Stepping Into Awareness
(Don’t have time to read, then click play to listen!)
We are now stepping into the next theme within The Wild and the Wise, and this one requires a different kind of attention. This phase is centered on awareness, what it is, how it develops, and what we actually do with it once it begins to surface. Before we begin, let me be transparent, this blog will not give you the answers to anything. Instead, it is here to raise your awareness. We will get into the answers as we explore awareness more in later blogs.
At first glance, it might seem counterintuitive that awareness comes after language. Many people assume that awareness is the starting point, that it is the moment of awakening that precedes everything else. However, when I sat with this more deeply, I realized that raising awareness without first establishing language can create more harm than clarity. If someone begins to notice shifts within themselves but does not have the words to describe or organize those experiences, that awareness does not become insight. Instead, it becomes internal pressure. It remains unprocessed, circulating without direction, often intensifying rather than resolving. This led me into a familiar question: what truly comes first? The answer, of course, is that nothing in human experience unfolds in a perfectly linear sequence. Our emotional, cognitive, and physiological systems are constantly interacting. Awareness, language, sensation, and meaning-making are all occurring simultaneously. However, when we attempt to guide ourselves, or others, through internal growth, we have to choose a point of entry. I chose language first because it provides structure. It gives form to what would otherwise remain abstract and overwhelming. Without it, awareness has nowhere to land.
With that foundation in place, we can begin to explore awareness in a more grounded way. Awareness, in its most practical sense, is the ability to step back and recognize what is happening within you as it is happening. It is the moment you notice a shift rather than being completely overtaken by it. That shift can emerge in multiple forms. It may appear as an emotional response, such as sadness, anger, fear, joy, or disgust. Those foundational emotional states that shape our more complex experiences. These are often the easiest to recognize because we have, to some extent, been given language for them, whether through personal experience, education, or even cultural references like Inside Out, which offers a simplified but effective framework for understanding core emotions. However, awareness is not limited to emotion. It also exists at the somatic level, which is where many people begin to lose clarity. The body often registers a response before the mind can interpret it. Awareness may show up as a tightening in the chest, a clenching of the jaw, a drop in the stomach, a surge of energy, or the subtle onset of restlessness. These physical sensations are not separate from emotional experience; they are part of the same system. The nervous system is constantly signaling, and awareness is the process of noticing those signals as they arise. The challenge, however, is that most of us do not simply become aware, we react simultaneously. The moment something is felt, we attempt to interpret it, manage it, suppress it, or act on it. As a result, awareness and reaction become entangled. Instead of creating clarity, the experience becomes disorganized. We find ourselves in the middle of a heightened internal state, aware enough to feel it but not grounded enough to understand it. This is where many people get stuck. They are not unaware, but their awareness has become overwhelming, reactive, and difficult to navigate.
This is where the real question begins to take shape: what do we do with awareness once we have it? How do we learn to sit with it long enough to understand it, rather than immediately reacting to it? And perhaps more importantly, how do we begin to develop awareness in a way that leads to clarity instead of confusion?
Let’s Start With the Boring Part First
When we begin a discussion like this, it is important to start where any academic inquiry begins: with definition. The APA Dictionary of Psychology (American Psychological Association) defines:
Awareness: n. perception or knowledge of something. Accurate reportability of something perceived or known is widely used as a behavioral index of conscious awareness. However, it is possible to be aware of something without being explicitly conscious of it (See also consciousness, self-awareness)
If we follow that thread, the APA defines consciousness as, “the state of being conscious.” However, they go into more detail on that when it comes to discussing the medical view of consciousness. Physically speaking, it is, “distinctive electrical activity of the waking brain, as recorded via scalp electroencephalogram (ECG)” But if you read further down a new story unfolds at the bottom of that definition. There, we see the definition unfold in many ways including, “Experiential or subjective interpretations, however, tend to define consciousness in terms of mental imagery; intuition; subjective experience as related to sensations, perceptions, emotions, moods, and dreams; self-awareness; awareness of awareness itself and of the unity between the self and others and the physical world; stream of consciousness; and other aspects of private experience.” I know…that’s a lot of words. But when we sit with this a bit we can see how consciousness becomes something more than just little zaps of electricity in our brains. Consciousness is not only a subjective experience but also something that can be observed, measured, and studied through the body. It is both experiential and biological, both internal and externally verifiable. This dual nature has led scholars to describe consciousness as foundational to behavior, experience, and subjectivity itself.
We can then extend this further into self-awareness, which the APA defines simply as, “n. self-focused attention or knowledge.” This introduces an additional layer, not just awareness of something, but awareness of oneself in relation to that something. It is a turning inward, a recognition that the experience is not only happening, but that it is happening to you, and perhaps even because of you in some way.
What becomes immediately interesting is that we are now working with three nouns
awareness, consciousness, and self-awareness
All are attempting to describe what is, in reality, a fluid and continuous state of being. These are not static objects. They are not separate systems that switch on and off in isolation. They are overlapping processes that are occurring simultaneously, shaping how we perceive, interpret, and respond to the world around us. This is where the complexity begins to deepen. If awareness can exist without full consciousness, and consciousness can be measured both subjectively and physiologically, then where do we locate the actual moment of experience? Where does knowing occur? And who. or what, is doing the knowing? Deep, maybe a bit too deep. Rather than approaching this through dense philosophical language, it may be more useful to simplify the structure into something more intuitive. At any given moment, there is something being experienced, there is the experience itself, and there is the one having that experience. These three elements are always present, even if we are not actively thinking about them. When they are aligned, we experience clarity. When they are not, we experience confusion, reactivity, or disconnection.
Bringing It Back To The Self
And here is the part that does not get talked about nearly enough: We are constantly told to “be more aware.” We are encouraged to notice our thoughts, to tune into our bodies, to pay attention to our emotions. Awareness is treated as if it is the end goal, as if once you see something clearly, the work is done. But awareness, on its own, is not the solution and we saw that when we looked at the definitions. Awareness is like onions (and ogres) in that is has layers.
In many cases, awareness without support actually makes things feel more intense. You notice more, you feel more, you pick up on patterns you had not seen before, but you still do not know what to do with any of it. So instead of creating clarity, that awareness starts to create pressure. This is not just a personal observation. There is research that speaks directly to this. In a framework designed to understand what is called self-connection, researchers describe three essential components: awareness of oneself, acceptance of oneself, and alignment of one’s behavior with that awareness (Klussman et al., 2022). What this means, in very practical terms, is that noticing what is happening inside of you is only the first step. That awareness has to be met with a willingness to accept what you find, and then supported by choices that actually reflect that understanding (Klussman et al., 2022). This is where most people get stuck. They become aware of what they are feeling, but they judge it immediately. They notice the pattern, but they try to suppress it or push it away. Or they recognize what is happening, but their behavior does not change, so the same cycle continues. When that happens, awareness does not resolve anything. It just sits there, unresolved, creating tension instead of clarity.
Bringing It All Together
What we have just walked through is layered, and it is meant to be. This is a complicated discussion and it deserves the time and depth of a rich conversation. Rather than asking you to hold all of it at once, here is the TLDR (too long, didn’t read) version:
Awareness is not a single moment. It is an ongoing process happening across your thoughts, emotions, body, and behavior, often all at the same time.
Awareness is the ability to recognize what is happening within you as it is happening, whether that shows up as an emotion, a physical sensation, or a subtle internal shift.
Recognition alone does not create clarity. When awareness shows up without structure, it often leads to overwhelm rather than understanding.
This is why language comes first. Language gives awareness a place to land. It allows you to name what you are experiencing so that it can begin to make sense.
Awareness, consciousness, and self-awareness are not separate systems. They are overlapping ways of describing a continuous internal experience that is always unfolding.
In real life, awareness does not show up calmly. It shows up in the middle of reaction, where the body responds, the mind interprets, and behavior follows almost simultaneously.
Because of this, awareness and reaction often become entangled, making the experience feel disorganized and difficult to navigate.
Awareness on its own is not enough to create change. Research shows that awareness must be supported by acceptance and alignment in order to become useful .
Without acceptance, what you become aware of is judged, resisted, or suppressed.
Without alignment, nothing changes, and the same patterns continue.
When awareness lacks either of these, it does not resolve the experience. It creates tension instead of clarity.
Taken together, awareness is not the beginning and it is not the end. It is one part of a larger process. Without structure, it becomes overwhelming. Without support, it remains unresolved. This is the foundation we are working from moving forward.
