When you wake up each morning, you open your eyes, put your feet to the floor, shuffle to the bathroom or coffee pot and begin the process of becoming more aware of your surroundings. Sometimes, a dream still lingers, and you’re confused—while part of you has got two feet in the real world, your mind’s still in the dream. Sometimes you awaken with a jolt, late for work or class or some other obligation and your mind’s already far ahead into your day, obsessing over something you have to do or something still left undone.

You’re awake but your not really there; you’re moving in the world, but not present to it.

There’s a big difference between being awake and being aware, alert, or conscious to what’s really going on around and within you.