How to Get Outside of Your Own Head
Use ‘dual awareness’ when your brain won’t let you get on with your day
I could hear my kids whine for snacks and TV shows, but I was missing the mental step that connected the sound to me, a person who could do something about it.
I stayed in my spot on the couch for over an hour, as if in a fugue state. All of my mental energy was focused on only one thing: ruminating on a hurtful conversation I’d had with a relative the day before.
It wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling. More and more frequently, whatever anxiety, sadness, or insecurity I’m facing seems to hijack my entire brain. But that week, my therapist challenged me to face it in a different way — to embrace the tension of admitting I felt like crap while going about my day as normal.
It was like she was asking me to be in two places at once, I told her.
Exactly, she said.
It’s called dual awareness. By learning to pay attention to more than one experience at once it’s possible to acknowledge a feeling without drowning in it. It’s a way to live in the present while simultaneously working through past hurt.
“Dual awareness is the state of having an experiencing self and an observing self present at the same time,” says the…
