Is Turning Attention Back to Awareness the New Medicine of Consciousness?
Dr. Solangel is an integrative medicine doctor with extensive experience in alchemical quantum medicine and mental upgrading. She is the founder of Dharmagaia Integrative Medicine and the creator of The Master’s Journey, a transformative online program that has helped hundreds of people.
We spend so much of life chasing the next achievement, the next dopamine hit, the next place to arrive… without realizing we are running on empty. What if the peace we seek isn’t in the next “something,” but in the awareness that’s already here?
Most of us move through life absorbed in the movie of our experience. Thoughts race, emotions surge, stories about the past replay endlessly, and worries about the future keep us restless. This constant engagement with the content of our experience often leaves us stressed, contracted, and disconnected from the deeper peace that is always available.
On top of that, our culture trains us to keep seeking the next post, the next course, the next achievement, the next milestone, the next “dopamine hit” from checking a box or chasing a goal. We become conditioned to believe that fulfillment lies just beyond the next accomplishment. In this endless striving, we externalize our energy, pouring it into the pursuit of “getting somewhere,” while rarely pausing to notice the cost.
Like the frog in water that slowly heats up, we adapt to living in a state of depletion without realizing it. We normalize exhaustion, stress, and overstimulation, unaware that we are running on empty. We think that one more achievement, one more success, one more checkmark on the to-do list will finally bring relief, but it never does. The relief we seek cannot be found in the content of experience. It is found in the recognition of what we are beneath it.
A radical pause
And that recognition begins with a simple, radical shift: pausing and asking ourselves one question: Am I aware?
This question is not meant to be answered with words. Instead, it serves as a doorway. It redirects our attention away from the ever-changing drama of thoughts, feelings, and sensations, and brings us back to the one constant in every moment: Awareness Itself.
Awareness is what knows your thoughts, your feelings, your body, and your perceptions. It is the quiet, open presence in which every experience arises and is known. In the way Rupert Spira defines it:
It is through awareness that experience is possible.
It is by awareness that everything is known.
It is in awareness that all of life unfolds.
And here is the liberating realization: awareness itself is completely independent of whatever is happening.
The screen and the movie
Think of a movie screen. Scenes may shift from light to dark, calm to chaotic, joyful to tragic, yet the screen itself is never harmed, never stained, never altered. In the same way, our true nature as awareness remains untouched by the changing content of experience.
Why this matters for healing
Suffering begins the moment we mistake ourselves for the content of experience. When we identify only with the stressful thought, the painful emotion, or even the physical symptom, we contract and reinforce the sense of struggle. But when we recognize that we are the awareness in which all of this appears, space opens. Stress softens. A deeper sense of safety and freedom begins to emerge.
This does not mean denying the reality of the body, emotions, or challenges. It means meeting them from a place of wholeness instead of entanglement. From awareness, we can respond with clarity instead of reactivity, with compassion instead of fear.
A 3-step practice to rest in awareness
1. Pause
Wherever you are, take a gentle pause. Let your body be still for a moment. There’s no need to change anything, not your breath, not your thoughts, not your feelings.
2. Notice
Bring attention to whatever is present: a sensation in your body, a sound in the room, a thought passing by. Then ask quietly: Am I aware? Notice that the very fact that you can ask this question points back to the awareness that is already here.
3. Rest
Allow your attention to soften into that awareness itself, the open, steady presence in which everything is appearing. Rest here, even for a few seconds. This is home.
So take a moment right now. Pause. Let your attention rest, not on the thoughts moving through your mind or the sensations in your body, but on the simple knowing of them.
Notice the quiet, steady presence that is already here before any thought, before any feeling, before any story. This is the medicine of consciousness. This is the home you never left. This is the place where you remain happy, healthy, and whole.
Coming home
If you feel called to explore this more deeply, I invite you to connect with me through my website, where you’ll find practices, resources, and ways to begin your own journey of coming home to awareness.
Read more from Dr. Mariana Solangel
Dr. Mariana Solangel, Medical Doctor Transformational Expert
Dr. Solangel is an integrative medicine doctor who is a leader in biohacking. Her gift for seeing the unseen allows her to offer a unique set of techniques using the power of self-exploration, mental upgrading, and self-transformation. Her flagship program, The Master’s Journey, facilitates profound, long-term shifts that assist individuals toward their next level of wellness and personal growth.
