ICRAVE Consciousness Awareness

3 levels of awareness

Vagueness (The Common Level)

  • Vague sense of other people and self
  • Vague sense unhappiness (and/or happiness)
  • Not very in touch
  • Not aware of our bodies (unless we have a pain)
  • Not aware of our surroundings
  • We are lost in thought
  • Don’t notice emotions until you have already reacted
    • “I’m angry, depressed, lonely” without realizing the evolution of it

More Alert

  • Happens when we start to meditate, yoga, pay attention (presence)
  • Begin to have more awareness of our body, physical space around us,
  • More awake and in touch
  • Practice to pause and listen (to the silence)
  • Begin to notice emotions before they are full blown
    • Catch the emotions as they are arising
    • Catch your thoughts before your reactions
    • Feel the urge (to do something)
  • Train in attention to anything that is going on (listening, tasting, etc.)
    • Letting our thoughts go
      • “I shouldn’t be feeling or thinking this.”
  • “Abide in our experience” without believing in the judgements and opinions about it
    • Gradually learn not to believe in the story lines (openness) (takes years)
    • Attitude of kindness, humor, and friendliness (especially to yourself)
    • “I am angry but I don’t have to escalate, fuel, or exaggerate this”
  • Begin to see more clearly (yet still get hooked)
    • “I see what I’m doing but still do it”
      • Rejoice in this improvement (understanding and improvement of the process)
      • Catch it whenever you can

Consciousness

  • Aware of what’s happening
  • Abiding in your energy and experience
  • Catch it when it is just beginning to arise (let it go early)
  • Pause when you feel anxious or tension
  • “I don’t have to stay in this tiny world of my own mind”
  • More glimpses
  • Get the hang of being present
  • Strengthen positive habits instead of the common negative ones

Re-source: Reconditioning

Every moment when you get back to realizing the present, “milk it for what it’s worth.”

  • Listen and feel the awareness of the body
    • This can be a long and patient process

“Bear Witness”

  • To our personal distress (and to the distress of others)
    • Rather than condemning it, fixing it, or trying to do something about it
  • Abiding (being present) with the experience, situation and energy without the fear
  • Translates to alleviating suffering
  • “awake” to suffering (personal chaos and what triggers it)

craving and resource from “The Fearless Heart” – the practice of living with courage and compassion – by Pema Chodran