How we use our awareness can have big impacts on psychological well-being.
For instance, have you ever been in physical pain, only to momentarily forget about it because your consciousness became fully absorbed in something else? Like a flashlight beam, when we focus our awareness on something specific, whether inside or outside ourselves, we illuminate it, meaning it becomes the foreground while all else (like pain, worry, etc.) slips into the background.
In other words, through awareness, we both illuminate and magnify. Focus on your pain, physical or emotional, and it intensifies. Focus elsewhere, and it diminishes.
For instance, once I had a cavity drilled without anesthesia, yet still experienced no discomfort. How? Before the procedure, I hypnotized myself, and directed my consciousness to somewhere other than my mouth.
Now, the ability to funnel one's awareness in so deliberate a manner comes easily for some folks. There is evidence that this could be related to one's capacity to enter a hypnotic trance, which roughly 20% of us can do quite easily.
But for others, it can be a stretch, so learning to master one's awareness may require practicing some kind of cognitive discipline, such as self-hypnosis, meditation, Tai Chi, sharpshooting, playing a musical instrument and similar practices that require focused concentration.
This trains the brain to be more in control of both its thought processes and where it directs its awareness. Meaning, rather than having your mind flit about like a hummingbird, you can channel it to become mentally absorbed in what you choose rather than whatever grabs your attention.
When it comes to emotional distress, awareness can also play a pivotal role. For example, people with anxiety often become riveted on the physical symptoms that accompany this state - inner agitation, sweaty palms, rapid breathing, pounding heart, etc. Then a vicious cycle can ensue, because the more one concentrates on these internal sensations, the more they are magnified in one's consciousness, further escalating the experience of anxiety.
The same principle applies to some other conditions as well. Those with obsessive-compulsive disorder have trouble directing their awareness away from a repetitive impulse (like chronic hand-washing) or a recurring thought ("Did I lock all the doors?"). Worriers can become fixated on a repetitive "What if?" scenario, finding themselves incapable of targeting something else to think about.
In these instances, not unlike a magician, one could benefit by practicing a certain "sleight of mind" in which distraction is used to focus awareness elsewhere. Because, while we may not create experiences like pain, worry and anxiety, we can influence how much they occupy our consciousness.
The good news is that we are capable of directing our awareness, rather than begin directed by it. People pop in and out of periods of intense absorption and concentration, as well as hypnotic-like states, all the time.
The trick is doing so when you want and how you wish.
Philip Chard is a psychotherapist, author and trainer. Names used in this column are changed to honor client confidentiality. Email him at pschard@earthlink.net or visit philipchard.com.
