ABSTRACT
Enhancing awareness lies at the heart of the Breakthrough Conversations approach. The human mind has evolved to run automatically much of the time, drawing on habitual routines and default mode circuitry, and in these circumstances mental activity is not under conscious control. Thoughts flow rapidly from one to another, so much so that awareness and thoughts seem subjectively synonymous. Drawing out the distinction between awareness and thinking, mindfulness practices provide one method for creating space to experience phenomena without mental activity being so dominated by narrative circuitry. Clients can hone their awareness ‘muscle’, learning methods for taking up an Observer Perspective, zooming-in and zooming-out with their attention, and learning to disidentify from thoughts by viewing self-identity as constructed from me-thoughts and self-narratives. I have developed two linked models for deconstructing conversational experience, the PACES frame and the Five-Eyed Model of Conversations. The PACES frame, and the corresponding ACES worksheet, supports clients to deconstruct limiting and enabling experiences in terms of the domains of Pause, Actions, Cognitions, Emotions and Sensations. Capturing the results of these explorations on an ACES worksheet provides an explicit record of how certain conversational tendencies manifest, and empowers clients to make conscious choices about how to be more skilful. The Five-Eyed Model of Conversations supports clients to view their interactions in a wider context, and to acknowledge the array of systemic, historical and interpersonal factors that contribute to conversational outcomes.
