States of Consciousness
Awareness is the monitoring of information from the environment and from our own thoughts. Consciousness is an awareness of our surroundings and thoughts, including aspects of being awake and aware. It is our awareness of various mental processes or cognitive processes that operate in our daily lives such as making decisions, daydreaming, reflecting, sleeping, dreaming and concentrating. It is our experience of the moment as we move through it; therefore, it is constantly changing. We process information before sending it to specialized brain regions. These sensory elements are brought together into what Baars (1997) called the global workspace of consciousness.
Wakefulness is the degree of alertness, resulting from whether a person is awake or asleep. Awareness, on the other hand, refers to the monitoring of information from the environment and from our own thoughts. Degrees of wakefulness and awareness signify variations in consciousness.
Minimal consciousness refers to states when people are barely awake or aware. Someone in a minimally conscious state is largely unresponsive but may show some deliberate movement.
Moderate consciousness describes occurrences when information is potentially accessible but not currently in awareness. For instance, a person can be aroused from sleep or dreaming but most sensations from the environment are not perceived by the sleeper. The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, when you feel you know something but just can't quite recall it, is an example of moderate consciousness.
When we are relatively alert and aware, we are said to be in full-consciousness. Mindfulness is a heightened awareness of the present moment. Flow, on the other hand, occurs when we get so involved in what we are doing that we lose a sense of time and place.
