Key Takeaways:
Why awareness is the single most important skill to develop in your journey to awakening
How observing yourself is a tremendous act of power and can be more than 50% of the work needed to change — just by noticing!
How the act of observing yourself catalyzes internal shifts in frequencies and space-time, bringing you closer to center
Learn about a dynamite two-step XI formula to take back control of your life: O&A which stands for Observe & Ask
You may have heard Mas say that the most important thing you can do as a human being is to “become aware of how you render yourself in space and time”.
But what does this mean exactly? And why is this so important?
As humans evolve, we are becoming more attuned to the underlying factors that affect our lives in unseen ways. Becoming aware of space-time may seem like science fiction today, but all revolutionary concepts started off as crazy or fringe… Flight, wireless communication, gene editing: they all seemed impossible or in the realm of magic — until they weren’t. The next quantum leap in human progress will not be technological, it will be a revolution in consciousness. And XI is at the forefront of this revolution.
In this week’s article we discuss the huge importance of self-awareness, or observing yourself, as a tool you regain control of your life and understand how you’re rendering yourself in space and time. Kick back, relax and read on!
XI-Pedia articles assume no prior knowledge of XI and aim to teach the basics of XI in fresh and practical ways that appeal to all student levels.
The Science of Awareness
When you first start the XI journey, you depend on Mas’ abilities to scan you and find out (or diagnose) what patterns and programs are running your life, and to delete those that don’t serve you.
But the XI journey is ultimately about self-mastery — about one day being able to self-diagnose, self-heal and self-transform into the best possible version of yourself. And this entails mastery of space-time and frequencies (future XI-Pedia articles will cover both in further detail).
The first — and the most crucial — skill to develop in your journey is AWARENESS. You have probably heard Mas’ signature dictum, “Notice what you notice” and “Notice the details.”
There is a lot (a lot!) to unpack in those 7 simple words, but the general message is obviously to notice — that is, observe, watch, see, witness: yourself and your environment. Or in other words, to become AWARE.
It is difficult to overstate the importance and the impact of awareness. It is the master key to understanding how you create yourself in space and time and how reality itself is created.
XI teaches you to engage your senses and perception to become aware of everything about yourself and your environment. From your bones, to your organs, flesh, tissues, to the way you move your hands or brush your teeth, to how your emotions, thoughts and actions arise in you and unfold outside of you; to the fibers in a rug, the swaying of leaves, the cacophonies of traffic, the smell of the wind and the swirling colors in a cloud… You can become aware of other realities and simulations of yourself, or different levels of consciousness. Some people, like Mas, have developed awareness of the frequencies and the nuances in space-time underpinning reality.
Awareness is a grand science and covering the breadth or depth of its reach is beyond the scope of this article. Here we will focus on self-awareness in an important and practical context: observing yourself during common emotional dynamics.
Self-Observation is a Tremendous Act of Power
The inscription greeting visitors above the entrance of the famed oracular temple of Delphi was, “Know thyself!” And Aristotle famously said that “To know oneself is the beginning of all wisdom.” The ancient sages all understood the great importance of becoming an expert on yourself – and it all starts with self-awareness!
Even though it may appear passive, the act of observing yourself is actually extremely powerful and catalyzes all sorts of shifts inside you (we will go over these below). You may be surprised to learn that just watching yourself can be more than 50% of the work needed to change — simply by noticing!
So learn how to WATCH YOURSELF, all the time, like a hawk!
Let’s look at two simple case studies to illustrate how to observe yourself.
Self-Awareness in Action
You can develop awareness in many different ways, but as you start it is important to observe your ‘emotional dynamics’ as they play out in real-time. This will help you uncover long-standing patterns of behavior, and once you can see these patterns you are well on your way to removing them from your life.
Consider two plausible everyday scenarios:
A) You have just hung up the phone in shock. A colleague is taking credit for the great ideas you’ve toiled to develop at work, and your boss thinks they’re all his. The news comes as a punch to the gut. A dark, familiar feeling of being used and then pushed aside starts to sink in, drawing you deeper and deeper into the old, well-known pain of loneliness and rejection… A decision starts to harden in you: “I’m quitting this job!”...
B) You have just hung up the phone, depressed: your friend casually remarked how, after all these years, you’re still unable to support yourself financially. This ‘truth’ sends a sharp sting to the heart and the ego. The familiar ’depression talk’ starts to spin and reel you in: “I’ll never be able to make good money”, “I’m no good at working”, “I have no skills anybody wants” … reminding you of how small you felt as a kid at school compared to everyone else in your class... Seeking to escape from this old drama, you blame your ‘mean’ friend for ‘attacking’ you and the decision to shut her out of your life begins to take form…
You can imagine other scenarios where different strong emotions could be at play: fear, guilt, shame, anger, etc. But these two cases illustrate a common 3-punch dynamic: emotional trigger, emotional downspin, emotional decision.
The key to breaking free from this dynamic is to start to observe yourself at the ‘emotional trigger’ or the start of the ’emotional downspin’ stage. A caveat: it is important not to suppress the emotions — this will only push them deeper into you!
So, let the emotions arise freely but place a part of yourself in “observer mode” as the emotional dynamic plays out.
By turning on your “observer mode”, you are effectively separating or “creating distance” from the situation and elevating that part of yourself to a higher perch from which to ‘look down’ at what’s playing out ‘down there’.
Examples of self-talk that reflect this distancing from yourself so you can observe yourself could be: “Oh, fear has just come up. I feel a knot in the belly.”, or “I see that I’m getting quite angry about this. My body temperature is actually rising.”, or “Interesting, I’m feeling deeply hurt by his comment. There’s that sinking feeling…”, etc.
If this is new to you, it will take practice, and it may not always be easy! But this simple act of observing yourself as you experience the emotions is tremendously, magically powerful. In the words of Deepak Chopra: “Awareness can turn unhealthy energy into healthy energy entirely on its own. That is its unique magic.” Let’s look deeper at this magic.
Transmuting the Raw Power of Emotions
Whenever you feel a strong negative emotional reaction — an emotional sting or pinch, blow or punch; a bruising of your ego; a deep annoyance towards someone, envy, jealousy etc — and specially if these emotions are familiar to you, consider that these emotional triggers are actually fantastic opportunities to study yourself and strengthen your ability to change your life for the better.
Like physical pain, they are flashing signals from your system (your “pain body”) telling you to pay attention and rectify what’s behind the strong reaction that’s throwing you off center (off your zero point in space-time).
We often misunderstand the real purpose of these emotional ‘warning signs’ and succumb to the downward spiral that sets in, moving ourselves even farther from our center.
But here is where bringing in the magic and power of your awareness — to turn on your observer mode — can make all the difference and transform what could be another negative episode in your life story into a life-changing opportunity to turn things around for good.
It may sound strange but being a form of power, emotions are – like any other power – neutral. Power does not discriminate between constructive or destructive results, it simply acts out. When you are unaware of the source and reasons behind your emotions, they are unconscious and usually destructive.
Let’s look at an example of how simply watching yourself can help transmute a powerful emotion such as anger:
Someone just aroused your anger and you snapped at them, emotionally exploding all over the place. But this time you remember to observe yourself, and a part of you is able to watch the familiar heat glowing inside you from a certain distance. You have been practicing self-awareness for a while and soon the anger feels less intense and almost not yours. And then comes a clear, new knowing: you are using anger to protect yourself because this person was trying to push his frequencies into you... You now remember how your own father used the power of anger to intimidate and control you, and you understand why you are using it this time as a protection mechanism: as a kid you learnt that when you’re angry, you’re intimidating and no one messes with you… You begin to recall the many times you exploded in anger as a teenager and how much trouble that got you into… But now you have a newfound understanding and compassion for that teenager who was simply using a survival mechanism in a chaotic household with dangerous adults. And now that you have become aware of what’s really transpiring between you and the person trying to push himself into you, you realize that this automatic anger-as-protection response from the teenager in you will no longer grip you. If you do feel anger in a similar situation it will now serve to alert you — and you can now handle the situation in a calmer, more confident manner.
This is how powerful the act of observing yourself can be! It is real inner alchemy, transmuting your frequencies to a higher level (this is, by the way, what the actual science of alchemy was really about).
What Changes with Self-Observation
The magic power of awareness lies in making the unconscious conscious. In being able to see and NAME that which is controlling you, or that which you cannot name. The fairy tale Rumplestiltskin is about this archetypal alchemical dynamic: once the creature’s secret name is known, he loses his grip over the humans he’s extorting and he disappears.
Observing may seem passive on the outside but, as illustrated above, internally you are setting off great changes. You are, in effect, directing a light (the ‘sunshine of your awareness’) onto your inner darkness (the untamed emotions controlling you). And we all know what happens when a light turns on in the dark!
Let’s look in more detail at what actually changes. As you practice watching yourself you may find that:
1. The power of the emotions pulling you in diminishes, and it all feels more ‘distant’
2. You can begin to put a name to the dynamic, perhaps see a recurring pattern and where it may be coming from (for example, a particular trauma)
3. Something inside you has shifted for good: the after-effect has lost much of its sting, and a desire and resolve not to be pulled in again strengthens in you
A great indicator of how far you’ve advanced is to notice how much you’re blaming another (the person that brought on the emotional reaction in you, God, life, the government etc). When you no longer blame, or care to blame, the other person but focus only on how you can change yourself to improve your life, then the power is back in your hands.
At the deeper level of space-time and frequencies, several important things are also happening:
1. By separating, or moving away, you are creating a new reference point or perspective from which to view yourself. You are elevating yourself to a higher level from which to observe. By moving to this new perspective, you are in essence moving to a new space-time coordinate in the 4D grid (see XI-Pedia article on Space-Time for more on the 4th coordinate). This is a great example of actually directing or controlling your location in space-time — or of “how you render yourself in space-time” as Mas says.
2. When a part of you detaches (and elevates) you begin the process of dislodging the frequencies of the underlying pattern from deep within your cells. Because you have elevated yourself to observe yourself, you are resonating at a higher frequency. (This may not make sense if you are a beginner to XI, but it will become clearer with future XI-Pedia articles and other XI resources.)
3. When you “create distance” you are consciously engaging your faculty to create, waking up that atrophied muscle and directing it under your command. Humans are powerful creators — we create everything that happens to us — but until we awaken, we lack mastery over our own creation. Self-awareness is a big part of regaining control over how you create your own reality.
This is the science behind the magic of awareness. At the root level, everything is about frequencies and space-time. Observing yourself raises your frequency, changing your position in space-time — it brings you closer to center. And this is what transforms the situation, both internally and externally. Like Mas teaches, it is all about WHERE you are in space-time (and how close you are to center).
Observing as a Practice
Turning on your “observer mode” while in the heat of a strong emotional reaction takes practice, and it may not always be easy if the emotions run old and deep. But you can also always revisit a past dynamic in your mind and observe it in the present — it will still help you grow your awareness and this may actually be a great entry point to start your ‘observing career’.
Noticing the words you use, especially in self-talk or when talking about yourself, is another great way to improve your self-awareness. Words are tremendously important and telling. For example, notice how you respond to a compliment, or how you’re defending yourself when criticized.
There are many different levels of awareness beyond observing your words, thoughts, emotions and body sensations. You may start to recognize frequency patterns or programs recurring in your life or in others. Or notice deeper and subtler ‘background’ factors, such as the main ‘theme’ or ‘soundtrack’ underlying all you do in life; or when autonomic efficiency mechanisms such as your pain body kicks in. Or realize when you’re slipping in and out of realities or different identities. Or see how your environment is responding to the frequencies you’re sending out. Paying attention to the details will reveal more and more of life’s secrets.
There is a law of reality: What you pay attention to, grows. It is the reason children (and advertisers!) want, above all, your attention. The more you pay attention to yourself, the more you’re growing the ‘muscle’ of awareness and the easier it becomes with time.
At a deeper level, when you become self-aware you are fulfilling your basic responsibility as a human being. Your job is to know yourself intimately — to become an expert in yourself — and to gain control over the ‘buttons, pedals and levers’ of your own human vehicle. Then you can understand how you’re rendering yourself in space-time and you can mature into the independent, self-regulating, self-empowered grand being that you truly are.
Next week we’ll discuss an XI technique — O&A, or Observe & Ask — that takes the power and effectiveness of awareness up to a whole new level. Stay tuned for the coming edition of XI Phenomena!