Learn to be aware

Learn to be aware

“You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself.”

-- Beryl Markham

Who am I? To answer this, we must first learn to become more aware of ourselves. To be aware, we must STOP and PAY ATTENTION! We need to STOP and objectively watch ourselves in action.

We live most of our lives by habit. These habits keep us stuck in patterns that limit our experience of life. Once we detect a pattern we were previously unconscious of, we can choose differently, if we want. With awareness comes choice and with choice, we gain freedom.

“To be authentic is literally to be your own author …, to discover your own native energies and desires, and then to find your own way of acting on them.”

-- Warren G. Bennis

“Self-knowledge is the great power by which we comprehend and control our lives.”

-- Vernon Howard

Absolutely - we are writing our own stories, but how well do we know the main character? We begin with 'Who am I?' and the goal is that by the last chapter we will firmly be able to say 'This is who I am'. Some of us achieve this part the way through while others are still struggling in the final scene to recognise it. Imagine for a moment, if you will, that the whole storyline - the whole theme of the story we are each writing - is to uncover the answer to that first question: who am I? Am I the roles I play? Am I the 'I' that observes my thoughts and actions? Am I those warm feelings in my gut when something feels right? Am I my gender? - the possibilities of exploration are enormous. In fact it would take more than one book to write it all down - you would need a series. Each experience of who you are changes your storyline and offers the reader something new. Through our awareness our story grows. We add to it and refine it, embellish it and describe it, colour it and repackage it...we create ourselves through awareness. And we share it through our words and actions.