Phase 3: Comfortable Awareness
Phase 3: Comfortable Awareness
Over the past few weeks we have been exploring the 4 Phases of Awareness. If you haven’t had a chance to read my thoughts on the first 2 Phases, feel free to go back and look at my Blog on my website to recap and catch up.
And here we are, at Phase 3…Comfortable Awareness.
Comfortable Awareness is the phase where we begin to be able to tell the difference between discomfort and what it feels like in our body, and ease and what that feels like in our body.
Remember, before this all that might have been felt in the body was discomfort, unease, pain, sleep deprivation, stomach issues, anxiety, stress or other physical and emotional sensations that during our Uncomfortable Awareness Phase 2 that we were finally able to pinpoint and notice on a new level.
I remember going to a yoga class after taking my first Trauma Informed Training in Chicago with the incredible Cathrine Ashton. Of the many topics we covered, Invitational Communication was one of them. We learned how to provide choice and guidance with our words rather than expectations and commands. Instead of “you should,” or “I want you to”, we offered cues like “when you are ready”, and “perhaps”. I remember the visceral responses in my body. It invited so much more ease and possibility into the places in my body that felt tense. So when I went back out into the world from this training and stepped into a yoga studio where all I heard was “I want you to” and “you should be doing/feeling”, my body reacted.
Long story short; I could feel the difference between the ease of some words and the tension of others. This is discernment and this provided me with an opportunity to explore and be curious about how my internal environment was responding to my external environment. Over time, as I became more familiar with what my nervous system liked or didn’t like, it became more comfortable for me to be in my awareness; to be with the discomfort knowing that I could route my way back through resourcing (more on this later) to a place that felt more at ease.
Comfortable Awareness takes practice. It is a process and this phase can manifest within a spectrum over the course of time in the body and brain. This is where that mind/body connection can come back online and feel more clear or solidified. The repatterning of old habits within our nervous system can occur during this phase.
What was once perceived as a threat that sent us into a cacophony of reactions like fight or flight because of past experience can be transformed into a new pathway that instead takes our nervous system through a much more enjoyable route down the yellowbrick road to safety and rest and digest. We don’t have to go past those trees that throw apples at us any more.
This all happens because we can finally feel the difference. We can identify it, name it and track it. Andy while in the beginning this might have been part of our Phase 2 Uncomfortable Awareness moment, over time our capacity for this practice becomes more familiar and more comfortable.
My musing will continue to our final phase of Blissful Awareness later this month. Until then I look forward to hearing from you soon.
