Tuning in beyond the static
All of what I write on this blog comes from my lived experience trying to deepen a connection with a higher power, god, universal consciousness, blah blah…
Whatever ‘it’ is, it can’t be confined to a word.
The Twelve Step path introduced me to spirituality, and in hindsight, it was probably something that I had always been searching for, even during active alcoholism.
Since then I’ve come to suspect that exploring our individual concept of spirituality might be one of the most important things we get to do as humans.
However, the modern world seems set up to throw obstacles on the spiritual path. Endless noise, dopamine‑drip entertainment, and buy‑now gratification, narrow the bandwidth of our inner world.
However, through small shifts in attention, we can reclaim a more spacious, aware, and connected way of being.
The great attention robbery
We live in a world that thrives on stealing our attention. Whether it’s our phones, advertising, social media algorithms, or 24/7 news, there’s a constant tug at our attention.
We’ve created a civilisation that trades in distraction. And in doing so, we’ve weakened our connection to presence.
Attention, once scattered, is difficult to reclaim. Each swipe, each click, each doomscroll trains the mind to expect novelty over depth, immediacy over stillness. What’s worse, the noise often feels inescapable these days.
Work seeps into evenings, identity becomes something you manage like a brand, and rest is just another item on the to-do list, if you remember to schedule it. The result? A quiet kind of spiritual starvation.
Lots of activity and very little sustenance.
It’s worth asking: who benefits from a population too distracted to notice they’re unhappy? A population that medicates its disconnection with cheap dopamine hits and endless convenience?
When attention is constantly hijacked, awareness fades into the background. And with it goes our ability to connect to deeper truths, intuition, and inner stillness.
In this environment, expanding awareness isn’t just a spiritual curiosity.
It’s an act of rebellion against the modern world.
Attention is the gate, not the goal
According to Advaita Vedanta, a branch of Hindu philosophy, consciousness (cit) is the foundation of all experience. It’s not something we have; it’s what we are. Awareness is the open field through which that consciousness expresses itself in the world. And attention is like a narrow beam that moves within that field.
Awareness is effortless, spacious, and inclusive. Attention is selective, narrow, and task-orientated. It’s a tool of the mind. And it’s easily hijacked.
When attention is constantly distracted by our overstimulated existence, awareness appears to shrink. We slip from observing our thoughts to becoming fused with them, along with our emotions and the stories we spin. Yet the boundless, quiet awareness behind it all never disappears; we’ve merely stopped paying attention to it.
The spiritual task, then, is not to sharpen attention endlessly, but to gently rest it in awareness. To shift from compulsive doing to conscious being. To notice the one who is aware.
This isn’t a mental trick. It’s a returning. A letting go. And with practice, it becomes easier to relax attention back into its source.
What is the expansion of awareness?
Expanded awareness isn’t a flashy experience. It’s not about floating above the body or glimpsing some cosmic secret. It’s much quieter than that. It’s a softening.
It feels like:
- Calm without cause.
- Spaciousness around thoughts.
- A sense of connection to something larger.
- A slowing down of internal urgency.
In those moments, the usual sense of separation eases. Resistance drops. And life feels, just for a moment, completely okay as it is.
The benefits of expanded awareness include:
- Greater emotional resilience.
- Less identification with compulsive thought.
- A sense of connection with others and nature.
- More clarity in decision-making.
- A deeper trust in the unfolding of life.
For me, these moments often arise after meditation, reflection, and solitude. But they’re also just as likely to arrive unexpectedly. The key is being available for them.
How to Expand Awareness
If the world shrinks our awareness by hijacking attention, we can choose practices that make space for it to return. Here are some that can help:
Meditation
The most reliable tool I know. Whether it’s breath awareness, body scanning, or Holosync (which I practice daily), meditation helps loosen identification with thought and bring attention back to awareness.
Time in Nature
Nature doesn’t demand anything from us. It invites us to slow down. To observe. To simply be. Often, just walking in the woods or sitting by water is enough to reawaken a wider field of awareness.
Digital Detox
Phones are portals into chaos. Even a few hours offline can create surprising spaciousness. Try leaving your phone at home and going for a walk. Watch what happens.
Journaling
Getting thoughts onto paper helps clear psychic clutter. I sometimes write questions and see what answers arise from a deeper place. It’s a form of inner listening. (This also links to Step 10 for those familiar with recovery work—ongoing inventory.)
Movement and Yoga
When the body is tight, awareness feels stuck. Conscious movement, such as stretching, yoga, and breathwork, can release that tension and allow presence to return.
Being Bored on Purpose
Resist the urge to fill every gap. Sit and do nothing. Stare out the window. Let the nervous system decompress. The lost art of daydreaming is, in truth, a portal back to being.
Awareness isn’t something we create. It’s what remains when we stop feeding distraction.
A Spiritual Revolution
The modern world is loud, fast, and fragmented. Its superficial distractions are designed to consume the very attention we need to expand into fuller versions of ourselves.
But we don’t have to play along. We can revolt!
Every moment you reclaim your attention is a moment of freedom. Every act of stillness is a quiet protest against a system that wants you overstimulated and under-conscious.
Expanding consciousness isn’t about escaping reality. It’s about seeing it clearly, meeting it fully, and living with a wider lens.
We may never be free of distractions. But we can become free in how we respond to them. And maybe that’s where real liberation lies.
After all, the light hasn’t gone anywhere. We’ve just been looking in the wrong direction.
So slow down. Turn your attention inward. And watch what begins to expand.
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