Knowledge Is Being Aware

Knowledge is often thought of as something we collect. We read books, learn facts, gain experience and listen to people who know more than we do. But knowledge is more than information stored in your mind. It is also an awareness of what is happening around you and, perhaps more importantly, what is happening inside you.

You can know a great deal and still misunderstand yourself. You can know what other people expect of you without knowing what you actually want. You can recognise the mistakes other people make while remaining blind to your own patterns. You can have all the information you need and still make the same decisions because you have never stopped to question why you think the way you do. Awareness changes that.

When you become aware of your thoughts, you create a space between having a thought and automatically believing it. That space can be incredibly valuable.

You might notice that fear is influencing a decision. You might recognise that you are looking for approval. You might discover that an old belief is still controlling your behaviour long after the circumstances that created it have disappeared.

This is where knowledge becomes useful. It stops being something you possess and becomes something you apply.

Positive thinking is not about filling your mind with positive statements while ignoring everything else. It is about becoming more conscious of the thoughts, beliefs and behaviours shaping your life.

The more aware you become, the more choices you can see. And when you can see those choices, you are no longer reacting to life quite so automatically.

Knowledge may give you information. Awareness gives you the opportunity to do something with it.