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Self awareness
In its simplest form, Self Awareness is our understanding that we exist, as an as an individual entity, separate from other people. As an individual we are aware that we have a body and a mind, each of which relates to the world in a different fashion. An extension of our basic awareness is the further understanding that other people around us are also self aware. Our understanding of mind brings us back to our definition of self: You are not your thoughts, you are the awareness they occupy. Your thoughts are not limited by physical boundaries, they can travel instantly from one subject to the next and from one place to the next. You have the ability to start, stop or change what you are thinking at any given moment. Self help note : If you thought that your thought processes were on automatic up to this point, close your eyes and visualise a polar bear eating a tub of strawberry ice cream. - See, you can consciously change your line of thought at will! Your physical body on the other hand is inexorably bound to its three dimensional reality and solid separateness. The paradox is that whilst as a physical entity we are severely limited in what we can or cannot do, mentally we can overcome all limitations of time and space. Your awareness of self can be focused on the process of thinking, or your awareness can be centered in the thoughts themselves. So, can you - your awareness - be in two different places at the same time? The observer and the observed. Can you be both watching the movie of your life, and starring in it at the same time? Actually you can be both. You can be the director until destination and direction is set, then you can become the actor and enjoy the role. However, at the same time, you are watching the movie of your life! When we are immersed in our thoughts, we learn from the emotion of the journey, we live in the practical sense - in fact it is a sensory experience. However, being aware of the whole process as it unfolds is self awareness - being conscious of these processes as they occur. Our awareness of self expands as we discover more and more connections to the world in which we live through our interactions with other people on all levels, in fact you could say the our self awareness is what we see reflected in others. Self Help note : As an observer of our own life, we have a feedback loop. We can see the interactions between our life and our connections to the world around us. Eventually, after much meditation and introspection, our awareness of self learns contemplate itself in isolation, and it is from here that we find that it is our pure awareness which establishes us as an entity or soul, that spark of life which is ongoing and transcendent. Self help tip : However to keep things "real", up until that point is reached, just being aware of your interactions with others will provide gradual growth, as your self awareness expands.
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