Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Acquiring and Creating Awareness

Hello,

Today's article is about how to aqcuire and create awareness. The subject of awareness is very in-depth. Awareness is based upon your perceptions as well as your reality. In your everyday life just how much are you aware of? The human mind is an interesting creation in that the more we see something in our lives, on an everyday basis, the less we actually hold it in our awareness.

How many times have you driven down the street to work and passed the same houses or buildings on that journey. If I were to ask you to stop and think about those landmarks could you describe them in detail? Most people could not!

Creating awareness, like martial arts, takes constant practice and training to improve. In Kung Fu San Soo we are taught to practice using our awareness in everyday things as well as are actual "in studio" training. For example, some of the ways we hone our awareness are to sit in certain places when in restuarants, or to be constantly aware of your surroundings in parking lots, retail stores, movie theaters, etc.

Some of our students even have games we play that creates awareness in our everyday lives. One example of this is when I am in a local store and happen to see one of my fellow students in the same store. If he hasn't seen me I will try to get as close to him as possible before he is aware that I am there! This has made for some very "eye opening" moments as far as creating awareness and can be a great training tool.

The more aware I am in life the more confident I become in my ablity to perceive through my reality. Awareness is something that can be aqcuired though expanding your attention span. For example, walk into your office or work and sit down like you normally do. Now write down everything you are aware of without looking. When you are done take a look around you and write down everything you see. The two lists will be completely different!

One thing you will begin to realize is that the world around you will become a bigger, and more alive place to live because you will be aware of much more than you ever were before!

Happy Training!

Tony