Basic Awareness

Taking everything we’ve said so far, the benefits of conscious healing are there for the asking.

But for many people conscious simply means that you aren’t asleep or knocked out. They have

the same ability to be aware as the most advanced yogi or monk, but no one taught them how to

use this ability. Take three people and sit them in the same room, then ask them what they are

aware of. You’ll receive random answers that won’t necessarily overlap. One person is aware of

a smell in the room, another of the wallpaper, the height of the ceiling, and so on, depending on

what is being noticed at the moment. Less likely is that one of them will be aware of an inner

state—thoughts, moods, sensations. Only if you blatantly change the environment, like turning

up the temperature to eighty-five degrees, will everyone be likely to mention the same thing.

Spiritual practices in yoga and other Eastern traditions are actually, about honing random

awareness to make it sharper, turning an innate ability into a skill. Before they are aware of

anything “out there” or “in here,” those who have trained their awareness will universally say

that they are self-aware. The average person is also self-aware. You can’t have a sense of “I”

without it. But self-awareness is only one piece of the swirling, random, unpredictable activity

going on in the mind.

Awareness skills don’t have to be associated with spirituality or the East. They can be

used to improve your quality of life. That’s where the healing self becomes practical in any

situation, at any moment of the day, and with any religious background. It monitors the signals

that indicate your immediate state of well-being, here and now. These levels include

Knowing how you feel physically. This involves being open and sensitive to the

signals your body is sending you.

Knowing how to interpret these signals. This involves acceptance of your body as

your greatest ally, not a source of distress.

Knowing what is happening inside you emotionally. This involves giving up on

denial, wishful thinking, fear, and repressing your emotions.

When someone casually asks, “How are you?” we usually give an equally casual answer,

but the healing self takes the question seriously. By knowing what is actually, going on, you are

beginning the process of self-healing. A wearable device can buzz you when your heart rate

jumps, your blood pressure rises, or your breathing becomes erratic; these are useful indicators,

certainly. But only you can respond to the signals and begin the healing.

As a practical example of basic awareness, here’s what you can do almost effortlessly at

work.

Healing at Work: Seven Self-Aware Things You Can Do

Right Now

Adopt any or all of the following tips to counter the invisible negative influences that afflict the

typical workplace.

1. In Eastern traditions, awareness should be one-pointed, which means that

you focus your attention in a state of relaxed focus. Don’t multitask, which

divides your attention and has been proved to reduce efficiency at work.

2. To keep your focus relaxed instead of tense, do what you can to work in

an area that’s quiet and relatively free of interruptions. So that your coworkers

won’t feel that you are unavailable, take time twice an hour to circulate, be in

contact, and let it be known that you want personal interactions. In this way, your

alone time is likely to be more respected.

3. Awareness should be in the now. To stay in the present moment, don’t let

small demands pile up. Immediately take care of anything that takes five minutes

or less. If you make this a habit, your time management will improve, sometimes

dramatically, and you won’t get to the end of the day complaining that you didn’t

have enough time to do everything you needed to do.

4. Be mindful of your body and its needs. At a minimum get up out of your

chair, stretch, and move around at least once an hour.

5. Be mindful of your core or center. When you feel frazzled, find a quiet

place where you can close your eyes, take some deep breaths, and become

centered again. Some people find that centering works better if they put their

attention in the region of the heart.

6. Remember to breathe, because breath connects many body functions,

including heart rate, blood pressure, and the stress response. At least once an

hour, do a few 10-count breaths, as follows: breathe in to a count of 4, hold for a

second as you relax into the feeling of the in breath, then breathe out to a count of

6. (Make sure your pace feels comfortable, not so slow that you gasp after a few

breaths.) Typically, breathing rate will slow down from 14 breaths per minute to

8, with an accompanying feeling of calmer mind.

7. Be mindful of your ultimate purpose, which isn’t to meet a deadline but to

create a day with happiness in it. Psychologists have found that people who lead

the happiest lives follow a strategy of having happy days. Whatever makes you

genuinely smile counts as a happy experience.

These same practices are also effective outside the workplace. Yet we typically spend

over one-third of every weekday at work, and sometimes far more (the average white-collar

worker who brings work home is estimated to spend sixty hours or more per week). It can be a

challenge to remain self-aware under workplace pressures and demands. But the benefits are

considerable—if you can stay centered and focused without being frazzled by the mental

“noisiness” that crowds into a typical workday, you will be genuinely meditating in the midst of

action, one of the primary goals in every wisdom tradition. Leaving spiritual issues aside, being

self-aware is a major component of a healing lifestyle.