Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
In my last post, I talked about why awareness is important and how it can aid us. What I want to explore now is various techniques we can all use to practice our awareness so we can make changes in our lives.
From my own experiences and from hearing about others’, the journey to awareness usually starts out because we are frustrated with a situation in our lives. For some, it’s being unhappy with work or a relationship. For others, it may have more to do with feeling stuck in life in general, just going through the motions while not really experiencing what all is possible in life. There’s also people who want more money, who want to travel, or numerous other things.
Think for a minute about aspects of your own life. Seriously, shut off the tv, your iPod, and anything else that is outside chatter. Grab a notebook and pen. Take three, deep, slow breaths and just be quiet and connect with yourself. Now, write down these questions and answer them honestly.
- Am I a truly happy person right now?
- How much do I fully love and accept myself?
- What do I love most about my relationships with other people?
- What am I grateful for with all of my healthy relationships?
- If I have any unhealthy relationships, what about them makes them unhealthy? What can I change about them?
- What do I regularly do to challenge myself to grow?
- What’s my relationship with money like?
- Am I really enjoying my work? If not, why?
Now that you’ve done that, if you don’t have any areas that you want or think you need to improve, that’s awesome news! If you do see an area that you want to change, no matter how unlikely you think it is to change right now, keep reading. The techniques I’m about to list have made a significant improvement in my life. I’ll always be a work in progress, but I can look at each one of these and see how it’s helped me change my mindset in a lot of areas. I’ve been able to let go of past hurt and anger (at myself and others), find joy over even the smallest things, and discover a love for myself and others that I’ve never had. I’m not going to lie and say it’s easy work, because it’s not. What I will say is that if you at least give even just one of these a try, I promise it will make a significant difference in your life.
Family Genogram
A family genogram is similar to a family tree, but it’s definitely more complex. Instead of just examining lineage, genograms look at the relationships and interactions between family members. They’ve been utilized by therapists to help their patients work through anger, depression, addictions, and more. When I worked on my genogram, it was challenging since I haven’t really known most of my maternal or paternal family. I have so many aunts, uncles, and cousins that I wouldn’t even recognize if I walked past them on the street. Even when it came to my grandparents, I didn’t know much about them, especially my paternal grandparents. However, I still had enough information to create a genogram that helped to unravel A LOT of feelings and issues I’ve struggled with my entire life. I was finally able to pinpoint the origin of my feelings and actions and by having this origin, I was able to explain some things to myself and to start taking steps to make changes. You want to talk about eye-opening? This exercise will certainly be a doozy!
Journaling
This exercise is so much easier than the genogram and it still has multiple benefits. Make a habit of writing down your thoughts and ideas, even if for only five or 10 minutes a day. Personally, I’ve found this exercise to be freeing for several reasons. I’m able to get rid of all the chatter in my head that sometimes keeps me from moving forward. I’m also able to jot down all sorts of creative ideas that come to me. Journaling also helps me to manifest certain things in my life. It’s as if once I write it down, I force myself to take some action. About once a week, I go back through my journal to see what my thoughts were, if I made progress, if I let go of something, etc… There are times I write for only five minutes and times when I write for 15 or 20 minutes.
Meditation
Don’t let this technique intimidate you, please! I know, it’s hard to imagine being still and quiet with yourself, but I promise you, it really isn’t that difficult. There are so many types of meditation and there’s no “perfect” way to practice it, so don’t stress yourself out over this one. Some people find that meditating first thing in the morning works best for them, but again, there’s no perfect way to do this. Don’t fret over the idea of falling asleep either. It happens to a lot of us when we meditate. What I usually like to do is to think about a topic (love, courage, purpose, fear, connection with a higher source, etc…) then scroll through YouTube until I find a meditation that I feel drawn to. Sometimes I listen to guided meditations and other times I listen to ones with just music and sound. Most of the time I meditate in a specific room in our house, but I’ll even meditate for a few minutes at night in bed. After my morning meditations, I’ll journal about the experience and the thoughts as a result. I’ll discuss meditation in a bit more detail in future blog posts.
These are just three techniques that I’ve found to be very effective in increasing my awareness. Like I mentioned before, countless others use some of these and more routinely in their lives, so they aren’t just some crazy tactics or B.S. time wasters. If you feel like you want to make some changes in your life or need answers to something, try some of these for at least three weeks. If you skip a day or find them too challenging, don’t give up; keep pushing through and try again another day. I really think you’ll be amazed at how effective these techniques can be for you.
Do you have another technique you use to increase your awareness? If so, please share it with others in the comments. Until next time, I hope you all find a way to begin Living Differently and Better!
