What is Awareness?

Julian Jaynes, a philosopher, says: “We become conscious of consciousness when we are questioned, “What is consciousness?” So when we try to define consciousness or awareness, we end up with an embarrassment of choices, much like blind men trying to describe a painting.

But what is awareness in its true essence? 

Awareness is the collaboration of two words- “aware” and “ness.”  The word aware means having knowledge or perception of a situation or fact and the suffix ‘-ness’ denotes ‘the state or presence of’. Thus the word ‘awareness’ literally means ‘the state or presence of being aware.’ In neuroscience, “consciousness” is awareness.

Using the words ‘consciousness’ and ‘awareness’ carries the risk of objectifying or reifying the non-objective experience of pure knowing or being aware because they are nouns. They imply that awareness or consciousness is a unique, delicate sort of experience that can be discovered or understood in the same way that objective experience can. As a result, many people go on a quest for enlightenment, which is said to be the ultimate experience or state of mind.

Tapping Into The True Essence of Life With Awareness

Imagine yourself in a darkened movie theatre, watching the tale of your life unfold on the screen. You’re engrossed in the drama, suspense, and tender moments until you suddenly realise: You forgot you were watching a movie for the last few hours! You were so engrossed, so invested, that you lost track of time; you thought the movie was about you but in fact it was just a movie. This is what awareness is. 

Awareness is a way to live. It is a way to be awake. You are only alive to the extent that you are aware. The difference between death and life is awareness. You are not alive simply because you are breathing or because your heart is beating. 

A hospital can keep you alive physiologically while you are unconscious. Your heart will continue to beat and you will be able to breathe normally. You can be kept in such a mechanical configuration that you will be alive for years—in the sense of breathing, heartbeat, and blood circulation.

Many people in advanced countries are now just vegetating in hospitals because advanced technology has made it possible to postpone your death indefinitely—for years you can be kept alive. You can be kept alive if this is life. But this isn’t real life. Life is more than just vegetating. Life is about being awake, being aware.

Tapping Into The True Essence of Coaching With Awareness

The International Coach Federation (ICF) has established 11 Core Competencies to assist people in better understanding the skills and approaches used in today’s coaching world. These competencies were established in 1998. Now, ICF has updated its competencies, the first time since its creation, and stated that it would “serve as higher, more rigorous coaching requirements in the future.”

These Core Competencies contain awareness as its fourth domain as competency 8. Let’s see what ICF says about creating awareness. 

ICF in its core competency 8, states that creating awareness is the ability to integrate and accurately evaluate multiple sources of information and to make interpretations that help the client to gain awareness and thereby achieve agreed-upon results.

1. Goes beyond what is said in assessing client’s concerns, not getting hooked by the client’s description.
2. Invokes inquiry for greater understanding, awareness, and clarity.
3. Identifies for the client his/her underlying concerns; typical and fixed ways of perceiving himself/herself and the world; differences between the facts and the interpretation; and disparities between thoughts, feelings, and action.
4. Helps clients to discover for themselves the new thoughts, beliefs, perceptions, emotions, moods, etc. that strengthen their ability to take action and achieve what is important to them.
5. Communicates broader perspectives to clients and inspires commitment to shift their viewpoints and find new possibilities for action.
6. Helps clients to see the different, interrelated factors that affect them and their behaviors (e.g., thoughts, emotions, body, and background).
7. Expresses insights to clients in ways that are useful and meaningful for the client.
8. Identifies major strengths vs. major areas for learning and growth, and what is most important to address during coaching.
9. Asks the client to distinguish between trivial and significant issues, situational vs. recurring behaviors, when detecting a separation between what is being stated and what is being done.

In the updated core competency, Evoking Awareness is core competency.

Evokes Awareness

Definition: Facilitates client insight and learning by using tools and techniques such as powerful questioning, silence, metaphor or analogy

1. Considers client experience when deciding what might be most useful
2. Challenges the client as a way to evoke awareness or insight
3. Asks questions about the client, such as their way of thinking, values, needs, wants and beliefs
4. Asks questions that help the client explore beyond current thinking
5. Invites the client to share more about their experience in the moment
6. Notices what is working to enhance client progress
7. Adjusts the coaching approach in response to the client’s needs
8. Helps the client identify factors that influence current and future patterns of behavior, thinking or emotion
9. Invites the client to generate ideas about how they can move forward and what they are willing or able to do
10. Supports the client in reframing perspectives
11. Shares observations, insights and feelings, without attachment, that have the potential to create new learning for the client.

In coaching, awareness is about creating a space of awareness for our clients. The clients need to be aware of what they want, what they want to achieve with this process. They should be aware of their emotions, their thoughts and beliefs.

The Awareness Metaphor: Awareness Sphere