Awareness often begins in a very small space.
It may be no more than a breath, a pause, or a fraction of a second between what rises within us and what we choose to do next.
This week, I continue my series on the ripening dimensions of being alive with the seventh dimension: ripening awareness.
I use the word ripening intentionally. There are moments when we move toward a fuller expression of awareness, and there are moments when we do not. Sometimes our hearts open. Our minds open. Our perception widens. We become more present to the life unfolding within and around us.
Ripening awareness is not about reaching a permanent state of perfect consciousness. It is a practice of becoming more awake to what is happening now.
Noticing What Is Rising
One way I cultivate awareness is through Centering Prayer. During that practice, thoughts, feelings, emotions, and distractions naturally arise. Rather than holding tightly to them, I use a sacred word to release them and return to my intention to be present.
Ripening awareness brings that same practice into ordinary life.
Someone says something that sparks anger, defensiveness, hurt, or fear within us. A response immediately forms. We may want to speak sharply, withdraw, prove ourselves, or push the other person away.
Often, these reactions arise before we have consciously chosen them.
Awareness allows us to notice them.
In that brief moment, we may recognize what is rising and decide whether that reaction needs to become our next action.
Not Everything That Rises Must Emerge
Our instinctive reactions have a purpose. Human beings developed rapid responses because sometimes there really is danger. If a car is speeding toward us or we are about to step into harm’s way, we need our bodies to react immediately.
But most difficult conversations are not life-or-death situations.
Someone may touch a tender place within us. Pain rises. Fear rises. Anger arrives to protect us. The feeling is real, but that does not mean the reaction it produces must control us.
In my most aware moments, I can see the sharp response rising within me and choose not to give it center stage. I can allow it to pass through me without releasing it into the room.
Perhaps the other person sees something briefly cross my face. Perhaps they notice nothing at all. Either way, the reaction does not have to come to fruition.
Not everything that rises in us needs to emerge.
Learning to recognize the signals of our bodies and minds gives us greater freedom. We can notice what is happening without being governed by it.
The Breath Between Hearing and Speaking
Breathing can become an important practice of awareness.
So much of what we call listening is actually listening in order to respond. While another person speaks, we are already preparing our answer, defending our position, or deciding what we will say next.
Ripening awareness reminds us that we do not need to respond immediately.
We can catch our breath.
Within that breath, we can ask whether the words rising within us need to be spoken or whether they can be released. Reaction becomes something we can observe rather than something automatic.
That pause creates spaciousness.
It allows us to become more present to the other person. It may allow their words to reach us more deeply. It may open an opportunity that would have disappeared if our first reaction had immediately escaped through our mouths.
The pause does not make us passive. It makes our response more conscious.
It gives us the freedom to choose.
Practicing Ripening Awareness
Ripening awareness can be cultivated in many ways:
Through meditation or Centering Prayer.
Through noticing sensations in the body.
Through taking a breath before responding.
Through allowing silence into a conversation.
Through recognizing anger, fear, or defensiveness without immediately acting upon it.
We will not always catch ourselves before reacting. Awareness itself ripens gradually. Sometimes we will notice only after the words have been spoken. Even that noticing can become part of the practice.
Over time, the space between stimulus and response may become more visible. Within that space, we discover the possibility of releasing what does not need to emerge and returning to the person and moment before us.
That small space can become a place of freedom, compassion, and grace.
You are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.
Infinitely Precious 