Nothing Exists Outside Your Awareness

This isn’t some deep spiritual concept. It’s just a basic truth most of us overlook because we’re moving too fast to notice it. We’ve never experienced anything in our life outside of our awareness.

Think about it. Every conversation, every memory, every feeling. good or bad…has only ever happened inside your perception of it. Even when something happens out there, it’s still being interpreted in here. Inside your body. Inside your thoughts. Inside your nervous system.

It sounds deep, but it’s really not. It’s practical. It means the power isn’t in chasing down every outside situation to feel safe or whole. It’s in realizing that your experience of those situations is what shapes your reality.

Take my own life for example. I’ve got a granddaughter I love more than anything. When she’s with me, I know she feels my love. I know she’s safe in my presence. But when she leaves, there’s a pull…a temptation to start worrying about things I can’t see. What’s happening in the other house? Is she okay? Is she being spoken to with love? My mind wants to stretch itself into places my body was never meant to go.

But then I come back to this truth. She’s not in the room right now. My awareness… this moment… is mine to be in. And if I fill it with fear, then fear is what I’m living in. Not because of anything that’s happening, but because of what I’m focusing on.

Same thing happens when I talk to my daughter. She’ll call from another state, and I can hear in her voice that something feels off. She has a history with mental health, and everything in me wants to rush in and fix it. But I’ve learned that presence doesn’t mean panic. It means being grounded enough to hear her without trying to carry her. To stay steady without jumping into the storm. To trust that my love is still love even when it’s not wrapped in anxiety.

A lot of times, what triggers a mental health episode whether it’s anxiety, panic, dissociation, or something deeper is the sense that your mind has gotten away from you. You’re no longer here. You’re stuck in a thought loop, a memory, a fear, or a scenario that hasn’t even happened. That’s why awareness isn’t just a spiritual idea. It’s a mental health tool.

Therapists often teach something simple but powerful. When you feel your mind spiraling, pause. Look around. Say out loud what you see. “A chair. A wall. A coffee mug. A window.” It may sound too easy, but it brings you back. It reminds your nervous system that you’re here not inside the thing your brain made up. Add a few deep breaths to that, and you’re practicing something deeper than grounding. You’re reclaiming your mind. You’re choosing awareness instead of being dragged by the noise in your head. You’re showing your body that you’re safe now and that’s what brings the power back to you.

Worry doesn’t protect anyone. It just drags your awareness into places you can’t do anything about. You end up playing out scenarios that haven’t even happened or might not ever happen all while the moment in front of you goes untouched.

And I get it. We’ve been taught that being a good parent, a good friend, a good partner means constantly thinking ahead, constantly scanning for danger, constantly preparing. But all that really does is rob you of what’s actually real right now.

There’s a peace that comes when you stop trying to live in ten places at once and just bring your awareness here. You notice your breath. You sip your coffee. You let the moment be what it is without trying to stretch it into something else.

I’ve been practicing that. Being in the moment and shaping it into something I actually want to live in. I’ve had to quiet that nonstop mental play-by-play running in the background. Let go of the urge to rehearse pain I can’t prevent. Catch myself when my thoughts start drifting outside the room and choose to come back.

It’s not detachment. It’s not indifference. It’s choosing not to let fear lead. It’s deciding that the energy I bring into this space matters more than the thoughts running wild about spaces I’m not in.

And when you really start doing that when you start treating your awareness like the foundation of your life instead of a background process that’s when things begin to shift. You feel lighter. Clearer. Less frantic. You stop wishing for peace and start creating it. Right where you are.

Please know, life always meets you at the level of your awareness. And when you change that, everything changes with it.

There was a time in my life when I really had to learn how to hold my awareness on purpose—not just for peace, but to not lose my mind. I was caregiving for a woman with Alzheimer’s who, to be honest, was not easy to care for. She could be cruel, and some days, I’d leave feeling like I was the one unraveling.

One day really stood out. It was my first day with her and it was my birthday. March 17. I took on this position because no one was able to stay with her. She would always have them removed, or the person scheduled to be with her would walk out because of her cruelty. Anyway, she wanted me to do some grocery shopping. I came back and was unloading the groceries. I had bought myself a cupcake. A Saint Paddy’s Day cupcake just something small so I could have dessert that day.

Later, she went through the fridge, threw my cupcake on the counter, and told me she didn’t want any of my things in her refrigerator. She asked what it was, and I told her it was mine. I said I’d put it in my car, and I explained that I only bought it because it was my birthday. She seemed to feel a little bad, but still released her anger about me putting strange things in her fridge.

During that season, I found a video on YouTube by David Allen called The Power of I Am. I’d listen to it on the way home windows up, tears in my eyes. Just hearing those words I am that I am gave me something to hold onto. It reminded me that even when everything feels like it’s slipping, I don’t have to. I can come back to who I am.

Now, anytime I feel my mind spinning or my energy leaking out, I speak those words out loud. It brings me back to center. That practice became the foundation for a song I later wrote, also called That I Am… a declaration of identity, alignment, and power.

One line says:

“I speak and the air shifts, like the world knows the sound. When I step in my power, even fear settles down.”

That’s what happens when awareness is embodied. You stop spiraling and you start standing.

Your awareness is where everything starts. It’s how you reclaim your mind, your peace, and your power. And when you learn to stay with yourself especially in the hard moments you stop being at the mercy of the world and start shaping it from the inside out.

That’s not just a mindset. That’s a practice. That’s why I wrote That I Am. Not just as a song but as a reminder. For all of us.

This is the real key to freedom. And it’s been here the whole time.

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