TOOLS, RESOURCES, AND CONTENT
TO HELP YOU DO YOUR WORK
AND LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE
HOW TO BUILD AWARENESS IN YOUR LIFE
*Note: this post is a condensed version of the Coming Out Gold Podcast Episode 6 found here.
Today we are diving into ways to build awareness using some SAS – a Self Awareness System. Before we jump into this, let me remind you of the last action step I challenged you to take. You were to spend some time dreaming and researching what you are passionate about in your life and what brought you a sense of purpose. If you missed it, I created this pdf to walk you through some questions you could ponder to help you narrow down your own.
Have you ever had one of those moments where you arrive at a location yet you have no memory of actually making the drive? You know, an auto-pilot kind of experience? You remember getting ready and starting your car, but you cannot recall the actual drive. Maybe you were in your head thinking about a million different things or you were running through dialogue for an upcoming conversation you have to have. But may I suggest there could be another possibility? Could it be that you are sleepwalking through your life? Hear me out on this one.
defining awareness
Over the years, I have worked with far too many women who admitted to feeling asleep in their own stories. They are so focused on handling their countless responsibilities while their dreams sit on the shelf. Many even put self-care on the back burner while they juggle all they have going on. I was one of these women and lived the first 40 years of my life trying to be “good enough” to earn the love of those in my life. At best, I was a facade running from one thing to the next to make sure everyone else was okay. Having clawed and scraped my way out of that pit, I can offer some tips to help make your journey back to yourself and your dreams be a much straighter path. As usual, this will require some sweat equity and work, but it will be a million times worth it.
In an earlier post, we learned how making decisions based on our active core values ensures the choices we make daily move us toward the women we are becoming. So I have to ask: Are you making decisions based on who you have been, are now, or who you are becoming and who you were created to be? It matters because if we want to be world-changing women, we have to be looking ahead – not behind or mired in the muck of today. Science tells us only dead fish float, and we are wonder women, not dead fish, so we must stop floating through our lives. This takes awareness.
In an article on the site Meditation Weekly, they define awareness as follows:
“Awareness is a capacity of the human mind. As we ordinarily understand it, it’s the ability to directly know and to perceive, sense, feel, or be cognizant of experience. We might think of awareness simply as the state of being conscious of something.”
I dumb that down a bit to us being awake in our lives.
Awareness creates space for us to see things. Life on auto-pilot makes it easy to coast through our days, handling whatever task or emergency in front of us. We give focus to the urgent while the important gets pushed aside. We simply don’t make time to stop and look at each choice and activity or examine every thought or feeling. In addition, most people are terrible judges of what they are capable of. We only see as far as the end of our nose and don’t step back to check out the bigger picture.
Okay, I am going to date myself here but do you remember the cult classic movie, Clueless? There is a scene in the movie where Cher refers to a Monet painting. Up close it was a hot mess but from a distance it was beautiful. If you pressed your nose to a famous painting, you would have no idea what the image was meant to be. You would only see a series of strokes on a canvas. But if you take a few steps back and allow your eyes to refocus you begin to see the beauty it holds, the nuances, the lights, the shadows. Awareness requires us to learn how to step back and take a look at our own life.
how to practice awareness
Raising awareness is a daily practice that seeks to keep you awake. It keeps you informed about your attitudes, behaviors, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. It opens the door for you to make adjustments or changes to areas of your life so that you can come into full alignment with the woman you are becoming. It is about noticing patterns and being honest about how they serve you. Because the reality is our unhealthiest habits serve us in some way. How do you do this?
- Open your eyes.
- Take a step back.
- Create a safe place to ask some questions
And to help you do this you need SAS – Self Awareness System. This is a process by which we can rationally evaluate feelings and moments and hinges on simply observing without judgment with a goal of understanding. Here is how this works:
Whenever you have had an experience that leaves you feeling some feels, allow yourself to sit with it. Feel whatever you feel. Acknowledge it. Dig under it by asking yourself questions that help you get to the root. Thank it for the lesson it taught you. And then bless it and release it. And then take the awareness you now have to help you in future situations.
By doing this work, awareness can become your superpower. It is an amazing asset in our relationship with ourselves and others as well as our career or business. Think about it for a sec. If you were fully aware of how you were moving about the world, life would look and feel so different. You could alter the way you communicate things in a way that showed more empathy and compassion. You could be aware of triggers and avoid situations that call out responses that are unhealthy or painful. In addition, self-awareness will leave you equipped to set healthier boundaries in your life – around time, energy, resources, and relationships – and all the world benefits when we set healthy boundaries.
make it a daily practice
I hope this post and the SAS tool will change your life for the better because the truth is, even if you have been a woman living asleep to her own story and dreams, feeling overwhelmed and exhausted by all that rests on your shoulders, you don’t have to be that for one more moment. You can get your SAS on and start living as a woman fully alive, filled with clarity, purpose, and passion, who is taking charge of herself, her life, and her story so she can reach her goals and achieve her dreams
Now, to help you get your SAS on, I created a free pdf to help guide you through the process. Keep it on your desktop or your phone so when you need to pull out some SAS, you will have a guide to walk you through. The link is below.
Without awareness, you cannot walk in alignment with your core values. If you can’t walk in alignment, you will never be fully in integrity with yourself or the world. We will talk more about those in an upcoming post and on my Coming Out Gold Podcast so be sure to check back for those.
In the meantime feel free to comment below. If you have a question, you can message me on the contact page here or send a DM on social media. I would love to help you in any way I can.
Until next week remember, I am in it WITH you,
Coach Tammy
SELF AWARENESS SYSTEM CHECKLIST
Download a checklist to help you practice building awareness in your life. Save where you can refer back to it regularly and start living with your eyes wide open so you can live your best life!