical world around us might change, it doesn’t have to for us to experience it differently. Our boss might still be a jerk, our kids may still leave their toys and shoes strewn about the house, or we may still carry an extra ten pounds of weight we have been trying to lose for the last decade. Those things don't have to change for us to change how we experience them. It's when our relationship with them changes that we experience them differently. The only way to relate to the world differently is for our perception to change. For our perception to change, we must first be willing to question it.
Questioning our current reality doesn't require an interrogation-style approach or demanding proof; it's simply a matter of becoming curious. Curiosity is one of the most liberating earmarks of expanded Awareness because it allows you to be open without compromising your boundaries. Curiosity allows us to explore other perspectives without defending or proving anything. From this space of relaxed inquiry, our Awareness has room to expand safely, taking in more of the world without the threat of ego-annihilation.
Awareness in action
Has the prospect of Personal Evolution through something as simple as cultivating awareness piqued your curiosity, but you need help figuring out where to start? The best place to start is right where you're at! If you wait for something in your world to change before you are willing to take the first step, you may be waiting a while. Starting is simple: become curious about anything and everything! The next time you feel frustrated with your kids, spouse, boss, or yourself, pause and ask yourself, "What's going on here?" Take your time with an answer, and in the meantime, keep doing what needs to get done. Rather than defaulting into an internal narrative about how frustrating [fill in the blank] is, use "what's going on?" as a mantra with the expectation that there is more for you at the moment than an opportunity to imagine how the whole world seems to be against you.
While there are many avenues to affecting change, you will only experience permanent change if the lens through which you relate to life changes. So, can something as simple as practicing Awareness fundamentally alter your life? You be the judge. Give it a try. And I challenge you to double down on your commitment to Personal Evolution, especially when things shift and you get a little uncomfortable. We commonly say we want to experience change, but all too often, when it starts to happen, it scares us, and we return to the "safety" of our conditioned reality.
The desire for change is our Personal Evolution, which is a beacon that helps us embrace our most significant potential. And, often, what's stopping us are the emotional identities that keep us tethered to the past. In my next article, we will look at how relating to and practicing Forgiveness in a new way empowers us to create a new reality.
If you want more information on Personal Evolution, pick up a copy of my book, Personal Evolution: Four Essential Elements For Navigating Your Life.
Read more from Heather M. Burt
Heather M. Burt, YIELD Coach
Heather Burt skillfully integrates distinct perspectives and methods in order to distill fundamental concepts so they can be applied universally. As a result of her own diverse background and journey to wholeness, Heather has found her passion in understanding and synergistically melding personal growth concepts to facilitate a broader, more individualized application. Her mission involves helping others experience freedom through Evolutionary thinking.
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