Self Awareness – Practice Notes

Self Awareness is one of the four key Recharge techniques included in many of our workshops. It is a technique for developing the practice of mindfulness, and for cultivating self-acceptance. It is based on the Yoga Nidra technique developed by the Indian yogi Swami Satyananda Saraswati in the 1940’s.

The full practice contains seven distinct sub-practices which encourage conscious awareness of, rather than blind reaction to, our internal processes (emotions, sensations, breathing, bodily functions, cognitive associations, habitual patterns of reaction, stories etc.) and their relationship with the world around us. With practice, this approach decreases our tendency to be ‘lost in’ or ‘fused with’ the thinking mind and become more aware and accepting of our internal and external environments as they are in this moment.

Self Awareness encourages participation in the flow of life. It assists us to move away from the tendency to dwell, to worry that things aren’t ‘right’ or how they ‘should be’. We still take action to change what we can, but without the worry. And we more easily recognize when things are outside of our control and move on.

The sub-practices are:

  1. Internalisation. This is an essential part of the technique. Internalisation prepares the body for the following stages and involves calming the mind by focusing on various objects including clothing, sounds, the breath etc.
  2. Resolve or Goal. Self-Awareness is a practice that accesses the subconscious mind (consciousness of things that are normally outside of our awareness). In this deeper state the mind is particularly receptive to suggestion. During the extended practice you are twice given the opportunity to formulate and state a personal resilience goal, resolve or affirmation. The key to success with any resolve is to make it simple, personal and achievable, and to state the resolve with clarity and purpose.
  3. Body Rotation. This sub-practice works to still the mind by giving it plenty of objects to focus on in a short amount of time. The mind is so busy trying to keep up that it has little time to wander. The body rotation also serves to enhance body awareness and self-acceptance through the practice of observing without judgement.
  4. Counting the Breath. This technique is also found in our Breath Awareness practice. Counting the breaths helps to maintain focus in preparation for the following stages and encourages awareness and acceptance of our breathing processes as they are in this moment.
  5. Opposites. The recollection (remembering or re-living) of various feelings, sensations and memories (e.g. heavy & light, cool & warm) works to bring unconscious, associated feelings, sensations and memories into the conscious mind. As the body, by this time, is in a deeply relaxed state, we can practice allowing these experiences to arise and pass away without clinging to, or avoiding, any of them. We’re essentially training ourselves to remain equanimous and accepting of our reactions to the events of everyday life.
  6. Visualisations. Through deliberate auto-suggestion of a range of mental images, we again encourage the subconscious to reveal its associative impressions and reactions. This supports us to remain calm and balanced when similar associations occur during the course of our everyday lives. As with the previous stage, it trains us to remain calm when we inevitably experience ordinarily subconscious impressions through the conscious mind.
  7. Externalisation. This component supports exiting from the practice in a safe and comfortable way. Self-Awareness can be a deep practice, and it’s possible for unpleasant or unwanted experiences to arise. A thorough externalisation following a consistent pattern can help us to emerge from the technique and reconnect with our surroundings in a relatively gentle way.
Self-Awareness – Practice Notes

Please refer to the General Practice Guidelines in addition to those below prior to listening to the technique mp3 on the WMA Training app.

The body
Your experiences