The next time that you find yourself in a situation where something in the external environment has created an emotional change within you; press pause.
The very fact that you are able to notice this is a sign that you are becoming more self-aware.
Take your awareness to your breathing and the “aliveness” of your body. This helps you to become present in the situation.
When you are present, you are less likely to be influenced by past events or future imaginings.
Now step into the shoes of your observer.
This is the part of you that collects all of the detail of the situation so that you will be able to recount it later. It does not judge. It simply watches and notices everything.
As you stand in these shoes, you are able to stand back from the emotion that has been generated. You can watch the situation play out and notice the process.
This affords you the opportunity to choose.
You can observe and do nothing.
You can allow old behavioural responses to play out.
You can choose new conscious responses.
In these shoes you realise that you are not the emotion; you are separate from it.
This is liberating.
Your observer does not judge. It only bears witness and collects information. This alone is enough to bring about change.
Imagine the energy that is required to live in your emotions and to act immediately as a result of them.
Now you can use that for something of your choosing.
Your observer is a great teacher.
Cultivate the habit of observing your own processes as they happen, and you will become conscious in all situations.