Self Improvement Made Easy

I receive some odd responses to some of my articles and posts. I recently wrote an article on the importance of paying attention to the present moment, which made the point that it’s the only time and place that you can be – and if you don’t bother to turn up to the reality of the here and now, how can you reasonably expect to get anything decent out of life. One comment that I got – from someone who announced themselves as a “personal development expert” said that, OK, the here and now is all very well – but really personal development is about choice and awareness.

So, here’s the key question: What is Awareness? Let’s make it even easier – what can you be aware of at any particular point in time? Of course, you could be aware of your thoughts – most people aren’t because, as decades of research prove, most people are aware of pretty much nothing at all. You could be aware that you’re feeling annoyed or stressed – but these so-called emotions are merely the product of the thoughts that you’re not aware of in the first place. You could be aware of how you feel about yourself – your own self-image – but that’s not awareness, that’s getting involved in the ongoing internal power struggle between you and your personality (remember, personality derives from the Latin word, “persona”, meaning a mask and your personality is nothing more than the amalgamation of all the personal “snapshots” you took as a child).

Authentic awareness is being aware of the present moment. To paraphrase the Buddha, when I am walking, I am aware that I am putting one foot in front of the other. Only in the present moment is reality to be found. In fact – scientific fact as explored by quantum physics – only in the present moment does anything exist and all that exists is changing from one moment to the next.

And then there is the question of choice. We have a stark choice that has a fundamental impact on our lives – we can choose to be aware or we can (and this is the unaware choice made by normal people) choose to live in a make-believe world created by our own, predominantly negative, thoughts. This is a choice that we must make time and again, in each moment because no one becomes aware and stays aware – it is an ongoing process in exactly the same way that the reality of our universe is a continual process.

The life you are living is how it is as a consequence of your action, reaction or inaction in the present moment. The average person reacts to their own thoughts and perceptions. The abnormally successful person acts on the basis of the facts in the moment and, as a result, creates a life that is exciting, spontaneous, adventurous, fulfilled and successful. Now, do you think you might be up to making that choice?