by Milton Dawes
We are most times while awake - asleep to ourselves and to what's going
on around us. With some effort, and determination, and practice, we
could be more awake. The "wedge of awareness" (woa), or "wedge of
consciousness" (woc) is a management tool we can use to increase our
wakefulness. For what reasons do we need to be more awake you ask? In a world of change, and diversity,
The "wedge of consciousness" or "wedge of awareness" arose from simple
origins - a wedge we usually use as a door stop. Among other uses, a wedge
functions to hold something open, or to stop something from moving about. The
shape of the wedge is important in terms of its use. The thin edge
facilitates access and offers less resistance, and less disturbance than
the thicker edge. These are important factors in a world where the more we
attempt to change or disturb something, the more resistance we are likely
to encounter.
So now, imagine a wedge of the kind usually used as a door stop. Let the
thin edge of the wedge represent an instant - a very tiny increment of
psycho-logical and chronological time. Now recall those times when in a
situation you might have said:
Now let's move up the wedge from the thinner to the thicker parts. This
expansion up the wedge, can be related to expanding the symbolism,
significance and usefulness of the instant. So in this expansion the
instant of self-awareness can now extend to include the following. The
very edge of the wedge can be thought of as a decision point - an
"opportunity for a change in direction." Going towards the thicker parts,
we can represent as, " I can stop what I am 'thinking' , saying,
doing, and so on. I can decide that it's okay to continue what I am
'thinking', saying, doing, etc. I can decide to modify or change what I
am doing. I can decide to re-view and re-evaluate what I am doing."
The instant of self-awareness can also be likened to the jerk that a horse
is given to signal a change in direction or movement. In other words, our
nervous systems (as an automatic self-evaluating and self-protective
action) from time to time, pull us up short; jerk us into awareness from
being submerged into whatever behavior we were indulging in at that
time. When this happens, it's up to us to "move up the wedge" as
suggested above, and take advantage of the opportunity and put the instant
to good use. The "semantic pause", "the wedge of awareness" is something
each one of us can experience and explore for ourselves. It sometimes
comes as a feeling like a "mini shock" or a "jerk". I believe that each
one of us has at some time or the other experienced this "jolt". What I
am doing here is giving a label, and signifying these occurrences, as
important and general self-management opportunities.
As mentioned above, these "woa's" come automatically. But we can increase the
frequency of these "woa's" through training ourselves in being more
self-aware. This includes being more aware of what we are 'thinking',
'feeling', saying to ourselves, saying to others, writing, doing,
worrying about, dreaming about, hearing, and so on. Without these
instances of awareness (pauses, or "woa's") we have little chance to change, or
improve ourselves or our management of a situation. We have little chance
of developing skills in general-semantics or any other discipline.
We were born into and are immersed in particular environments
(cultural, language, home, religious, social, work, etc.). Our behaviors
are usually automatic responses, generated by our uncritical acceptance
and conditioning, by the demands and expectations, from these
environments. The "wedge of consciousness" gives us a chance to move from
automatic, unwanted, unproductive, stress producing, behaviors, toward more
creative and self-directed, and self-managing behaviors.
Without an awareness of what we are doing, and how we are doing what we
are doing - without some internal self-monitoring process - we have
little chance of making necessary adjustments and corrections towards
improving ourselves in chosen areas of activities. We need the
occasional "wedge of awareness", or "wedge of consciousness", to "woc" ourselves out of
automatic self-distressing behaviors, into more satisfactory ways, more
imaginative ways, healthier ways, more intelligent ways, of
being with ourselves and others.
the more asleep we are,
the
more out of touch we are with what we are doing,
the more unaware we are likely to be of consequences,
and the more unaware we will be regarding how what we are doing is affecting us and
others,
the less opportunities we will have to recognize how often we create our own problems, and so on."Wait a minute"
The exact
words are not important here. It has to do with the time-binding folk
wisdom expressed in the phrase "count to ten". Now remember we are talking
here of an "instant of self-awareness", an instant of awareness that
allows us to say to ourselves, "Woa." An instant of our time when we
can "woc" ourselves into another mode of self-conscious awareness, and
enable us to change approaches, attitudes, directions, and so on.
"Hold on"
"Let me
think about this"
"Hey, what's happening here?"
"What am I doing?"
"I
can't believe I am saying this, or doing this"
"I can't believe I said that, or did that"
and so on.