Awakened Leadership Part 2 – Where Does Awareness Come From?
I wrote in my last article about the meaning of Awakened Leadership. Awakened Leadership is being aware of your state of mind. This awareness leads to more synchronicity and flow, knowing when to back off from major decisions and interactions with others, and when to trust your thinking and lean in to life. But where does that awareness come from?
Awareness, which is another name for consciousness, comes from being aware of how thought works – thinking philosophically about the nature of thought, rather than thinking about the content of your thinking. It’s the ability to be aware of the fact that we think , and that all feelings, all life experience comes from our own thinking in the moment. Remembering that, looking in that direction, creates what people call awareness, consciousness, and presence. By being aware of the nature of how thought works, you realize how your thinking is working in the moment. You see yourself creating thoughts that are bringing you your experience right then and there. This awareness compounds exponentially. You become more aware of thinking that you do that is useless are even harmful to you, and when you see it, it’s natural for it to fall away. You also become more aware of all the open mental space that opens up naturally when you’re not engaging in unnecessary thought, as you’ll feel more calm, more lighthearted and more inspired. When something falls away, it makes room for something new to come in. When unnecessary thinking falls away, wisdom, insights and good ideas start to show up in your thinking.
On the other hand, when you look into the content of your thinking – what am I thinking, how am I thinking, why am I thinking what I’m thinking, what does it mean, how can I change it etc. – your awareness shuts down. Instead of opening up to the wider world of endless thought possibilities, as we do when there’s psychological open space, you focus your attention on thoughts that have already occurred, and try to analyze and change them. Rather than being more open, present, available to the people around you and what’s occurring in the moment, you shut out the present and become immersed in thinking about your thinking.
Being an Awakened Leader means becoming philosophical about thought; understanding that it’s something at work every moment of your life. It comes as a relief to most everyone I work with to realize that, while it ‘s not always easy to change your mental focus, in the end awareness, and living in the present, is simpler than you ‘thought’.
