It’s a funny thing awareness isn’t it? I mean, there are all kinds of awareness. There’s an awareness of ‘facts’, being educated about current affairs for example, or being socially aware and knowing what’s going on out there in your community. There is spiritual awareness and awareness of things that science is only beginning to touch upon, like quantum reality and energy fields. And there is personal awareness, in other words, knowing yourself well.
It’s the self-awareness that is, in my humble opinion, the most important. I mean, if you don’t know who you are, what’s the use of knowing anything about anyone / thing else!
Something that happened to a client of mine last week really illustrates a number of facets of awareness.
My client mentioned in passing that she was going to get a pink mini the following week because she hadn’t seen ANYONE with a pink mini and actually not that many mini’s in general, ironic with my mini sitting outside. OK it’s silver, red & black but it is still a mini!
Well, apart from reminding me about an old elephant joke (how many elephants can you get in a pink mini?), I didn’t think much about it until I spoke to her last week. “How’s the new car?”
“Cheryl, it’s fantastic, but I have seen 3 other people in my town driving a pink mini and everywhere I go I see mini’s now. It’s like there’s something weird going on in the universe”.
Well, of course, she wasn’t going crazy, it’s a well-known effect of awareness. Once we become aware of something, we then see it all over the place. It’s not that those things didn’t exist before, it’s just that they were not in our awareness.
And that’s also true of things that may be holding you back in your life or preventing you achieving what you want. Those self-limiting beliefs, that you don’t see until you put your awareness on them. Sometimes we don’t even know we have a self-limiting belief.
I remember when I was in Thailand with Marion (co-founder of The Find Your WHY Foundation), I was looking into the sea with the child of our retreat facilitators and she said “Look at the black fish Cheryl”.
Well I looked long & hard I couldn’t see a black fish at all. “Cheryl, why you not see the black fish?”
It was then that I heard someone else say, “Oh yes, look at all the little black fish” and, as if by magic, 100’s of tiny black fish appeared! You got it – I was looking for ONE big black Koi Carp style fish, so I totally missed what was there right in front of me.
The question is what are you missing that is in plain sight for you? It could be a big opportunity or it could be a small detail that could make a huge difference in your life.
A friend of mine loves to sing, she always has. As a child she sang often and was in various choirs. She knew she wasn’t that good, but she loved to sing anyway. She never considered taking singing seriously or putting herself forward for any solo’s UNTIL she was appointed choir leader at her school. Suddenly she realised what she ‘knew’ about her voice was, in fact, totally wrong.
Sometimes you just don’t know you have a self-limiting belief!
And even when you DO know you have one, what you DON’T know, or you’re often not aware of, is that the belief is often in fact NOT… a fact.
You see, when you believe something to be true it IS true. That’s right – it’s your belief, so it’s true for you. For example, if you believe that you can’t give up smoking or you can’t speak in public, then it is true for you. But is it really true? Of course not. Many people give up smoking and speak in public (sometimes at the same time!).
Therefore, if someone else can do it, then of course you can do it. But here’s the thing, something is holding you back and the good news is that the beliefs you hold are something that you learned and so you can change them.
Usually this needs someone else to give you a new way to look at the world, (like my friend and the choir) to get you to focus on what really is there, rather than you looking for what is familiar to you or what you expect to see (yep just like me with the Koi Carp!).
Until you become aware of the things that are potentially holding you back, these deep-rooted beliefs you have which are not fact, just the way you’ve always seen the world/ the beliefs you’ve assigned to events, then you will feel stuck and unable to live the life you truly want to live.
And this is the main reason Marion Bevington and Myself created the Find Your Why Foundation, where we help women (and men) to become aware of the patterns in their head which keep them stuck.
If you would like us to help you to start your awareness process, grab a free copy of our book Find Your Why, usual retail price £14.99, all we ask for is a small amount for shipping and handling that goes to our packing department – Glenice & John (our resident retiree/elves!)
And let me know of any awareness stories you have too – sharing after all, is caring.
In the meantime, remember to Live ️Love Laugh Everyday!