Awareness: a Gateway to Calmness, Happiness, Creativity

“To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are”.

The concept of steadying the mind, presented by the ancient teachers of Yoga has been implemented by various schools of Yoga/ādhyātma as ‘Awareness’ with overlapping concepts such as, ‘Self-Observation’ or ‘Ātma-darśana’. In this article we shall discuss the concept of ’Awareness’ , its benefits for productivity and creativity as well as how to steady the mind through Yoga.

Achieving a Steady State of Mind

Sutra 35:(iv) of Yoga Sutra by Patanjali :

‘’Viṣayavatī vā pravṛttirutpannā manasaḥ sthitinibandhanī’’

Meaning: “Or by observing sense experience” (Viṣayavatī: sensuous; vā: or; pravṛttiḥ: functioning; utpannā: arisen; manasaḥ: of the mind; sthiti: steadiness; nibandhanī: which binds).

Explanation: Or else, the mind can be made steady by bringing it into activity of sense experience. By merging the mental consciousness into these sense perceptions, the mind comes under control. (Saraswati, 2002).

What is Awareness?

Awareness can be described as the psychological process of one’s attention to experiences occurring in the present moment or higher attentivity to self and environment. Awareness does not get involved with thought or concepts, nor is it hung up on ideas, opinions or memories. It just observes. Awareness registers experiences as they occur, without comparing, labeling or categorization. We observe everything as if for the first time: unburdened by memories, past experiences or conditioned perceptions.

Some Yogic practices for raising awareness:

1. Prāṇāyāma: control of prāṇa by breathing exercises. Anulom-Vilom is very helpful for raising awareness.
2. Breath awareness: awareness of natural spontaneous breath cycles and their sensations.
3. Yogic āsana with awareness of sensations in involved body parts
4. Yoganidrā: guided meditation practices involving sense experience & pratyāhāra
5. General attention to breathing, sensory inputs, sounds, environment

Awareness does not attach motives or label events in terms of opportunities or threats. It is a direct and immediate experience of events, without the medium of thought in the perceptual process. With regular practice of Yoga, it is possible to achieve higher awareness and retain it for longer and longer periods.

Benefits of increased awareness

1. It can make us more proactive, boost our ability to accept things, and encourages positive self-development (Sutton, 2016).
2. Self-awareness allows us to see things from the perspective of others, practice self-control, work creatively and productively, and experience pride in ourselves and our work as well as general self-esteem (Silvia & O’Brien, 2004).
3. It leads to better decision-making (Ridley, Schutz, Glanz, & Weinstein, 1992).
4. It can make us better at our jobs, better communicators in the workplace, and enhance our self-confidence and job-related well-being (Sutton, Williams, & Allinson, 2015).

Some examples of the impact of awareness

Reaction

Imagine an accident on a panicked Monday morning commute, which, in general, is more than likely to lead to a scuffle. Sometimes road rage cases have ended up in homicide. With a different state of awareness of the both drivers, the incident may be resolved by an amicable settlement and, who knows, further even to a long term friendship. What caused the stark and extreme difference in the outcomes of the situation? Awareness! While the former course of action is a ‘spontaneous reaction’, the latter is a response with awareness. Instead of verbal or physical violence as an automatic reaction of a stressed & panicked mind, an aware approach sums up the whole scenario, in a glance, and helps us select the best response.

Creativity

We all know about the story of Newton, the apple and discovery of the Theory of Gravitation. The question is, “had Newton, or, others, not observed falling apples or other things before?” Ditto for Archimedes discovering buoyancy in a bathtub? So what was different in these particular moments of revelations? Higher awareness!

Happiness

Our awareness is often trapped in its memories and fears of the past and future. The mind, when without a task, uses its own vast resources to replay memories or fabricate future scenarios, in a loop. It can focus internally or externally. We can say there are two states of mind: an internalized aware mind and externalized mind. The psychosomatic system reacts identically to actual experiences, thoughts and visualizations. Therefore, an internalized mind may self catalyze stress, panic, and depression. On the other hand, an externalized and yet aware mind, is not only free from stress, but also active, involved and in a happier and higher state of mind than an unaware mind.

Once, a master entrusted the simple task of boiling water to a stressed disciple. The disciple found that the repetitive and boring task increased his stress up to the breaking point of his sanity. However, when he observed the minute changes in boiling water, with interest, this made him calmer. He found his peace through bringing his awareness to the external context. To conclude, awareness is a way to live a calmer, more productive life leading to self realization.

References

• Hoffer, E. (1955). The Passionate State of Mind and Other Aphorisms (republished 2006).
• Ridley, D. S., Schutz, P. A., Glanz, R. S., & Weinstein, C. E. (1992). Self-regulated learning: The interactive influence of metacognitive awareness and goal-setting. The journal of experimental education, 60(4), 293-306.
• Satyananda, S. (2002). Four Chapters on Freedom. Munger: Bihar School of Yoga.
• Silvia, P. J., & O’Brien, M. E. (2004). Self-awareness and constructive functioning: Revisiting “The human dilemma”. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23(4), 475-489.
• Sutton, A., Williams, H. M., & Allinson, C. W. (2015). A longitudinal, mixed method evaluation of self-awareness training in the workplace. European Journal of Training and Development.