This is a two part series on external awareness. Part one considers what is external awareness and how to discover the external world. Part two is the time table of past events altering your subconscious influences. I recommend reading each part in conjunction as they all provide valuable information.

Self awareness is key to a successful life, but what else is key? Something I want to consider today is parallel to self awareness - external awareness.

So what is external awareness? Somewhat defined by the name, having external awareness is being conscious of all things happening exterior to your mind. If we view the mind as a separate part of the universe, then everything that is not a part of the mind is the external universe, including your brain, body, and for the sake of this post all other beings.

A quick recap on a way to achieve self awareness is necessary. Self awareness is the understanding of how all forces have affected your conscious. As we know, our brains and conscious are analyzing all sensory inputs. This information is then categorized and placed deep in our memory. It is debatable whether invaluable information is stored for any length of time, but obviously important items are kept and invoke a level of influence. So how does this data come back and more importantly how does it influence us in the future?

When your mind neatly organizes all information, it places hypothetical “tags” on each bit of information making it easy to find what is relevant in the future. Thus, past external influence is only accessible when a future situation is deemed relevant. Some actions are almost always deemed relevant, such as an emotion towards a common object or activity.

So to redefine, external awareness is every action or event taking place outside your conscious.

Going deeper in the subject I want to look at how information is categorized in your mind’s filing system. However complicated this may seem, I believe that it is really quite simple. First, all input is evaluated upon four simple possibilities, the necessities to survive: food, water, shelter, and I suggest: happiness. If information is deemed to be related to any of these four requirements, then it is stored as more valuable and less likely to be disregarded. Also, this the most influential and lasting information in these requirements is commonly acquired within the first days of life and is thus increasingly hard to overwrite. If the information is considered not related to these four possibilities, then it is re-evaluated to determined if necessary to keep, most likely not.

How is this information used? This is something you will be able to determine more easily when you achieve more external awareness, but some helpful tips are always appreciated. For one, I have already stated that you only use this information when it is considered relevant to your current situation. Besides obvious daily tasks, you may draw upon your past to determine answers to questions. These questions could be theoretical or physical, such as: How should I approach this stranger? In the past I have been hurt by strangers, could this one do the same? Questions like this are occurring in your mind in orders of magnitude every millisecond. These questions are answered based on your only data: your past and the current situation determined from your past. Your past influence may determine a smokey room is unsafe, thus you won’t approach a stranger in a smokey room, or other simple yet important questionable situations. The only information you have to analyze a current situation is how similar events have played out in the past or by what you have learned through observation, whether it be positive or negative.

How do we achieve external awareness? By now you are getting an idea of the emphasis I am putting on this subject, thus the importance of increasing the ability to notice external activities. To put this answer clearly and as simply as possible: notice everything. Notice simple things; notice complex objects; notice cause and effect; notice everything. Of course, there are many levels of complexity behind every action, and the conscious was not meant to function with this much streaming information. Thus we must create common observances and tricks to become more aware without the stress on our conscious.

First, notice what are the key influential actions that happen. These often happen most dramatically in the past, but recur everyday. They are as stated before: Survival - comprised of food, water, and shelter; Reproduction - all species must reproduce to evolve and adapt; Happiness, I suggest happiness to be included because so much of our life is determined by how to achieve our perception of happiness. If happiness is only the completion of a task deemed important, then it correlates with the two other necessities, thus making it a plausible third.

For the most part of a human’s life, we are trying to survive. So we are trying to achieve knowledge about food, water, and shelter, so observing how these most important items have affected you is key to understanding the external world.

Food: Do you eat luxuriously? Do you starve? Or, are you average? What was your past diet? What do you enjoy? How much is required to fill you? How have those affected you?

Water: A little easier for most readers. Ask, “Do I have an abundance of water, or enough to supply myself comfortably? How is the water quality? When foreigners come can they drink the water?

Shelter: How large is my house? Is it a shack, a mansion, or simply average? Do we have high quality furnishing? Do I enjoy nice furnishings? What was my past home like? How has housing affected you?

Also, when asking these questions, ask a similar question about when they affect you. If you live in a lower quality house, do you become jealous of nice homes?

If you can answer each of those questions with an in depth, well considered answer, you are in a state of external awareness. When you answer these questions don’t just say yes or no, but ask how have I reacted to these conditions?

Finally, I want to emphasize the importance of becoming aware of how you have been affected by the external world. If only to achieve self awareness, then being aware of how and why things affect you is key, but also in the context of life and the future. When shaping your career path do not get hung up by false interpretations of past events. You are in control of how you react to an action, and the past is only a small fragment of your life, by controlling what rolls into the future, you control how your respond to the future.

Similar Posts:

• Influenctial Events
• You Will Never be Truly Happy
• The Truth about Fear
• The Machine, part one, Realizing
• The Curious Question: What Brings you Happiness

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