How aware are you of your own awareness? Awareness is an area of personal development that we can use to facilitate growth. Let’s explore a scenario right now. This illustrates what’s known as the Emergency Awareness Mechanism.
You’re driving home from work one night and all of a sudden a deer comes out of nowhere, knocking your car off the road and giving your blood pressure quite a jolt. You take a few deep breaths noting that you’re alright, just in the thick of a strong adrenaline rush.
This scene illustrates use of your sense of awareness during an emergency.
This automatic response is initiated by your limbic system, aka your primitive brain. It would not have taken any form of conscious awareness for those hormones to enter your bloodstream- although you might notice their physical effects on your body.
However, this type of stress response mimics the emergency awareness mechanism, letting your autonomic nervous system take the helm in the face of danger.
But what would have happened if you had seen the deer sooner? Most likely, your awareness of a potential danger would have kicked in with more time to adjust upon your approach. You would have been able to slow down, swerve or beep your horn.
How about if you noticed the deer leaping across with a few hundred yards of road between you and it? It may have connected your awareness with a memory you had recalled, seeing deer traveling in a herd, crossing the road one after another.
You could then adjust by slowing to a halt on the sleepy road to see a fawn pop out from the brush following its guardian’s footsteps across the street.
Leaving the scene, you don’t feel stressed at all; rather enlivened by the brilliant show of nature you had the pleasure of witnessing and protecting– all because of your strong sense of awareness.