Wheel of Awareness - Dr. Dan Siegel (original) (raw)

Here is an image of “The Wheel of Awareness.” The hub represents the experience of awareness itself — knowing — while the rim contains all the points of anything we can become aware of, that which is known to us. We can send a spoke out to the rim to focus our attention on one point or another on the rim. In this way, the wheel of awareness becomes a visual metaphor for the integration of consciousness as we differentiate rim-elements and hub-awareness from each other and link them with our focus of attention.

Wheel of Awareness and the Plane of Possibility

An advanced version of the Wheel of Awareness connecting to and explaining the Plane of Possibility framework. Dan highly recommends this version AFTER completing part 2 of Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence.

Full-Length Wheel of Awareness (30 minutes)

In this 30 minute full-length wheel of awareness practice, the basic elements are included and in addition two expanded reflective elements are added: 1) Awareness of awareness with the bending of the spoke of attention back towards the hub of knowing; 2) During the fourth segment focus on our sense of connectedness, the research-proven statements of positive intentions and kindness are offered to promote self, other and “MWe” directed compassion.

Basic Wheel of Awareness - (20 minutes)

In this 20 minute basic wheel of awareness, you will be guided through the basic experience of the metaphor of the wheel to illuminate the nature of consciousness and its differentiated parts including the hub of knowing, the rim of the known, and the spoke of attention. This basic version does not include the hub-on-hub bending of the spoke or the kind intention statements that are a part of the full-length version of the wheel.

Consolidated Wheel of Awareness (7 minutes)

This is a practice that should only be done after mastering the basic and full-length practices. This is offered by popular request for those familiar with the Wheel to have a more expedited experience available for their busy lives! In this 7 minute wheel of awareness practice, the breath becomes a pacer for the movement of the spoke of attention around the rim. Let the breath be your focus for the first half-minute of silence at the beginning of this recording. Some people find it helpful when on the third segment of the rim to count the number of breaths by pressing on the fingers of one hand to reach five for each of the first parts of that segment, and to a count of ten for the “awareness of awareness” portion as well. When this becomes familiar to you, you can use your own timing to experience this consolidated practice without listening to an external voice.

If you’re interested in learning more about Dr. Dan Siegel’s work and furthering your understanding of awareness, Mindsight and Interpersonal Neurobiology, we encourage you to take a look at our Aware-related offerings.