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General Semantics and the Practice of Awareness
By Milton Dawes
The practice of awareness
is an effective way of keeping in touch with the goings on in our inner
world - the world around us.
Awareness is one of the most
important keys to becoming better managers of our everyday interpersonal,
intrapersonal, social, professional, and domestic interactions. The practice
of awareness gives us information about ourselves in our environments.
It enables us to better see ourselves, hear ourselves, understand ourselves,
know ourselves, take charge of ourselves.
The practice of awareness
opens up a way for us to recognize the connections between what we do and
how we do what we do, and the effects of this on those we come in contact
with, and the situations we find ourselves in - and most important of all,
how all this in turn affects us at a later time.
The practice of awareness
helps us to recognize that a good deal of our joy and misery, satisfaction
and disappointments, understandings or confusions cannot be blamed on others
or circumstances, but depends on our attitudes and approach, our knowledge
and beliefs, our fears and desires.....a good deal depends on us.
The following is a set of
simple exercises designed to help you develop greater awareness. Select
one every now and again and record your experiences.
-
Watch people walking.....notice
the variety of walking styles.....notice your own walking style.....silently,
without judgments.
-
See if you can catch yourself
using one of the following words: always... never... true... false...
fact... wrong... right... should... only... normal... perfect... exactly... bad... equal... same... ought... know...
- Make an effort to justify to yourself your use of these words.
-
When you touch, or remove something,
try to replace it "exactly" the way you found it ... so that no one would
know that it was disturbed.
-
Whenever you enter a room, do
a stock-taking exercise...look around and take note of the furniture ...
fixtures ... paintings ... equipment ... people ...
-
Every now and again, listen
to the various sounds around you ... see how many you recognize ...
-
Listen to yourself talking ...
identify the times when you find yourself describing things ... making
assumptions ... seeking information ... asking questions ... disagreeing
... criticizing ...
-
Wear your watch or ring on a
different hand...notice how uncomfortable a simple change can be..
-
Notice which shoe you put on
or take off first ... make a switch ...
-
In going some place you usually
go to ... take another route ...
-
Notice which part of your body
you touch first when you take a bath ...
-
Notice which foot you lead with,
while walking, or when you step on to a flight of steps ...
-
See if you can discover the
times when you are most aware ... or unaware ...
-
Make a graph and plot your mood
for each hour of a day, using the following scale:
Feeling Low...Tense...Angry...OK...Fine...Great...Fantastic...
-
See how many things around you
that you don't understand the workings of ...
-
When next you go someplace,
(the office, a party, to visit a friend, etc.) decide on an arrival time
one day ahead: try to be there within 5 minutes of time selected. (It is
important to select a specific arrival point - greeting your host, entering
the door, etc.). Notice the things, situations, people (including yourself)
that affect your timing.
-
Create some exercises of your
own to add to this list. Think of these exercises as a brain game.
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