What do consciousness and awareness actually do/mean?

Consciousness: “sentience or awareness of external existence.”

Awareness: “it is the ability to directly know and perceive, to feel, or to be cognizant of events”

These both words are often used interchangeably and synonymous.

Now what these words mean is actually so beautiful and important for us as humans.

For the way we live, 
the way we interact with each other, 
the way we choose to or not to do certain things, 
how we absorb information and react to situations,
how we notice certain things and how receptive we are,…

So being conscious and aware is not just something to be associated with yoga, meditation, sustainability.

It can serve all of us well in everyday life and it is something we can do/be every day.

It allows us to observe and go through life differently.

Clearer and more vibrant.

There is a difference between sitting in your garden without any distractions, listening to birds, touching the grass and noticing smells and

really looking around and being aware of what is happening at that very moment, and between sitting outside while reading a book, having headphones in your ears and not being aware of what is going on around you.

There is a difference between talking to someone on the phone while just doing that and receiving their every word as supposed to listening to the other person while writing a grocery list or cleaning dishes.

Being aware/conscious also means thinking further, thinking about what you are doing and questioning it, instead of following automated patterns.

When we go food-shopping for example we usually don’t think about what we are throwing in our cart.

We have a list, we have our brands and we don’t think much about it.

If you wanted to actively change what you are buying because you are starting to follow a certain diet,

want to shop low waste or mostly organic

and you haven’t done that before, you’d have to start

actively searching for different products,

look around in the isles and read the back of packaged items.

As a conscious/aware consumer you’d be looking at what you are buying with different considerations and thoughts in mind: “Do I really need this?”

“Where does this come from?”

“In what way was it produced?”

“Is the cost worth this product?”

“Does buying this align with my values?”

I know….sounds pretty complicated. What a way to shop right?😋

And of course this was only one example and you can shop consciously without thinking up a storm every time🤗

Makes sense?

To touch on the environmental subject:

What does awareness/consciousness have to do with sustainability?

Someone who is “aware” of things, questions what they are doing or how they are reacting and is therefore conscious of their actions/thoughts.

Habits and “inside the box thinking” are reflected and don’t just go unnoticed/happen automated.

You don’t just accept things the way they are,

but you reflect upon your actions and have the opportunity to be objective.

It is like you are observing yourself doing something,

you can look back on it and think:

“Why did I do that?”

“What was the purpose?”

“Would I do it again?”

You have a chance to move away from the “ego” and take other factors, like fellow humans, nature, ethics - into consideration without blindly following habits or automated patterns.

It is a way to use all of that potential that we have as humans to think further,

learn new things, challenge beliefs and question our own ways.

Being aware/conscious makes every moment more exciting, clearer, more vibrant, more memorable and gives us a chance to choose doing things and avoid falling into patterns and remaining there without a good reason and to reflect.

It allows us to think about situations differently and to make choices with an alert, awake mind.

All in all – let’s just say that awareness/consciousness ROCKS😁

PS: I will most likely be uploading one blog and one podcast a week

(except when I feel like there is a need for a second blog, so I will not be publishing two blogs regularly every week)

I hope that you listen in on my podcast, there is a link on this website under the category "podcast".

Thank you for reading💚

See ya next blog👋🏼

Xx Stella