How to Practice Conscious Awareness and What This Is
Turning "Chores" Into Mindful Tasks, How I Find Healing in Cooking, and Your Practice of the Week
Hello! Thanks again for being here to read this piece. I hope you have a nice drink or snack with you and have chosen to take aside this time to read something which you will hopefully find useful or helpful!
In today’s post we look at the importance of approaching as many things as we can with conscious awareness. This really helps us remain present, but it also really help us feel more contentment and even gratitude. So let’s do it!
What Is Conscious Awareness?
This is a practice of being fully present and immersed in what you’re doing. The more you do this, the more you realize you will eventually not even be able to send a text with the TV running in the background! You will really start to enjoy the space that is created for you to dedicate your full time and attention into what you are doing.
Everything feels easier, calmer, and more productive - and it’s funny that society teaches us to instead multitask for those very reasons!
We are taught (as I say in my previous posts) that multi-tasking will make us more productive and allow us to lead a calmer, more organized life. How funny that this is actually the opposite of the truth!
So - conscious awareness means:
Being conscious about what you are doing; and
Being fully aware of what you are doing
To do things consciously, we should do them by taking our time. We should be mindful. For example, is the order you are doing this a productive order? Is the method you are applying a practical one?
Say you are crossing the road - maybe you are being “aware” by looking at traffic and checking for cars - but if you are also not fully conscious and present, you may trip, step on a pothole, and so on.
This might seem like a very basic example, but the premise is clear: if your mind is immersed in worrying about something else, or the future (i.e. minding the traffic) your mind may be too busy to also pay attention and be conscious of where you are right now - where you are walking, and how. Think about how common it is for that typical situation where people suddenly realize that they aren’t sure where they were going - they were just walking along without thinking and they suddenly realize that maybe they’re going the wrong way, or forgot where they were originally heading.
“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going - where are we heading?”
This is a simple example that you may find does, or doesn’t apply to you, but if you’ve ever ran into something, tripped, stepped on something (etc, etc) even when you thought you were paying attention to what you were doing - the likely culprit could be the lack of that extra bit of conscious presence.
Of course, this doesn’t mean overthinking - at all. Instead, it really just means taking your time. It means being conscious - mindful - of each step you take. Of whatever it is you are doing.
How To Start Practicing Conscious Awareness
Mindfulness, being present, and practicing conscious awareness are all things we can do at every moment of the day. When we wake up, we can be mindful of how we do this. When we shower, we can practice being very conscious and present in what we are doing. These are examples of all the opportunities we have every moment of the day to start practicing this.
So how do we actually start?
The very first thing we should try to do is to quiet our mind, and focus on our breathing. What exactly does this mean? It means taking the time to do both of these things before we begin our “chore”, task, hobby, and so on.
For example, you can practice this as soon as you wake up. When you wake up - don’t get on your phone. In fact, don’t have your phone by your bedside or in the bedroom. Don’t open your eyes immediately. Don’t get up immediately. Don’t start thinking about many things, or all the things you have to do, or what you didn’t get to do yesterday.
Instead, wake up slowly. Take your time, maybe repeat something nice in your mind, to help distract you from any worrying thoughts about the day. You can say things like “I am grateful for a new day and I will do everything with patience”. By repeating this in our minds as we wake up, we are telling ourselves to be conscious, present, calm, and aware.
It’s not to say that this is all easy to do (especially trying not to think about things) - but what matters is that we try at every moment to do our best at practicing.
These are the ways we practice conscious awareness. By immersing ourselves fully in exactly what we are doing in each moment - be it waking up, eating, sitting down, reading, talking to a friend…every moment is an opportunity to be fully present.
How I Practice Conscious Awareness Whilst Cooking - and How I Find Cooking to be Healing
Another great example to practice presence and conscious awareness is when we are cooking. This is a great opportunity to mind every single thing we do and to do it with presence, and calmness.
We can do things in steps. We can be mindful about each step. We can do things one at a time. We can practice calmness, instead of rushing. We can take our time slicing, chopping, mixing…we can smell the herbs and spices, and use this to ground ourselves in the present moment.
Personally, I am finding a lot of “healing” in cooking. It provides us with such an easy opportunity to be completely and fully immersed. It’s one of the absolute best ways to practice being present, slowing down, being mindful, calm, aware…
The more present I am, the less anxiety I have. The more I am also able to let go: of repeating thought patterns, of old behaviors, of the past, of worries about the future, or where I should be…
All I think about is where I am - and how nice it is to cut a tomato.
Aside from finding cooking to be very healing, here is an example of how I use conscious awareness whilst cooking.
Before I get into it, I also wish to say that I have lately purposefully been choosing meals which require a little more preparation than usual. This means I am pushing myself out of my comfort zone in several ways:
I can’t rush, because it is unfamiliar
I am forcing myself to do new things
I need to take my time - there is a process - and it requires patience and awareness
I take my time plating in a nice way, or an artful way - this makes me happy because I am learning how to do new things, but I am also being very conscious and mindful of how I serve my food.
I am always learning new things
Now onto my example about how I apply the practice of conscious awareness when I realize I am not being fully present:
I was breading things in batter to prepare dinner. It was three steps - cornflour, plant milk, and breadcrumbs. I hadn’t taken the time to think about how to line the three bowls up; I was doing a couple things at once without realizing - and so breaking my multi-tasking rule in the process! So for the first couple pieces of batter, I found myself dipping into one bowl, then splashing across the other two, and then going back to the middle bowl.
Of course I quickly stopped, and realized that this wasn’t a very conscious way of moving. By applying “conscious awareness” I was able to do the same thing in a much more calm, and mindful way:
I stopped, then breathed. Then told myself to be fully present and aware, by paying attention only to what I am doing, and not thinking about anything else. Only when my mind was not elsewhere did I then continue - and as I continued, I repeatedly kept reminding myself and practicing to stay focused on what I am doing, without letting my mind wander.
Again - while this is a very simple and basic example, you can transform this outwardly and apply it to whatever it is you are doing: work, hobbies, chores…the premise is the same and the lesson is the same!
Your Practice of the Week - If You So Wish!
For this week’s practice, my hope is that you will also carry this through into as many moments as possible and try to live as conscious and as present as you can. Here are the steps you might find useful in order to start practicing this:
Stop
Breathe
Regroup your mind and thoughts
Focus on what you are immediately doing
Consciously choose your actions, words, etc…
Practice remaining immersed and present, without allowing your mind to wander.
No matter what you’re doing: filling your glass with water, washing your hands, brushing your teeth, walking around, going for a drive, talking to your friends or family, listening to someone else, sitting and reading…whatever it is, see how many moments you can really be fully immersed in.
How many moments you can really practice conscious awareness - and see if that helps you feel more contentment, peace, and calmness in your life.
With lots of love <3
Thank you
Tomando el tiempo para hacer las cosas , si que nos da perspectiva de lo que hacemos, sea lo que sea, es como que el tiempo nos rinde dos o tres veces más, y parece que nos queda en nuestra memoria cada momento del día y recordamos esos momentos más profundamente , nuestro tiempo tiene más valor y se disfruta mucho mas y se DUPLICA O TRIPLICA. Lo importante es valorar más el momento, de Lis buenos momentos tenemos lindos recuerdos y de los malos tendremos aprendizaje.
Gracias por compartir cada semana con todos nosotros tus reflejos e ideas.
♥️🌹