Part 1 of 3 in our reflections on Models of Awareness
Waking Up to Awareness
Welcome to the first of three reflections on models of awareness. Living a sacred life doesn't require a mountaintop or a perfectly quiet morning. It begins with something much closer: noticing.
I like to think of awareness as a golden thread - a subtle, luminous, here-and-now perceptiveness that we can access at any moment. When we attune to it, we can think about our thinking. We can feel into our feelings. We can sense what's happening in our bodies.
This ability to check in might reveal that we're angry, running on autopilot, or carrying pain in a knee. Accessing awareness doesn't mean we're in some exalted spiritual state. It simply means we're present to what's unfolding within us in real time.
Without this kind of awareness, we can drift through whole days on autopilot, missing the information arising from our minds, hearts, and bodies, as well as the quiet promptings of Spirit.
The Awareness V Map is a simple picture of what we might wake up to when awareness arises. It helps us return to the golden thread of awareness. More than that, it gives us a way to recognize our patterns of awareness and notice the dynamics shaping our lives at any given moment.
The Map
To understand how this map works, we start with the letter V. At the narrow point at the bottom, our awareness is contracted. We have the least perspective and the fewest choices. We may be highly reactive, pulled into habitual patterns, or any of a myriad forms of shutting down or numbing out.
As we move upward and follow the golden thread, the V widens - and so does our capacity to see, feel, and respond. We begin to access the healthier possibilities within us: more flexibility in our thinking and greater freedom in our emotions. At the widest level, we are aligned with our spiritual nature and the expansive forms of awareness that come with it.
You’ll see that the map has three columns that show three dimensions of awareness, each offering a different window into what is happening within us:
Identity: The middle column reflects how we are oriented to ourselves in the moment -whether we are identified with our reactive patterns, connected with our creative potential, or living out of a deeper sense of spiritual selfhood.
Mental Awareness: The left column mirrors the mindsets through which we're interpreting our experience - whether our thinking is constricted by fear and habitual patterns, opening to curiosity or possibility, or experiencing an even more expansive perspective.
Emotional Awareness: The right column displays the range of feelings that arise and shape our experience - whether we're caught in reactive feelings, emotionally experiencing greater acceptance and empathy, or the touching into the highest human emotional range and the trust that comes with it.
These three columns give us different ways of locating ourselves on the V. They help us notice both how contracted or expanded our awareness is, and a granular view of how we are thinking and feeling as we move through our days.
And at the heart of the map is this: the wider our awareness, the more room we have to live. More room to see what is actually happening. More room to feel what is present without being overwhelmed by it. More room to choose our response rather than simply repeat our patterns.
Here’s a closer look at the three primary identities, or selves, that emerge from these different combinations of mindset, emotion, and awareness:
The Reactive Self (the Bottom of the V)
At the bottom of the V, awareness is most contracted. Fear, stress, and conditioned patterns shape how we see ourselves, others, and the world. We have a very narrow range of choices because we are reacting out of familiar ego habits rather than responding with intention. It feels as though “life is happening TO me”* and circumstances are in charge. As such, we feel we are being victimized by people, situations, illnesses, etc.
At this level we are navigating feelings like shame, guilt, apathy, or anger. We find ourselves blaming, fighting, withdrawing, or shutting down. We feel we are the victim of a persecutor and in need of a rescuer. We all go here. In fact, sociologists estimate that 75% our population primarily functions out of this level of awareness.
This reactive level isn't failure. It's part of being human. And it can be the very place where awareness begins, if we become curious about what is happening within us.
The Creative Self (the Middle of the V)
As awareness widens, something begins to shift. We gain more space between what happens and how we respond, giving us greater freedom to choose. We reconnect with our gifts, our purpose, and our capacity to imagine new possibilities.
Instead of simply reacting to life, we begin to participate in creating it. The script shifts from “life is happening TO me” to “life is happening BY me.” We feel more like the creator than the victim, and challenges become our teacher rather than evidence that we are being persecuted. We become more willing to welcome coaches, guides, and others who can help us navigate the journey.
With this growing sense of agency, emotions like courage, acceptance, curiosity, and enthusiasm begin to emerge. We no longer need to control everything; we simply recognize that we have a part to play in what comes next.
The Spiritual Self (the Top of the V)
At the top of the V, awareness opens into presence and sense of connection that awakens ease and widens perception. The grip of the ego loosens, and we experience ourselves as part of something larger. There is a deepened trust in reality, along with a natural sense of compassion and belonging.
This movement beyond the confines of the ego comes through a subtle surrendering. Letting go into this relaxed presence releases our need to control outcomes. We begin to sense that along with the tasks that are ours to carry, we are being carried as well. Life is no longer simply happening TO us or BY us; it feels as if life is happening THROUGH us.
This doesn't mean difficulties disappear or that we remain in a permanent state of spiritual openness. Rather, we develop the capacity to meet ourselves, others, and life from a wider perspective. We can hold what is difficult without being defined by it, while remaining connected to something deeper than our immediate circumstances.
A Few Notes for the Journey
It’s a map, not a report card.
The Awareness V isn't a measure of how well we're doing. There is no shame in where we find ourselves - only information. The invitation is simply to notice where we are and become curious about what is happening within us.We move up and down the V all day long.
A traffic jam can pull us toward the bottom. A good conversation can open us into the middle. A quiet moment watching the sunset can invite the spaciousness of the top. Our awareness is always moving up and down the central golden thread in response to what we encounter, both within us and around us.We each have a center of gravity.
Although we move throughout the map, we tend to have a range where we naturally settle - a familiar place of thinking, feeling, and responding that becomes our default. Difficult or traumatic experiences can pull this center of gravity downward, while life-giving experiences and transformative practices can gradually raise it. Over time, what once required effort can become more natural.We can't force our way upward.
Awareness doesn't expand through willpower alone. Instead, we practice widening: taking a breath, feeling our feet on the floor, pausing before reacting, or naming what's happening within us with kindness. These simple acts create a little more space - and that space gives awareness room to expand.
These small acts are little touch points that reconnect us to the golden thread.
Awareness isn't a one-time achievement. It's a living, breathing practice. Each time we return to it, we discover a little more room within us for the sacred.
Points to Ponder
As you sit with the Awareness V Map this week, reflect on some or all of these questions:
Where am I noticing myself most often these days? Am I primarily responding from reactivity, engaging my creative possibilities, or experiencing moments of greater spaciousness and connection?
What tends to narrow my awareness? What circumstances, habits, or inner stories pull me toward reactivity? And what helps me find a little more room to breathe?
What helps me reconnect with the golden thread? Are there practices, people, places, or moments that help me move from reactivity toward creativity and a deeper alignment with Spirit?
What becomes possible when my awareness widens? How might I respond differently to a situation, relationship, or challenge if I approached it from a more spacious perspective?
Notice what you notice.
In our next reflection, we'll explore another model of awareness that I call the Figure 8 Cycle of Renewal. It invites you to examine your patterns of doing and being.
* The To Me, By Me, Through Me framework comes from the work of Michael Bernard Beckwith.