The Observer or how we can learn to be conscious every moment
How many times have we asked ourselves where that outburst came from, why we can’t truly feel happy, how the day went by without noticing it? Other times, we may have the feeling that we are living our everyday life mechanically, without being conscious of it and truly participating in it, either because we are overwhelmed by our anxieties and fears or because our mind is stuck in the past to the things that we lost or never acquired, or because it flies into the future, or simply because it is full of our infinite wants.
Is there another way? Can we really live our life, becoming conscious of, experiencing and enjoying every one of its moments? At Omilos, one of the three basic axes of the practical philosophy for the Knowledge of the Self, is how to be conscious every moment of the day through the work of the observer.
What is the observer? It is our function of being conscious at any moment we are talking, walking, eating, driving, working, watching television or even now that we are reading this text. This means that at every moment we are observing ourselves and we see the thoughts that are going through our mind, the emotions we are feeling and the state in which our body is, for example its posture, if there is pain, if it is tensed up, relaxed or rested, etc, and how these three – body, passions, thoughts – interact with each other. A simple observation of our self without judgements, excuses, and evasions. The observer does not judge and does not interfere. It just observes.
And you may be wondering: what can this function help us with? How can the observer help me in an argument at work, or while cleaning the house, or why should I bother with it when I am happy and having fun? By knowing the state of our body, our emotions and our thoughts at any given moment, we essentially know our self. We can see what the things we don’t like are and, because we know them, these begin to transmute and change. We see the things that we like about ourselves and these, because we consciously know them, begin to develop even more.
If you do not have awareness of the moment you are living in, then you are simply not living it, and therefore you can neither change anything nor improve anything or transmute anything. This is why the observer mainly gives us the great gift of living in the present, in every moment and not getting lost in the memories of the past or the “I will…”of the future. We learn to be conscious in every moment and so very simply live consciously, being aware of what we are doing, of what we are thinking. And so, with a different view, enjoy the nice things, work on the difficult things, understand our self and the others.
And since we are here, truly present in every moment, then we can really be co-creators in life, we can be well!