One of life’s greatest gifts is the gift of awareness. Being aware doesn’t mean having control of everything around you, but rather seeing and experiencing existence from a heightened perspective that allows you to see the world in its totality. Having spiritual awareness means that you connect to your inner self as well as the outer world, while also being connected to your higher self to perceive the bigger picture. It means not just seeing life but finding purpose in the everyday. One of the most reliable ways to heighten your awareness and connect to the world around you on a deeper level is through meditation. While meditating, in general, puts you in deeper connection with your higher self, some exercises allow you to heighten and expand your sense of awareness, as well.

Being aware doesn’t mean having control of everything around you, but rather seeing and experiencing existence from a heightened perspective that allows you to see the world in its totality.

Self awareness

After a hard year, I’ve been trying to connect back to a greater sense of self awareness through my meditation practice. I’ve found one of the greatest things I can do is check in with myself every day. So, I try to meditate daily and ask myself:

How am I feeling today?

Is anything currently holding me back?

What am I unhappy with in my life?

What am I proud of? What brings me the most happiness right now?

What am I currently working towards that I’m excited about?

What can I invite more of into my life?

Even something as simple as understanding what does and doesn’t make me happy has made a world of a difference in my mindset. I find that, as humans, we tend to react on instinct. This could be from years of being programmed by how we were raised and what we were taught. Maybe our deeply buried instinct feels the need to keep us safe and protected. Regardless, knowing what we want and what is best for us at any given time is a blessing that allows us to move forward each day with an awareness of who we are. Sometimes we don’t even need to do anything; self-awareness is enough. Asking ourselves these questions regularly in meditation not only provides a sense of awareness that allows us to know and understand ourselves and how we work on a deeper level, but it also provides an opportunity to journal our daily thoughts and progress so we can work to turn our lives into something we truly want and cherish.

Knowing how I fit into my world is an important piece of the puzzle that gets laid out before me when asking important questions.

Awareness of the world around me

I’ve found that the more I meditate on myself, the more I seem to gain awareness of the world around me. Through peaceful walking meditations, daily mindfulness exercises, or exercises in the Expand app, I feel that each experience adds a greater sense of awareness and understanding, which is important to me and allows me to live in a more fluid state. The better I understand everything around me, and the more connected I am to it, the easier it is to move with grace through obstacles and issues that may arise. Being fully connected to my higher self and being aware of the things happening around me helps with problem solving. Knowing how I fit into my world is an important piece of the puzzle that gets laid out before me when asking important questions.

So, I try to meditate a little each day and check in with myself, if nothing more than a simple, “How are you feeling today?” and “What’s going on in your world today, Malorie?” This alone can inspire me to journal my thoughts and provide a sense of understanding of both myself and my world. On days when I either have more time or need more love, I will try to meditate early in the day and ask myself how I’m feeling and then meditate again that evening to reflect on how the day went and what I should take away from it. Plenty of exercises in the Expand app, both guided and unguided, open you to insightful perceptions. I encourage you to connect more deeply with yourself and expand your awareness as you continue your meditation journey.