Jennifer Fine writes: Thinking is an action that is linear in nature. If I ask you to add two large numbers together, or ask you which route you take to work every morning, chances are you will pause, your facial muscles will contract ever so slightly, and your mind will take you out of the room as words and images move past your mind’s eye. Thinking often has A LOT to do with the past or the future. When my mind wanders away and I “think” about things, it usually has to do with things that have happened before this moment, or speculation about things that might be tomorrow.
Awareness is a vastly different state. Awareness can only occur in the present moment, and generally has very little to do with words that are not being said or images that are not being seen right here right now. Awareness invites us to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel. Thinking asks us to compare what is being felt now to a previous feeling or supplies us with an expectation of a feeling yet to come. Awareness knows only the feeling being felt this time.
