“Awareness is the greatest agent for change.” Eckhart Tolle
According to the World Health Organization, stress has been classified as the health epidemic of the 21st century, and this was pre-pandemic! 80% of people are overwhelmed by stress at least once per week and chronic stress destroys our mental and physical health.
We are wired for survival, not happiness. We have the same brain as our ancestors thousands of years ago who faced much greater physical dangers. It’s estimated that 80% of our thoughts are survival based (negative) and 95% of our thoughts repeat daily.
This survival pattern of thinking becomes our personality, and we get stuck in negative patters and even become addicted to the hormones of stress.
When we become aware of this fact, we can start to notice our thoughts, feelings, and emotions without allowing them to evolve into a story, narrative, or rumination. Most of us are not aware and therefore run our lives in a pattern based on our unconscious programming.
Just the simple practice of scheduling time daily to STOP, take a few deep breaths and check in with the feelings in your body and the thoughts in your mind can help bring awareness to this programming.
Becoming self-aware or mindful, is a skill we can practice helping train our minds to become stronger than our emotions. In part 2, I’ll share some simple ways to create a foundation to help you become more self-aware, moment by moment.
