Hi friends,
In our last note, we introduced the Q4 theme of Presence.
Today, we dive into the first topic and explore what it means to cultivate Awareness.
Awareness is the ability to notice what’s happening—in your mind, your body, and your environment—as it’s happening.
It’s catching yourself in the moment instead of realizing it after the fact.
Awareness is what turns the theme of Presence into something usable by you as a leader.
Let’s look at a simple framework and a practice to help you bring greater Awareness into your day-to-day.
::Your Five Minutes Starts Now::
Part 1: Master Your Moments
The journey to cultivating awareness can be simultaneously the most rewarding and the most elusive thing in our lives.
Most people spend their days task-hopping, oscillating between a sense of “getting shit done” and feeling constantly behind.
Learning how to create pauses in your autopilot is an act of self-care.
When you prioritize presence, you uncover greater choice—the ability to understand and unpack the specifics of your daily experience, and by doing so take different actions.
The more Awareness you can build, the more capacity you have to envision what’s possible—and lead yourself and others toward it.
Part 2: So, How Exactly Do I Master a Moment?
You break it down to its component parts.
Shinzen Young, a mindfulness teacher and meditation expert, identifies six key components of the human experience as part of his Unified Mindfulness system.
These are commonly referred to as the “See, Hear, Feel” categories, guiding us to become more aware of the full range of our internal and external worlds:
See (Outer Sight):
External visual experiences—what you see with your eyes in your environment, such as people, objects, colors, and movements.
Hear (Outer Sound):
External sounds—what you hear from your environment, such as conversations, nature, or mechanical noises.
Feel (Outer Body Sensation):
Physical sensations you detect on the surface or within your body. These include pressure, temperature, tension, and other tactile experiences.
See (Inner Mental Image):
Mental imagery or pictures that appear in your mind, such as memories, fantasies, or visualizations.
Hear (Inner Mental Talk):
Internal sounds, including self-talk, internal dialogue, or thoughts that take the form of mental sounds (a.k.a., a voice in your head).
Feel (Emotional Body Sensation):
Sensations related to emotions, such as tightness in the chest from anxiety or warmth in the heart from joy.
At first, breaking down your experience like this may feel repetitive or forced, but with practice, it becomes second nature.
We get to train our minds to spot what is actually present in our lives.
Part 3: A Real Example
I’ve been working with an interior design firm for several years.
The owner is a creative genius—his spaces create full-body sensory reactions, from audible “WOWs” to immediate feelings of joy and peace.
But when we began, there was a disconnect between the beauty of the work and the path to getting there.
He was overwhelmed, taking on too much, and unintentionally maxing out his team’s capacity.
Even with an incredible eye and ear for sensory experience, he was disconnected from the sensations in his own body—and the emotions that came with them.
Like many leaders, he lived mostly in his head.
This showed up as tension headaches and intense stomach pain that would take him out for days at a time, leaving the team strained without him.
Our work was to link the tension in his body with the emotions underneath it.
From there, we could build awareness—and therefore choice—in how he handled everyday stressors.
The breakthrough:
We found a direct connection between:
his internal narratives (Inner Mental Talk)
his expectations of himself (Inner Mental Image)
and his physical symptoms (Outer Body Sensation)
The more he felt he was letting his team down, the more overwhelmed he became—and the stronger the pain grew.
Creating awareness of the connection between these inner and outer experiences changed everything.
Part 4: Bring Your Body Into the Conversation
This tool is one of my favorites to use with leaders when building an initial relationship with the body.
Ask Your Body for Direction:
Pause and take a deep breath.
Notice your body—is there any tension? Any other Outer Body Sensation (warmth, coolness)?
Acknowledge the sensation: “I see you, and I’m paying attention.”
Ask your body for information: “What do you want me to see, hear, or feel?”, “What do you want me to know?”
Say thank you and ask, “Is there anything you need from me, to be ready to release?”
From here, you gain Awareness about what you’re feeling and the actions you can take to shift your state.
Part 5: Up Next — A Look at Internal Narratives
If you think practicing Awareness is valuable, wait until you realize that most of us notice a moment—and then immediately want to change something about it. 🤣
In the next note, we’ll look at how to work with Judgment and our own internal narratives.
In the meantime, enjoy noticing your day-to-day.
I hope you do the practice above at least once, and if you do, I’d love to hear how it goes for you.
That’s all for now. More soon. ❤️