SHOWNOTES
EPISODE 6: PRIMARY AWARENESS
In the final episode of the debut season, we explore the amazing principle of Primary Awareness, the powerful inner wisdom within each of us.
Primary Awareness has been given many names, perhaps most recognizably as consciousness, highest self, and soul. Primary Awareness is a part of us, but one that cannot be found on our physical bodies. Primary Awareness is more easily understood as part of our minds, but it is a part of the mind that lies beyond our thinking brain and transcends our earthly personality. Unlike familiar thoughts and feelings, Primary Awareness is a calm and peaceful observer, separate from the ongoing narrative in our heads, yet always present.
Primary Awareness is an incredible source of insight, guidance, and wisdom that is not limited by the strengths or weaknesses of our personality. If life is a school, Primary Awareness is our teacher, quietly offering us guidance if and when we are interested.
In addition to precious guidance, another incredible benefit of connecting to our Primary Awareness is that it is aligned with our Intrinsic Worth. If we struggle to accept our personal worthiness, connecting to Primary Awareness will expand our sense of who we are and support us in accepting the value already present.
While Primary Awareness isn’t hidden, developing a strong connection to this part of us can require patience and practice. There are several techniques that will support us in accessing our internal wisdom. The first and simplest is to observe. Rather than always merging with whatever thoughts or feelings we experience it is important to practice noticing what is happening both psychologically and emotionally.
Perhaps the most effective technique for connecting to Primary Awareness is the practice of meditation. Because meditation naturally creates space from the thinking mind, it is here that we are best able to access this higher state. However, meditation does take practice, commitment and perseverance. Yet, the benefits are immeasurable.
The fact that each of us has access to incredible wisdom that is always available, guiding us beyond the limitations of our narrow thinking mind perspectives, is such an amazing gift. Be willing to explore your Primary Awareness. I promise you will find profound rewards including a heightened understanding of yourself and the world around you.
Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed the information presented in today's discussion, please consider subscribing to the Jenni Carroll Perspective.
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Hello and welcome to the Jenni Carroll Perspective. Once again, I am super excited to share with you a foundational and transformational principle. Today's topic is incredibly important... and I know I say that about all the ideas that we have covered so far, but I must say that this one offers us something really special. And understanding what this is and regularly using what this is will absolutely change the direction and experience of your life. The coolest and most amazing part is that every single one of us has access to it, because it is a part within all of us, whether or not we realize it. And this thing, this essence, if you will, has been identified and named by many, many spiritual teachers. It's been called consciousness. It's been called awareness, highest self, spirit, soul, and life force. How I identify this powerful form of wisdom and wellbeing is Primary Awareness. Primary speaks to its existence before our human selves, and Awareness conveys the infinite wisdom it offers us.
So, let me ask you, have you ever had an experience such as this: You are in the middle of a meltdown, raging, sobbing, maybe on the floor in a fetal position, but in the midst of that devastation, when overwhelming emotion has consumed any last crumb of rational thought, you sense an observer, neutral and without judgment, quietly acknowledging the drama, the magnitude of your emotional state. Possibly, you experience this observer is an idea or just an understanding, but something that feels different from a typical thought. And just for a moment, you are not overwhelmed, devastated, the hysterical person on your bedroom floor, but a kind, calm and peaceful observer.
Quickly though, the connection passes and you are right back in your grief. This gentle spectator is an incredibly powerful part of us, but because we are usually stuck in our thoughts, our feelings and everything around us, is often overlooked. Obscured. It's there, but we aren't paying attention to it. And this part of us is Primary Awareness.
So while Primary Awareness is found within us, Primary Awareness is not our body and we can't locate it on our physical selves. And while Primary Awareness is more easily understood as a part of our minds, it is a part of the mind that lies behind or beyond our thinking brain and our personality. Our personality is our human identity and includes our unique emotional and psychological wiring both present at birth and developed from that day forward. And our personality is also driven by the thoughts and feelings which arise from our thinking mind. Our thinking mind, housed in the brain, is the very necessary instrument we use to interact with and process our environment.
But there is another part of our mind that is not defined or limited by the strengths and weaknesses of our personality. Whether or not we choose to accept its existence or listen to its intelligence, it is present in each of us, quietly waiting to be utilized. Primary Awareness is often referred to as the highest self because while it is a part of us, it is a part that isn't weighed down by our human failings or our limited insight based on our senses and experiences.
Primary Awareness can also be understood as an aspect of our soul, the part of us that is eternal and transcends our earthly body and human experience. But regardless of how we characterize or define Primary Awareness, the exciting part is that it offers us information and direction while also providing a profound calmness. Utilizing Primary Awareness gives us a taste of the vastness of our existence, the understanding that there is SO much more to us than meets the eye.
Another way to look at it is to use the analogy of life as a school. You may have heard that before. And if life is a school, Primary Awareness is our teacher, giving us space to do the work, learn the lesson, yet quietly offering guidance if and when we are interested. When we connect with our Primary Awareness, we experience a sense of what is without need for research or additional evidence. We feel no need to argue or defend, although we may not always want to listen and or do what it is telling us.
So in our efforts to connect with this wise and amazing part of us, it can be challenging and maybe even a little overwhelming at first to try and “find” it. But the important thing to remember is that Primary Awareness is always experienced as calm, loving, and peaceful. It is never experienced as negative or critical. So knowing this can be helpful in separating Primary Awareness from thinking brain generated thoughts and feelings. If the message isn't experienced with neutrality and kindness, then it isn't Primary Awareness.
All right. So if you are not already sold on the fact that Primary Awareness is a fabulous source of information and wisdom, are there any other reasons to bother with it? Yes, number one, it is extremely useful in connecting us to our Intrinsic Worth. Primary Awareness is aligned with our Intrinsic Worth, even if we are not. As we have already identified, learning to embrace our Intrinsic Worth is foundational to living the lives we most want and need to live. If you are someone who struggles with fully accepting your internal value, connecting to Primary Awareness will help you get there.
Whether or not we notice or use our Primary Awareness, it continues to be present and available for us. As we begin to more frequently communicate with this powerful aspect of ourselves, our sense of who we are, our sense of self, naturally opens up. It gets bigger, wider. We are able to experience ourselves without the limitations of our five senses, the narrow vision of our past experiences and whatever struggles or personality flaws we carry. Getting in touch with this profound natural wisdom begins to reveal a beautiful essence that is not tied to our human failings. And in experiencing this, we are pushed to consider the limitations of our thinking mind and begin to have a sense that our narrow earthly perspective may be more than a little naive.
So hopefully by this point I have your interest, but maybe you are feeling a little negative or resistant about actually learning to access this part of yourself. First of all, let me remind you that you have already been in touch with this part, whether or not you realized it and whether or not you remember. So there's that. But going forward, there are some more ways to intentionally connect with Primary Awareness.
I want you to think about the idea of just noticing, observing. Because we are so dependent on our brains, our thinking mind, to get through our days, to make decisions, to get things done, to function, we tend to stay stuck there. And it's understandable that we do. But accessing our Primary Awareness is a process of learning to witness rather than merge with our thoughts and feelings. Try to think of it like this. Remember a time when you were a passenger in a car driving through unfamiliar country on a road trip. Unlike your daily route to work or school, which becomes almost meaningless in its familiarity, you're actually paying attention to what passes by. Looking out the window you observe with interest, but also with without feeling. You will never live in this town or countryside that you're driving through, and you probably won't even see it again. Because of this fact you are a conscious but neutral observer. You are able to take note of the scenery without becoming a part of it.
And that experience is very similar to encountering your Primary Awareness. I promise that if you just set the intention to start observing your thoughts and feelings, you will begin to sense the awareness that is patiently waiting. And you know what I’m going to say next... like anything else in life, the more you practice, the easier it will become. It’s such a worthwhile goal. It is such an incredibly cool experience to begin to see the difference between what is happening within us, our thoughts and feelings, and us, which is much, much more.
Another tool or strategy that can be very useful in this practice is journaling. Or, if the idea of journaling is weird for you, noting, jotting, writing.. all work perfectly. And if you have never journaled before, I would suggest starting with setting aside some time to write down any thoughts or feelings that happen to be present. It doesn’t need to take any specific form, even bullet-pointing works. When you’re done, read what’s on the page. Then, take a moment to recognize that you are more than what you were thinking or feeling just moments ago. Put it away and return another time. Reread your words and notice your thoughts and feelings on the paper. But notice them now with neutrality.
This practice helps us learn to observe, especially when our thoughts and feelings, which felt so strong and so important at one point, are no longer felt with the same intensity, or perhaps even felt at all. We probably have different thoughts now and our feelings have shifted, even slightly.
Another writing exercise is to think of a current problem or a stressor in your life. Write the problem in the form of a question, such as, "Should I look for another job?" So while using your thinking mind to answer this question on paper may offer some real benefits, the idea behind this type of exercise is allow words to be dictated without any real intentional thought. This can feel awkward at first, but start with taking a couple of deep breaths and, without pressure or any expectation, allow information to be shared on the page, even if it doesn't really make sense. And while, full disclosure, you may not immediately reveal some type of epiphany, over time this exercise will begin to feel more natural, each time you do it sort of strengthening the muscle that is your connection to your Primary Awareness.
So noticing and journaling are great ways to get started.... But I must also say that meditation is probably the most powerful way to connect to Primary Awareness. The goal of meditation is to create space, space away from our thinking mind thoughts and feelings. Thoughts and feelings have a reciprocal relationship, each informs (or triggers) the other. Being comfortable hanging out in our thinking mind is something we all do, and we do for good reason. We need our thinking mind to be our navigator. And without this sort of internal GPS we would find ourselves utterly disengaged from our lives, unable to do or care about doing anything. But on the other hand, because we are so dependent on our thinking mind, it's much too easy to never take the time to step back or take a break. So many of us find ourselves fused with the constant stream of thoughts and underlying feelings.
Meditation creates space, and that space is an opportunity to find temporary freedom from the incessant thought and feeling producing machine that is our thinking mind. Meditation itself is an ancient practice and has been around since literally forever, although it's certainly seen a mainstream resurgence in recent years. At this point pretty much everybody has heard about meditation. And a lot of people have tried meditation. But in my experience, many of those people quickly get frustrated and give up. I've had so many people tell me that they just couldn't do it. It wasn't for them. There was something wrong with their brain. Their thoughts just kept coming and coming no matter what they did. And I totally get it. But it always makes me smile, because that really is the experience of everyone, especially when you start. And frankly, even after you've been doing it a while. There definitely continues to be times where it feels really hard to step back from the thoughts and the feelings. I won’t sugarcoat this. Practicing meditation does take effort and intention and time and it definitely takes perseverance.
BUT, that isn’t reason enough not to do it. The benefits ultimately WAY outweigh the work. I encourage you to start if you haven’t or hang in there if you have. Never-ending thoughts are just part of the process. Allow them to be there without using them as evidence that you should give up because you shouldn't. I want you to remember that Primary Awareness isn't hidden. Because it isn’t hidden it is absolutely within your ability to find. You've just got to stay with it.
Throughout my life, I have been time and again guided by this sense of knowing. Sometimes it felt like a light just turned on out of nowhere. And then other times I didn't even notice a light turning on. I just became aware of having a very matter of fact certainty about something. And when I listened to this wisdom at different times throughout my life, I have never been let down.
But I will also honestly say that there have been times when I sensed what my Primary Awareness was saying or telling me, but I didn't want the advice or I didn't like the advice. It didn't fit with what I wanted at the time. And so I did something else. And my choice to go rogue always has led to unsavory consequences and the later realization that I really should have listened to what I already knew. Perhaps you too have had experiences like that... and you've definitely had experiences of being guided, whether or not you were aware of what was happening at the time.
It is so important to remember that Primary Awareness is there. It's within you, every day. It just needs to be heard. The more you practice connecting to it, the louder and clearer it will become.
My loving suggestion is to pay attention. Close your eyes and notice the thoughts forming in your thinking brain. Notice the feelings that the thoughts generate. Can you sense another presence behind the thoughts and feelings that you're having? Keep trying. Keep with it. I promise you you'll be glad you did.
Thank you so much for joining today. I hope you found something in our discussion on Primary Awareness to be meaningful or helpful in some way.
And, this episode concludes the first season of the Jenni Carroll Perspective. I want to sincerely thank you for your support and participation. I am so very grateful. If you have enjoyed this series, please look for season two coming in early January.
From my heart. You are light and you are love.
