Q. Can you supply other methods to develop awareness?

A: There are so many good ways! For example, when the phone rings let it be a signal to wake up. Be aware of yourself walking to the phone and lifting the receiver. Notice any anxiety or expectation. Be alert to the tone of your voice as you say hello. Don't look for anything in that phone call to fulfill you. Let the experience remain pure. Remember that higher awareness is always strong and poised and knows what to say and how to act.

The awareness this telephone exercise generates expands to all areas of your life. -- Tom Russell

    The awareness this telephone exercise generates expands to all areas of your life. Just as you might start painting a building and only cover a little the first day, as you keep working the entire building eventually gets painted.

    Another wonderful exercise is conscious dining. Simple as it sounds, there is far more to this than appears on the surface. Do not let your mind be carried away by daydreams that want to use the dinner to escape. Stay awake during the entire experience. Be aware as you lift your fork from the table. Taste the food. Use it as an opportunity for present moment appreciation.

   Driving is another wonderful opportunity to develop awareness. Feel your hands on the wheel. Have interest and affection for what is happening now. Realize that even a routine drive you make everyday provides an opportunity for a completely new experience.

   Preoccupation dulls everything it touches, while awareness makes even the most familiar events sparkle. You perceive color and variety you did not see before. You hear sounds with greater clarity. You breathe more deeply, which is one of the healthiest things you can do on the everyday level. Your powers of intuition come alive. You handle things well. You're rightly decisive. You're a better parent and a safer driver. The practical benefits of awareness are endless.

Q: As you said, "Keep your mind where your body is."

A: Yes, as Vernon Howard said. It is such a noble and sane way to live! J. Krishnamurti told a story about a man who came to see him about his many problems. A big beautiful butterfly flew into the room and circled several times. Krishnamurti relates how the visitor was so self-absorbed, he never saw it. In the absence of Awareness, self-absorption runs rampant. People often want complicated and expensive answers. They refuse to see that happiness, wisdom and vitality could be as simple as the present moment and the awakened Heart.

   Remember the letters WUN. They stand for "Wake Up Now." Place your secret letters someplace where you will see them often. Let it be a reminder to you to drop all racing thoughts and come back to yourself right now. Let WUN be your secret code to remind yourself to suddenly be awake.

Q: I'm somewhat confused as to how one can live in this world yet practice spirituality. There's so much to think about!

A: A spark of awareness can be present when you or doing daily work, conversing with others, making plans or enjoying recreation. VH explains this perfectly in his book Esoteric Mind Power. He writes:

Conscious work, whether that of a carenter or a professor, is work performed while using it for inner dawning. -- Vernon Howard

   "Mechanical work supplies the visible rewards of food and other daily necessities. Mechanical work, whether that of a carpenter or a professor, is work done without an aim of self-awakening. Conscious work provides the invisible rewards of self-harmony and other spiritual necessities. Conscious work, whether that of a carpenter or a professor, is work performed while using it for inner dawning. You can do mechanical work without receiving payment, but you can never do conscious work without payment, though at times it may seem delayed. You can learn to do mechanical work consciously, and when succeeding, you have overcome the world."

   Awareness makes you more capable in whatever task you undertake. It infuses the mother with tenderness while caring for the children. It lifts the business executive to new levels of effectiveness. The salesperson finds his or her ability to communicate enhanced. Whatever your work, these principles work wonders.

Q: It can be very difficult to be aware sometimes. Parts of us are eager to doze. Rambling thinking is familiar; awareness is unfamiliar.

A: To reclaim the ground preoccupation has usurped will not be easy. People forget this. They begin The Language of Awakening then find the going rough as old habits object to the new direction. For example, at the start one may feel sleepy and somewhat lethargic. He or she is exercising muscles that have long been dormant. Just rest more often. Never try to force anything with strained effort.

Q: Do you have other awareness exercises you can recommend?

A: Walking is always energizing when accompanied by awareness. Feel the air on your face, see the colors come alive, feel your weight on your feet. There is a problem deeper than unawareness, however, and that is a refusal to see that one is in fact unaware. We have such flattering pictures of ourselves, and our spiritual ones tend to be our most prized possessions. I remember a large public lecture Vernon Howard gave in Southern California in 1982. At the end of the talk he gave the audience an assignment to know they were walking through the doorway as they left the hall. I walked out without being aware, then I remembered I forgot. I paused right by the doorway to observe others as they departed. It was clear they did not know they were walking through the door, just as I had not. Their attention was elsewhere. I learned that day just how advanced these exercises are, in spite of how simple they appear.

Q: How does the Gateway fit in this discussion?

A: NowFacts voiced in the Heart activate energy. The sudden declaration "I am Here" assumes far greater power when we feel it with our entire being, not just as a lone voice.

Quoted from the new book by Tom Russell SuperWisdom: Seven Vital Secrets for a Rich and Purpose-risoFilled Life