This Awareness Unlocked My Healing

Before we get into this one, I want to make a clear definition of healing.

Healing is not some weird thing you do when you’re sitting in a circle of men beating their chests and yelling at each other.

Healing is also not something a reiki practitioner or hypnotist is going to do to you while you’re lying on their bed in a room full of incense and crystals.

And it most certainly is not going to the doctors or therapists to talk about problems and get prescribed medication.

No, real healing is actually kinda like fitness.

And healing your mind is kinda like a mental fitness game.

In the same way you train your body at the gym, you can train your brain, you can train your emotional responses and you can train your nervous system.

So now that's clear, let’s get into the awareness that unlocked my healing.

The Neuroscience of Mental Fitness

First things first, let’s talk about how growing research in neuroscience supports my perspective. 

You may have heard your brain is a muscle but actually your brain is NOT a muscle (although it can be trained like one with mindfulness).

Your brain is actually an organ.

It’s the main organ for the Central Nervous System (CNS). Your Central Nervous System has two main physical components, the brain and the spinal cord.

The brain generates electrochemical signals and sends them through the spinal cord (CNS) to the rest of the body.

This electrochemical reaction happens when neurons in the brain are stimulated by sensations, thoughts or perceptions.

When you learn to practice mindfulness, you can become more conscious of these sensations, thoughts and perceptions you’re having.

This is important because your thoughts and perceptions affect your physiology through the production of chemicals and hormones in the body.

For example, if you start having anxious thoughts and then your body starts to respond with anxious symptoms like nervousness, shortness of breath or change in skin colour, you can pretty quickly go into a downward spiral of disempowering thought loops.

If you learn to catch those anxious thoughts and change the perception (or meaning) of them, they can become empowering instead.

When it comes to what thoughts create chemicals and hormones, it’s not so much about positive thoughts vs negative thoughts, it's more about the perception of safety vs danger.

The key is perception:

• Perceiving danger signals to activate stress and anxiety.
• Perceiving safety signals to create calm and healing.

A real life example of this is from one of my 1:1 coaching clients who told me he used to think to himself every time he started to feel anxious, “Oh no, the anxiety is starting”.

I told him to change the thought process and perception to say “Oh yes, this is an opportunity for me to overcome my fear”

That change in perception helped him to change the whole mental story about anxiety.

When you practice changing your thoughts and your perception of experiences by being aware of them, you’re strengthening your prefrontal cortex through a process called neuroplasticity.

Through the process of neuroplasticity, you can rewire your brain so that safety, calm, and conscious choice become your default state instead of stress, fear, and reactivity.

You do this by practicing mindfulness, awareness, and observing your thoughts.

Over time you strengthen your prefrontal cortex (the CEO brain) and it gains more control over other areas like the amygdala (fear), hippocampus (memory), and basal ganglia (habits).

Mental Fitness is about training your mind, emotions, and nervous system the same way you’d train your body.

Training Your Mental Fitness

A lot of people have really disempowering mental stories about “negative thoughts”.

It’s like “If I have these negative thoughts, it means there’s something wrong with me or I’m broken or I’m not good enough”.

But it’s actually got NOTHING to do with the negative thoughts, it’s got a lot more to do with your PERCEPTION of the thoughts…

It’s about what you make it MEAN to you.

This “negative mental story” usually happens because people are very attached to their thoughts.

They think, if I have this thought, it means I am this thought.

The truth is… you are not your thoughts. 

You are the awareness that observes the thoughts.

The “you” who you think you are is not really real, it’s just an idea.

The labels, the identification, the likes and dislikes, they are all ideas we use to build our sense of self in the world.

They’re important for developing safety, security and belonging when we are children.

They’re not needed as we become adults.

What is needed is a change in perception and a change in thinking.

This requires practice, new habits and (mental) exercise.

Limitless Awareness Exercise

Think about this for a second. Relax back into your chair. Keep your eyes open. Don’t close your eyes.

What can you see? Just for a second. Open up your awareness and your sensory perception of your eyesight, your ability to see, and just notice what’s in your awareness. 

You don’t have to do anything else. Just notice. Look near. Look far. Look over here. Look over there. 

What’s in your awareness?

There’s probably quite a lot in your awareness. 

When I was doing this practice at the cafe this morning, I could see my laptop, I could see the table, the chair, the glass, the people in the café, the cars outside the café, I could see the trees, I could see the sky, I could see the dirt, I could see the birds, and so on.

I could see all of this beautiful stuff in my awareness.

Now what can you hear?

Next, I went to my ability to hear. I could hear the music in the café, I could hear the people talking, I could hear the birds outside, I could hear the cars, and so on.

Now what can you smell?

I could smell the coffee, I could smell the ocean air, I could smell my own cologne that I was wearing.

All of this stuff was in my awareness, like really a vast amount of stuff was in my awareness.

When I went from my little limited self, and I expanded my sensory perception outward to the world, it was almost like I became a bit bigger, like I became a bit more vast, I became a little bit more unlimited. 

My sense of myself was able to actually expand out into the world. 

Everything that I was seeing, everything that I am seeing, even right now as I write this, everything that you are seeing right now, is included in your awareness. 

The only thing that separates you from everything else in your awareness is the idea that you are separate from everything else in your awareness.

I just want to repeat that again because this is powerful. 

The only thing that separates me from everything else is just the idea that I am separate from everything else.

If you suspend that idea (even just for a second)… you become a lot more intimately connected to everything else. 

And just tell me, as you contemplate this idea, how do you feel?

Just write down the words that you feel on paper.

You are not limited to your own little self.

When you allow yourself to open up, you feel more connected to a Bigger Self.

The point I’m making here is when you become truly AWARE, you realise that your awareness is vast and infinite in its nature (not limited to your personal identification).

You have access to that higher level of awareness.

In deep meditation, you realise you ARE that awareness.

“You are not a limited self, you are a limitless awareness” - Josh Holliday

When you train that awareness, you can train yourself to feel safe in the world because you realise you are the world.

There’s no separation anymore.

If we want to train our Mental Fitness, we really need to train our Awareness (Consciousness)

We want to learn to focus our awareness on thoughts and perceptions that make us feel safe.

How I Healed My Mind

Back in 2010, when I was only 17 years old, I had an out of control mind and my thoughts were chaotic.

It got to a point where I thought, I can’t keep living like this. I needed to figure out how to get my mind under control.

This is when I started to learn meditation. 

I started a daily practice of going to sit at the beach and observe my thoughts, myself and the world around me.

What happened over the next few years was “mind-blowing”... 

I started to see the world through a whole different lens. It’s kinda like I had been asleep and I woke up for the first time.

I vividly remember, the colours in the world becoming brighter, the trees, the leaves, the sky, all began to “pop” with a renewed sense of life.

I stopped being so anxious. I stopped overthinking things. I stopped feeling so disconnected from myself and I stopped feeling like my mind was out of control.

I started to feel like myself. I started to feel like I was in control. I started to get clearer and more connected to myself.

I stopped living on autopilot, controlled by my mind, and I started to live consciously, in control of my mind and my life. 

I started to become present in life.

This is how powerful “mental fitness” is for you.

Mindfulness meditation was my superpower back then and today I’m going to teach you the exercise I used all those years ago…

Introducing “The Limitless Awareness” Exercise
This is a practice of observing your experience, instead of being consumed by it.

You will learn to develop awareness of your perceptions without being attached to them.

You will learn to become present and find freedom in life.

It’s exactly the same Mental Fitness exercise I used to develop mastery of my mind.

The Limitless Awareness Exercise

• Sit down with legs crossed and spine straight up.
• Close your eyes and focus your attention on your breathing.
• Observe your breathing, each inhale and each exhale.
• When you notice thoughts, observe them without attachment and without judgement.
• You WILL have thoughts, there’s nothing wrong with having thoughts, just observe them.
• Every time you notice yourself having thoughts, GENTLY return to observing your breathing without judgement (do this for a couple of minutes).
• Now start to include all the sounds, feelings and smells into your awareness.
• Include a greater sense of self in your awareness.
• Move beyond the limits of yourself and include the whole world in your awareness.
• Do this over and over again.

Start practicing this in your meditation practice and then continue to practice Limitless Awareness in your waking day.

You can use Limitless Awareness, anytime, anywhere.

It’s easier to start by using it in your meditation practice, in a focussed way. 

Over time, you will develop your conscious power to use Limitless Awareness when you’re going through your daily life.

Your whole life eventually becomes a practice of Limitless Awareness 

When that happens, you will find freedom from your mind.

Mental Fitness will become easy for you and you’ll be rewiring your neuroplasticity in real time.

Two Key Pillars For Limitless Awareness

Awareness - You are practicing being aware of your thoughts, yourself and the world. 

Acceptance - You are practicing acceptance of your thoughts, yourself and the world.

Extra Mantras

When I started to practice Limitless Awareness I would often use mantras (words and phrases) to help me stay present. 

You can use mantras to help redirect your mind and get you where you want to go.

Here are the mantras I used:

“I am home”
“I am not my thoughts”
“I am the universe and this is my playground”
“I am as I am, perfectly clear and at ease within my own awareness”
“Everything is as it should be”

Final Words

Remember, practicing this exercise will help you strengthen your prefrontal cortex and develop more control over the survival aspects of your brain.

• You’ll start to feel safer, calmer, clearer and more confident.
• You’ll develop willpower, focus, discipline.
• You’ll reduce stress, fear and anxiety.
• You’ll increase your mental fitness, health and memory.

Want more help?

There’s a couple of ways you can work with me:

1. You can join the Mind Launch Membership and get self-paced access to the tools, methods and your own personalised game plan.

2. You can hire me as your 1:1 coach and I'll keep you accountable with weekly coaching to take your performance to the next level.

I look forward to welcoming you in and helping you out.

With Optimism,
Josh