Do You Want To Live An Aware Life?

Living a life of being aware vs. living a life of mechanical habits has very different implications in life. The former has more clarity, joy, connection, fewer mistakes, and lesser anxiety whereas the latter has all the things we don't want in our lives. This contemplation explores (through personal stories) both these approaches and the importance of a unanimous, non-negotiable decision to live an aware life. Initially, it might feel exhausting and cumbersome to be aware of our actions and surroundings, but soon enough you will realize how fulfilling it gets.

Transcript

And let's close our eyes.

You know,

When I started,

Started on this path of seeking,

Seeking something,

I didn't know what some people called it the spiritual path.

Some called it differently.

But all I was looking for a way to not suffer,

To not be unhappy.

Of course,

My conscious mind at that time didn't have this formulation.

My heart just wanted to attend sessions,

Attend retreats,

Ask questions to my teacher,

Study the scriptures.

Only when I started walking on this path,

I realized there is a word called awareness.

There's a word called consciousness.

Up until that point,

I was miserably busy in my life.

Only a few years ago,

I really understood the word awareness.

Stand alone.

It's always used in conjunction with other words.

For example,

Self-awareness,

Awareness of something,

Awareness of our breath,

Of our thoughts,

Of our actions,

Etc.

And I've studied different scriptures,

Including scriptures in Buddhism,

In Hinduism.

Especially in Buddhism,

There is a lot of emphasis on mindfulness,

Which is what I call being aware of something.

Then if you go over the internet,

You'll hear contemporary authors and podcasters,

Video loggers talk about a phrase called self-awareness.

Especially if you're trying to improve something,

If you're trying to advance into something,

There is a prerequisite that people talk about self-awareness.

And I like to be surgical with my words,

To understand what that word or a phrase means,

And then based on that,

Decide whether we start there or we start a few steps before that word.

So self-awareness is one such word,

One such phrase.

I break down this mechanism into three parts.

Awareness of actions and events.

Awareness of thoughts and sensations.

And then awareness of yourself.

Simply put,

Awareness of the external,

Awareness of internal,

And awareness of myself.

And every step is drastically subtler than the previous one.

It's quite easy to be aware of the chair you are sitting on.

It is quite difficult,

Unless you have trained yourself,

To become aware of your own thoughts,

Of your sensations,

Of your feelings.

And even subtler than that is the awareness of yourself that you call I,

Me,

Myself.

And at every stage,

There is a huge upgrade in the way we experience life in general.

Let me explain a little bit.

When I was happily or miserably busy with my own life,

I wasn't aware of anything,

To be honest.

Neither aware of the world or the external,

Internal,

And forget about myself.

I was merely existing.

There was not enough sensitivity to even experience life or to even think about anything like this.

So the level of engagement in life that I had was pretty low.

Of course,

I didn't know that.

It only is obvious after that's no longer the case.

That the way I experience life today is drastically more present,

Alive,

Colorful than what I experienced 12 years ago,

10 years ago.

No body awareness,

No awareness of,

Unless of course,

No body awareness,

Unless there is pain,

No awareness of my thoughts and feelings,

Unless it's painful,

Extremely painful.

And then the only seeking there is to get rid of that pain.

Same as with body awareness and body pain.

And I don't even want to talk about the third category of being aware of myself.

I didn't even exist at that time.

I wish I could explain more about this upgraded experience that I'm talking about,

But unfortunately I can't.

The closest I can come is to say I feel more alive,

Way more alive.

So if I were to share some of my insights about experiencing life at a different level,

I'm not talking about in terms of possessions or status or role or name or fame.

I'm talking about the mundane everyday life of being present.

Then I would start at the easiest.

That would be becoming aware of the external.

The events that are happening around us.

The actions that we are performing.

And nothing extraordinary.

The mundane everyday actions of standing,

Walking,

Sitting,

Talking,

Eating,

Drinking,

Walking,

Running,

Exercising,

Just mundane actions that we perform.

And becoming aware of the environment we are in.

Becoming aware of the things that surround us.

The people that surround us.

For no reason.

There is no reason.

And initially,

I will be honest,

It felt like too much work to be aware of all these things.

What's the point?

It felt like we evolved to automate,

To habituate so that we don't have to worry about anything unless there is danger.

Then what's the point of being aware of our surroundings,

Being aware of our actions?

It might feel too draining,

Too cumbersome,

Sometimes frustrating.

And it probably will be initially.

Only because we are not used to it.

Before answering these objections,

Let me ask you a question.

Would you rather live a life aware?

Aware of the life that you lived,

Aware of the experiences that you've had?

Or would you rather live a life of oblivion,

Mechanical habits?

Where we don't realize when we started from the house in a car and when we reached our office.

What happened in the process is completely blurred.

Where did the day go?

I have no idea.

Where did the vacation go?

I have no idea.

Or would you rather be,

I lived fully.

Even if there was pain,

I enjoyed that pain that life gave me.

I enjoyed the pleasures.

I enjoyed the company,

The celebration.

Of course,

No one wants to choose the first option of living a mechanical life where we are not aware of when we start from the house and when we reach the office in our cars.

And if that's the case,

Only option that remains is to put in the work of becoming aware of our actions,

Becoming aware of our environment.

And then eventually the habit kicks in to become aware of our thoughts,

Sensations.

And then magically we become aware of ourselves.

Of course,

There is no hierarchy as I'm trying to describe this to you.

This is a very academic way of explaining,

Very pedagogical,

But it at least gives a trajectory for our minds on where we are going,

Why we are going where we are going.

So why,

Why become aware of our surroundings?

Why become aware of our actions?

Think of all the instances where there are,

There have been mistakes,

Avoidable mistakes that have happened through us only because we were not paying attention or not aware of our own actions.

Maybe we rushed somewhere,

We fell down.

Maybe we replied all instead of reply.

Maybe we said something in front of people that we shouldn't have.

Maybe we are in an environment which is draining us.

Maybe there's a lot of clutter,

Not enough inviting ambience.

We don't know the people who we are working with.

We're too focused on one area of our lives,

But happily automated in most areas of our life.

Maybe your loved ones complain about you not listening,

You're not remembering.

Maybe you enjoy only the first bite that you take in your favorite restaurant,

Eating your favorite entree and everything after that is a blur.

You don't remember eating that entire meal.

I'll tell you my trigger,

My serious trigger for embracing this idea that I just suggested to you fully without any question.

I was in my car a few years ago and I was the first car in a busy intersection of two big roads.

I was at the red light and I was looking around completely mindless about what's happening.

And I didn't realize that I wasn't looking at the red signal in front of me,

I was instead looking at the red signal on my left.

And when that signal became green,

I stepped on my gas and went ahead.

The moment I crossed that intersection,

I knew something was wrong.

Something bad had just happened.

And I looked behind,

No one was coming.

And I realized at that time I had jumped the red light.

I reached home completely shaken up.

Something bad had happened externally,

But I was completely shaken up inside.

I didn't want to be in that situation again,

Where A,

I would have either hurt myself or B worse,

I would have hurt someone else because of my mindlessness.

That decision,

Those many years ago,

Was all that I needed to be aware of my surroundings,

To be aware of my actions.

And this started paying off handsomely at work,

Where even at home,

To be honest,

Where I started making fewer mistakes because I was paying attention,

I was aware of my actions.

I feel people want to talk to me more because I listen.

I respond accordingly to what they are saying.

This doesn't sound much,

But it means a world to me to be present in my body and be aware of what is around me.

I'm a lot more organized,

Less clutter.

The spaces I inhabit are more inviting,

Not just for me,

For others as well.

So we have people constantly over at our house for celebrations because the subtle part of the energy of the house just elevates.

The car I drive is a lot cleaner than most cars.

All because of that one decision that was made and for me it precipitated in a very dangerous way.

It doesn't have to be for all of you.

You can be smart and make that decision today.

Set reminders every hour initially to become aware for five seconds.

Once that becomes doable in a few weeks,

Maybe a week or two,

Make it 30 minutes,

Then 15.

These reminders then become automatic.

Your mind will remind you to pay attention,

To be aware,

Do not drift away,

Do not check out.

Everything in your life will be immensely upgraded just by this one simple decision to be aware of my actions.

They're not anyone else's actions.

They are my actions and I'm doing them,

Then might as well be aware.

Just like that,

This is my environment.

Might as well become aware of the environment that I'm in.

Thank you.

Reviews

Yet another truly sacred, life-changing session with Mitesh. Learning & understanding true, focused awareness is something that I never tire of. I’ll continue to listen to this, as I change the focus, if you will, of my own life.
Much gratitude, Mitesh. ❤️