Encouraging Awareness

          I have often noticed how UNAWARE we humans are. I have noticed this in others and in myself. Things that are in "plain sight" seem to elude us. An example is the movie, Sixth Sense  which demonstrates widespread sensory unawareness. Even with all the clues, few viewers realized Dr. Crowe was dead.

          If we cannot even notice these things, then how can we notice the things that are beyond the five senses?  How can we tune into spirit realm?  So….here are some ideas on encouraging more awareness.  The fastest and simplest way to open the 6th sense is to delve more deeply into the 5 senses.

          Valerie Worwood noted:  "Humans are far more sense-ative than can be accounted for by sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.  We react in different ways to people and places, "feeling" them to be beneficial or not, although such differences cannot be accounted for by the way they look.

            If invisibility meant nonexistence, there would be no such thing as radios, television and cell phones, because these are the receiving hardware that interpret bits of invisible information floating through the air."

 Stuart Wilde talks about The Power of noticing things: "The mind is lazy, it has trained itself to ignore everything except for things that scare or please it."

He says to notice things like How many lights?  How many tiles?  Where are things located?

"Think of a street you go down regularly.  Write down everything you can remember.  Most likely it's not much.  Then go to the street and fill in the missing bits."

      

    Have a small notebook with you and take note of things you see during the day.  Write down events or descriptions of people.  (Handy if you ever want to become a writer). Writing a journal that describes events takes the mind away from itself.  In your notebook, record  insights that come to your awareness. Write in it every time you have a new awareness or AHA moment if a light goes on with new information for you.  Write answers to prayers.

..Look for the constellations in the night sky.  Learning the sky is a spiritual experience. Gives you a whole bunch of new friends.  By knowing the stars, you place yourself in proper context.

 Listen to your pet's heart.  It will talk to you.  Feel the bands of energy coming up from the earth.  Notice as they pass thru your body, Imagine how they might traverse the heart of an animal's perception.  Can do this with a rock.

Here are some ideas from Glenda Green:

1.  While waiting in a public line, talk to someone around you.

2.  Notice somebody's work or service and give a heartfelt acknowledgment.

3.  Talk to a child and relate to her perceptions of life.

4.  Let an animal tell you what it wants.

5.  Recall your dreams and let them speak to you.

6.  Write down a goal or dream that you have considered improbable and for a moment, accept it as possible.  Write a script for it as if it were really happening.
7.  At work, let "what you are doing" really talk to you.  It has a message.  Listen.

8.  Respond to some request instead of dismissing it with non-attention.

9.  Act on something about which you have been procrastinating.

10.  Ask for the will of God to be revealed in life and promise to listen.

11.  In nature, ask for restoration and peace.

12.  Watch a sunrise, a sunset, or a full moon and feel the nourishing energy that bathes and connects with your whole being.

13. Go for a walk or a swim in a natural body of water and allow your body to be moved along by the flow of life…

14. Sit in a garden and notice how life is recognizing and entreating you to become one with it.

 15.  Stand like a tree, move like the breeze and flow like a stream.

Place your hand in a stream and see it elude your capture.  Yet your hand is bathed and refreshed.  Put your hand in again.  Did you touch the same water twice? But it washes and refreshes your hand once more.

16.  Release all worry, apathy, and any state of mind that would undermine your alertness or prevent you from responding to a new invitation.

  We are composed of 99% pure consciousness that can change in the blink of an eye.

Why doesn't it happen that easily?  Because of another force, mighty and tenacious…the power of our agreements about what is!  So powerful that we could miss the sunlight at noon if we believed it to be midnight.

  When our life is bright with vitality, we are content with the external supply.  When challenges and hardships overwhelm us, we are too absorbed to look for light or a higher answer.   

Teresa Brady has some good ideas for developing Awareness:

1. Pay keen attention to everyday life.  Really look at the food on your plate.  do the colors look appetizing?  Smell it.  Savor each bite.  Notice combination of tastes.  Which flavor is your favorite?  Do this until it becomes a habit.

2.  Outdoors.  Hold a small flower in your hand. What is the first thing that comes to mind.  Look closely at minute details.  Stretch your arm out to look as a whole.  Quick scan of senses.  What do you see, smell, feel, hear about this flower.  Taste? Awareness on all sensory levels.  Do this for one week, varying the subject matter each day.  Small enough object to put in your hand.

3.  After doing the above exercises for a week, extend the awareness to people and places.  Your parent, spouse or close friend.  Be aware of physical, emotional, spiritual changes the moment you are in their presence. What is it about them that is different from everyone else? If they have passed, you can still do this.

4.  Next, do the opposite.  Be aware of how you feel when with negative people.  How do you feel physically, emotionally, spiritually.  Once you have become adept at being aware, take this to a higher level.

5. When around a place, house, etc. you have never been before, be aware of how you feel when approaching.

6.  Instant awareness scan of a person.  Look instantaneously in their eyes, make physical contact through a handshake if possible.  be aware of the first thing that comes to mind.  Do not dismiss it.  It may not match the person's friendly smile or appearance.

          Belleruth Naparstek asks us to "consider the particles and sub-particles within an atom.  How do roses know when to bloom?  How do birds know where to migrate?  How do Monarch butterflies find their way from Canada to Mexico every year?"

          She emphasizes the importance of paying attention to easily ignored, subtle fragments of impression, regardless of how vague and momentary… first impressions…spontaneous and surprising impressions.  She also talks about the various ways of feeling energetic shifts, such as a warming sensation, tingling, waves or flutterings of energy; sense of lightness or weightless; sense of disappearing boundaries, feeling of expansion, heightening, waves of warmth or color coming from around the heart, seeing colors, hearing tones or high pitched sounds. These can be accompanied by feelings of elation, joy, peace, love, inclusion, completion, wholeness.

"There is only one moment in time when it is essential to awaken.  That moment is now."  Buddha, India 563 BCE

References:

Fragrant Heavens by Valerie Worwood

Ignite Your Psychic Intuition by Teresa Brady

Keys of Jeshua by Glenda Green

Your Sixth Sense, by Belleruth Naparstek, 1997