Meta Cognition
What we are going to do is develop meta-cognition.
The main ‘purpose’ of this is to develop a skill that will help us break some old sleepwalking habits.
Q: What is meta-cognition?
A: It is being aware of being aware.
I guess that it is appropriate to consider what being aware is…
We won’t fall back on ‘common sense’. In this investigation, we will re-examine everything that we take for granted.
I will ask questions. The answer isn’t important.
What is important is what reveals itself while considering the questions.
Writing or recording voice or video of the questions and what arises is recommended.
A good technique is to employ ‘stream of consciousness’. Don’t consider what you are going to say. Just blurt out whatever comes.
…anyway, back to being aware.
(climbs up on soap box) Awareness is an abstract noun. That is it doesn’t actually exist as a concrete entity.
Problem is that either we don’t remember about abstract nouns or we weren’t taught them at school.
Well, that’s not the problem.
Problem is that we take many abstract nouns to be concrete nouns.
It’s a crazy language (English) when there’s no word for being aware as a verb. We don’t say “awareing”, yet that is what happens.
So, we make something out of nothing, and we ignore something that exists.
Q: Where does all of this happen?
A: Mentally!
That’s right, in our heads. Thoughts..
How does this happen?
Oh, no! (this is another soap box)
How and Why questions are to be avoided, because they take us down bottomless rabbit holes.
They have no answer but consume lots of energy and time.
The only ‘legitimate’ question is “What“.
Alright, What happens when we believe that awareness is a thing?
We ignore the body…
We are so invested in mental gymnastics that we are unaware of sensations.
What happens when we are aware of sensations?
We pay attention to our sensory inputs. That’s right! We are being aware.
The moment that we conclude that it is awareness that is being aware, we are back in the fantasy land of our head.
What i just told you is in your head, so let’s move it to , or rather add it to experience;
an exercise in aware-ing…
Mentally scan your body from the very top of head to the bottom of feet
Notice if you detect movement of any kind in the body. Anything that you weren’t aware of before you started doing this exercise.
Notice also, that the moment that you became aware of the sensations, that mind kicked in and you had thoughts ABOUT it.
OK, so we are going to do another version of it, but this time you will be ready for the arrival of thoughts.
You’ll have to be quick, as thoughts arrive in milliseconds.
When you see thoughts coming, notice the existence of the thought but don’t engages in what they are about.
Bring your attention back to the focus of your aware-ing.
That is, notice that you have become aware of yourself being aware of movement in the body. (incidentally, notice what happens to being aware of movement when you focus on being aware of being aware of movement. – You might have to read this several times. Until it is clear.)
Now, pay attention to sounds.
What do you hear that you weren’t aware of before?
Are you aware that you are aware?
Are you thinking about your thoughts?