Part I The Wheel of Awareness: Idea and Practice 1
An Invitation 3
Cultivating Well-Being by Developing Attention, Awareness, and Intention 4
A Practical Tool 6
A Travel Guide to the Mind 12
Stories of Using the Wheel of Awareness: Harnessing The Power of Presence 15
Billy and His Return to the Hub 16
Jonathan's Respite from His Emotional Roller Coaster 16
Mona and the Sanctuary of the Hub 17
Teresa, Trauma, and Healing with the Integration of the Wheel 18
Zachary: Finding Meaning, Connection, and Relief from Pain 22
Preparing Your Mind for the Wheel of Awareness: Focused Attention 25
Building the Regulatory Aspect of the Mind 25
Some Starting Tips 27
A Mindsight Lens 32
Breath Awareness to Stabilize Attention 34
What Is the Mind? 40
Three Pillars of Mind Training 46
Focal and Non-Focal Attention 50
Monitoring Attention and Awareness 53
The Basic Wheel of Awareness 59
Maps, Metaphors, and Mechanisms 59
The Basic and the Full Wheel of Awareness 61
A Map of the Basic Wheel of Awareness 65
Practicing the Basic Wheel of Awareness 68
Reflecting on Mind: Your Experience of the Basic Wheel 72
Kind Intention 78
Weaving Kindness, Empathy, and Compassion into Your Life 79
Integration, Spirituality, Health 91
Our Inner and Inter Selves 93
Building Compassion with Statements of Intention 95
Reflecting on Kind and Compassionate Intention 102
Deepening the Wheel Practice 105
Open Awareness 107
Exploring the Hub 107
Reflecting on Knowing 111
Energy Around the Wheel 112
Consolidated Wheel Practice 117
Part II The Wheel of Awareness and Mechanisms of Mind 121
Mind and the Energy Flow of the Body 123
Minding Your Brain 128
Your Head Brain in a Hand Model 130
The Default Mode Network 135
How to Integrate the DMN 138
Loosening the Grip of a Separate Self 143
Clinging Versus Attachment 146
The Fourth Segment of the Rim and the Relational Mind 151
Growing an Integrated Brain with Mind Training 156
Integration in the Brain and the Spoke of Focal Attention 160
How and Where Does Awareness Arise? 160
Awareness and the Integration of Information 166
Attention, Consciousness, and the Social Brain 169
The Hub of Knowing and Possible Mechanisms of the Brain Beneath Pure Awareness 174
The Nature of Energy, The Energy of Mind 183
Science, Energy, and Experience 183
The Energy of Nature 186
Energy as Probability 202
A 3-P Diagram of Energy Flow 214
Mapping the Mind as Peaks, Plateaus, and a Plane of Possibility 218
Awareness, The Hub, and a Plane of Possibility 231
Awareness and the Plane of Possibility 231
Brain Correlates of Pure Consciousness 234
Filters of Consciousness 238
Filters of Consciousness and the Organization of Experience 238
How Top-Down and Bottom-Up Shape Our Sense of Reality 243
Plateaus, "Self," and the Default Mode Network 248
One Personal Set of Filters 253
Pure Awareness and the Filters of Consciousness 256
The Oscillatory Sweep of Attention: A 3-P Loop, a Spoke of the Wheel 258
Sweep Ratios, States of Mind 264
Awe and Joy 274
A Table of Correlations Among Mental Experience, Metaphor, and Mechanism 276
Part III Stories of Transformation in Applying the Wheel: Harnessing The Hub and Living from the Plane of Possibility 279
Offering the Wheel as an Idea to Children: Billy and the Freedom of the Hub, the Spaciousness of the Plane 282
Teaching the Wheel to Adolescents: Jonathan and Calming the Roller Coaster of Plateaus and Peaks 288
The Wheel for Parents and Other Care Providers: Mona and the Freedom from Recurrent Plateaus and Peaks of Chaos and Rigidity 295
The Wheel in Healing Trauma: Teresa and the Transformation of Traumatic Filters of Consciousness 301
The Wheel, Professional Life, and an Awakened Mind: Zachary and Accessing the Plane 320
Part IV The Power of Presence 331
Challenges and Opportunities of Living with Presence and Being Aware 336
Freedom: Transforming into Possibility 344
Presence Beyond Methods 347
Mindful Awareness and Integration 350
Linking from the Plane 352
Laughing, Living, and Dying from the Plane 354
Leading and Loving from the Plane 359
Acknowledgments 363
Selected References and Reading 367
Index 369