Awareness is not itself an object that can be focused on, but it can be hidden. I believe that the expanded awareness state is the 'natural' or 'default' state of animals like us, and it's the layering on of habit and conditioned responses that occlude it.
– Michael Ashcroft
Establishing a new baseline takes time and practice. And the practice is to keep noticing all the things you are doing that are getting in the way of this state and to stop doing those things. The assertion of "bang, all this expanded awareness all at once" is as much as cessation of doing everything that isn't that.
– Michael Ashcroft
- contrast with collapsed awareness
- Awareness constrains attention
- Attention is directed. Awareness has a shape and size, to the extent that you can 'cut out' a person who's trying to engage with your group at a party. And it's awareness that we're playing with here, predominantly.
- situational awareness
- https://guysengstock.wordpress.com/3-steps-to-transcend-stress/
- expanded awareness corresponds with agency to choice
- gestures into expanded awareness
- imagine a ballon above your head and while exhaling you expand it
What it feels like:
- Easy
- Open
- Alive
- Present
- Dynamic
- Powerful