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The Wheel of Awareness

Mindfulness Dr. Daniel Siegel created the Wheel of Awareness practice as a way to practice becoming
aware of all that we can be aware of, at once (Siegel, 2018). The Wheel offers a visual
Meditation
metaphor for the way the mind works. The center of the wheel, the hub, is the area from
30 min. which we become aware.

Client
From the hub, we can choose to focus our attention on (i.e., become aware of) experiences
No both within and outside ourselves. Awareness of internal experiences is represented
by areas of the wheel that house our thoughts, images, feelings, and bodily sensations.
Awareness of external experiences is represented by an area of the wheel that houses
our sense of connection to others. Put simply, within the metaphoric hub is the sense of
knowing; within the rim of the wheel is that which is known—such as our five senses, the
sixth sense of our bodily sensations, our mental life of emotions and thoughts, and our
relations to people and the planet.

This tool includes a script and audio recording of the Wheel of Awareness practice, as well
as a visual representation of the Wheel for clients to denote their unique experience. The
aim of the tool is to help clients increase mindful awareness of themselves and also the
outside world.

Author

This tool was created by Hugo Alberts (Ph.D.) and Lucinda Poole (PsyD).

Goal

The aim of the tool is to help clients expand their awareness from themselves (being aware
of internal experiences) to their outer worlds (being aware of external experiences) so as
to have a full and encompassing sense of connection and knowing.

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Advice

■■ Often, clients struggle with the idea of “becoming aware of the present moment”,
which is at the heart of mindfulness practice. This tool can be used to clarify what
present moment awareness entails by clarifying the different aspects that one can
become aware of.
■■ Advise clients that meditation is simply a task of becoming aware of the present
moment, and we can be aware of one or more present moment anchors simultaneously
(like the breath and bodily sensations and the sense of observing mental activities).
Let clients know that it is normal and natural for their mind to wander off into the past
or the future during the practice; instruct them to simply guide their attention back to
the practice when they notice they have wandered off, and to do so gently and with
compassion so as not to give themselves a hard time.
■■ This is a guided meditation practice, and guided meditation may be more convenient
and easier for some people, however, clients can choose to read through the script
and practice themselves without the audio. They might be more comfortable self-
guiding in this way after listening to the guided practice a few times.
■■ In this exercise, clients first imagine the wheel of awareness during the meditation
before seeing an actual image of the wheel of awareness. Some clients who struggle
visualizing may find it helpful to first have a look at the image before meditating. When
doing so, the practitioner may briefly explain the setup of the wheel of awareness to
clients in order to familiarize them with the concept.
■■ Note that what is introduced as “connecting to the hub” in this meditation, refers to a
process that has been referred to as decentering (Safran & Segal, 1990), reperceiving
(Shapiro & Carlson 2009) and deautomatisation (Deikman, 1982) in the scientific
literature. These terms all refer to the ability to entering an observer mode, from
which one can “step outside of one’s immediate experience.

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Suggested Readings

■■ Deikman, A.J. (1982). The observing self. Boston: Beacon Press.

■■ Safran, J.D., & Segal, Z.V. (1990). Interpersonal process in cognitive therapy. New York:
Basic Books.

■■ Shapiro, S.L., & Carlson, L.E. (2009). How is Mindfulness helpful? Mechanisms
of Action. In: S.L. Shapiro & L.E. Carlson (Eds.), The art and science of mindfulness:
Integrating mindfulness into psychology and the helping professions. Washington, DC,
US: American Psychological Association.

■■ Siegel, D. (2018). Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence - The Groundbreaking
Meditation Practice. Penguin.

■■ Siegel, D. J. (2010). The mindful therapist: A clinician’s guide to mindsight and neural
integration. WW Norton & Company.

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The Wheel of Awareness

Introduction

In this mindful awareness practice, you will visualize a wheel; and this wheel has a central hub, an outer
rim, and four quadrants in between. In this metaphor of how the mind is structured, the hub represents
our experience of awareness, and the quadrants represent anything we can be aware of, including sensory
awareness (i.e., what we see, hear, smell, taste and touch), bodily awareness (i.e., what we can sense
physically), mental activities (such as emotions, thoughts, memories, and urges), and our sense of connection
to things outside ourselves (such as other people and other things). The purpose of the practice is to cultivate
a full sense of connection and awareness to both yourself and the world around you.

N.B. The subtitles (bolded text) in Part 1 do not need to be read out as part of the meditation - these
subtitles are in place to give the practice structures. Practitioners need only read the text in italics.

Part 1: Wheel of Awareness meditation

1. Get into position

To begin, find a comfortable meditation position. Either sitting on a cushion on the floor, or in a chair. Allow your
spine to be straight and long, and let your shoulders drop, relaxed. Rest your hands in your lap, and gently close
your eyes.

2. Breath awareness

Become aware of the rhythm of your breathing. There’s no need to change your breathing in any way, simply notice
it exactly as it is.

3. Visualize the wheel

Now, bring to mind the image of a wheel. This wheel has a center, known as the “hub”, and four sections, or quadrants,
surrounding this hub. There is a rim that encompasses everything - the four quadrants and the hub. For each part
of this practice, you will zoom in on one portion of the wheel, and become aware of its contents with my guidance.

4. First quadrant: connect to the five senses

I’d like to invite you to first turn your attention to the top, left quadrant, which houses your five senses. Zoom in
on this area of your wheel by engaging your sense of hearing… what can you hear? And now your sense of touch…
what can you feel? And now your sense of smell, and taste… what can you notice? Now gently open your eyes for
a moment… what can you see?

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5. Second quadrant: connect to bodily sensations

Good, and now close your eyes again, and bring your wheel back into your mind’s eye. Take a deep slow breath here.
Now I’d like to invite you to turn your attention to the top, right quadrant, which houses your “sixth sense”, which is
the inner sensations of your own body. Take a few moments to scan through your body from head to toe, becoming
aware of any and all physical sensations throughout. Tingling, heat, tension, numbness. Take your time to move
through each body group. Just noticing, being curious, just observing.

6. Third quadrant: connect to mental activities

Good, let’s take another nice deep breath here. And next, I’d like to invite you to turn your attention to the bottom,
left quadrant, which houses the activities of your mind itself, including your emotions, thoughts, memories, hopes,
beliefs, dreams, attitudes, and intentions. First, simply become aware of everything that is entering your mind at
this moment. Welcoming this mental activity into your awareness. What thoughts and feelings are showing up
right now? [30 second pause]. Next, begin to examine how these internal experiences arise and pass… do they
come up suddenly or gradually? Do they stay constant, or fade in and out? Are there gaps between the different
mental activities, or do these exist as one long stream of consciousness?

7. Hub: awareness of awareness

Good, let’s take another nice deep breath here. And we’ll now bring our attention to the center of the wheel, the
hub, which is where your awareness stems from. The hub is the ‘you’ that has noticed everything so far in this
practice - the part of you that is observing, listening, looking, focusing, sensing. Take some time here, as cultivating
this “awareness of awareness” takes practice.

8. Fourth quadrant: connect to others

Good, let’s take another deep, slow breath here. And then turn your attention to the bottom, right quadrant of
your wheel, which houses your sense of connection to the outside world. First, notice the sense of connection to
the people physically closest to you right now [15-second pause]. Then, expand this sense of connection to people
further away [15-second pause]. And then tap into your sense of connection to your loved ones, wherever they may
be right now [15-second pause]. Then, widen your sense of connection step-by-step to include those who live in
your neighborhood, city, country, continent, in the whole world, and finally to all living beings on earth.

9. Ground yourself

As the meditation comes to an end, simply bring your attention back to your breath, as you did at the beginning of
the practice. You might like to take a few deep, slow breaths here, to ground yourself back into this moment. Then,
when you are ready, gently open the eyes.

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Part 2: Reflection

Now take a look at the wheel of awareness, displayed below.

Below, reflect on what you noticed during the meditation (Part 1). Write down as much as you can remember
from each of the four quadrants and from becoming aware of awareness itself (the hub). There are no wrong
answers here! Everyone’s wheel of awareness experience is unique.

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Quadrant 1: Mental activities

My observations:

Quadrant 2: Interior of the body

My observations:

Quadrant 3: Touch - Taste - Smell - Sight - Hearing

My observations:

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Quadrant 4: Interconnectedness

My observations:

General discussion

■■ How did you feel at the end of the practice?

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