Two dimensions that describe our actions are our level of awareness (or mindfulness, or consciousness) and our degree of spontaneity at a given moment. Mapping these dimensions across each other results in four distinct ways of being, four "modes," although the boundaries are arbitrary and highly fluid. There's no implied hierarchy--no one mode is "best"--but a given mode may be best suited to our needs at a given moment. What characterizes each mode for you? Are certain modes easy or difficult? Are you able to identify and use the mode that best fits the moment?
This is a reductive way of characterizing all our potential "ways of being," and I offer it cautiously. But it occurred to me today as I was wrestling with some strong emotions stirred up by a troubling experience, and it helped me make some sense of what had happened. I realized that I'd been operating instinctively--reacting very quickly, with a low level of self-awareness--when that mode wasn't helpful, and it gave my actions a driven, robotic quality (which got me into trouble.) I needed to slow down, take a breath, be more reflective--to be deliberate.
Here's a one-slide PowerPoint [58 KB] of this post. Thanks to my colleagues Carole Robin, Hugh Keelan, Inbal Demri, Marcus Abundis, Stephanie Soler, and Yifat Sharabi-Levine for helping me think and feel my way through this, and thanks particularly to Hugh for helping me to see that my original language conveyed a hierarchical sense of "where I should be" that's neither accurate nor feasible.
