Inspiring Awareness

Inspiration is in short supply in the modern world.

When awareness is shrouded by an overwhelming amount of sensory triggers, we can hardly see how set in our ways we are.

We are creatures of habit, so going out of our way to explore new territory (in our mind included) is counter-intuitive of the norm.

True story time:

This time last year I had just started to read books, but I hadn't spent much time thinking about how I could improve myself through reading (or writing for that matter)

Not a single friend or relative had told me the power of self help books (they were unaware)This was a problem, because I'm very much into leveling up, yet I couldn't go to college because I didn't have the money.

The knowledge of what I could do with these books didn't come until March of 2022 when I read 12 Rules for Life and decided to set my aim as high as I could possibly think to.

This is when I became aware of a higher purpose, that I could help spread the wave of information to a world of unaware people floating through their daily life only chasing what they believed was the right path, only to find themselves in a hole.

Chase the moment, not the weekend.

The problem with habitual behaviors is that we get sucked down holes always seeking momentary joy instead of doing what will bring us lasting happiness. This is detrimental to our society as we see record obesity, depression, and mindless pursuit of what our mind is craving (even if it's terrible for us).

Your mind is a tool of fixation, once you set your focus on something, that becomes the thing you will chase above all others.

• overthinking

• defending beliefs

• chasing addiction

These are our ways to avoid the troublesome question:

What am I doing, and what do I gain from it?

The trouble we put ourselves in

When you eat so much that you become overweight, you are chasing a legal cheap fix free of judgement.

Online society has made it a crime to judge someone on their looks, their habits, their intelligence.

The responsibility of it is on your shoulders, and you're entitled to live anyway you want, but you should decide if the side-effects are worth it.

You can do this by choosing to go against your normal routine which wants to do more of the things you always do, subconscious patterned thinking to get to the next similar event.In order to start chasing a version of yourself that you have only imagined you could be, there is one ingredient.

Are you ready to find out? (duh)

It's curiosity.

The main benefit of self-awareness is that you are mindful of the pros and cons of your actions. Raising your understanding of what a good habit repeated over a long period of time can do for you is the first step.

Seek higher awareness

When you pursue healthy habits you affect how others act, think, and behave around you.

Your actions result in reward or consequence.

We don't know what we aren't aware of, if you're reading this, you acknowledge that you're one of the very few who seek self improvement as a possibility.

This is a new concept for me that was laughed at, that you could become any better than your elders. Looking back I feel like I was in a tribe of barbarians who used brute force and alcohol tolerance as judgement for how much praise you received.

Most people measure success in terms of financial freedom, but I'm here to help you determine success in overall happiness.

Being aware, acting on what you can when you can by building yourself into the best version of yourself through simple habits.

If you're weak, then fitness is your aim.If you're unhappy, then spirituality is your aim.Seeking knowledge, then books will set you on a proper path.

3 questions to grow awareness:

 1. What makes you feel bad?Focus on one thing that makes you feel inadequate O(we determine our self worth solely on how much we make) This leads to no praise towards what else we do well (parenting, friendly, smart, creative)

2. What can you do to feel better?There are times when you neglect yourself to survive instead of pursuing something to feel better. Until we acknowledge that we aren't chasing who we want to be in place of keeping the "self" alive, you won't feel better, you'll only exist.

3. What part of my life is lacking?With the above image, you can see there are many areas that we don't make time for in life (it's impossible to hit all of these in balance without practice) If you pick one and work at it, you will build it into your schedule so you don't fall behind on it again.

The main way to build awareness of what you don't know, is to ask more questions.When something doesn't work the way you want it to, express your curiosity, not judgement.

Ask for what you need and find out what makes your perspective unable to comprehend.

This is like finding a job, doing something you're interested in makes you feel more fulfilled.The time you work is upwards of a 3rd of your life, so don't spend it doing factory work that you can't stand (hat tip to my past).Thanks for reading the bi-weekly Mind Mender. I appreciate you

-Thanson