Wheel of Awareness

What is Dan Siegel's Wheel of Awareness?

Dan Siegel's Wheel of Awareness is a mindfulness tool designed to help individuals enhance focus, presence, and inner peace. This tool enables users to experience open awareness by integrating different aspects of their consciousness. By engaging with the Wheel of Awareness, users can reduce their stress levels, anxiety, and depression while also improving their mental and emotional well-being and their interpersonal skills. It serves as an excellent tool for personal growth, allowing individuals to connect more deeply with themselves as well as others (Garrisson Institute, 2018).

Core beliefs informing the Wheel of Awareness

Dan Siegel's Wheel of Awareness is based on the idea that consciousness can be visualized as a wheel, with the hub representing our awareness and the rim representing the different elements of our experience - thoughts, feelings, and sensations. The awareness practice uses a "spoke of attention" to focus on various aspects of the rim, helping individuals integrate these parts allowing them to find a sense of wholeness. The goal Dr. Dan Siegel has set is to enhance mental well-being by focusing attention and creating harmony between the differentiated parts of our mind, fostering clarity and a deeper sense of stability through this integration.

Parts of the Wheel of Awareness

The Wheel of Awareness divides the rim mentioned above into four segments that represent different categories of experience:

1. First five senses: This part includes your basic sensory experiences - touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. The practice begins with grounding yourself in the present moment by focusing on these five sensations.
2. Bodily sensations (sixth sense): This part of the wheel focuses on the internal sensations from your body, such as your breathing, heartbeat, and muscle tension. By honing in on bodily signals, individuals are able to gain insight into how your physical being is impacting your mental well-being.
3. Mental activities (seventh sense): The third part of the rim allows the individual to focus on their mind, including their thoughts, feelings, and memories. Taking a moment to observe these mental activities without judgment allows you to learn to separate awareness from the contents of your mind, which helps reduce stress and anxiety.
4. Interconnectedness: The final segment represents your connection to the outside world. This includes people closest to you all the way through to your city, country and your natural environment. This practice would allow you to connect, thereby, fostering a sense of belonging in your external environment.

In practice, each of the four segments of the rim is examined by moving the spoke of attention. This spoke symbolizes the individual's focused awareness, which can be directed and shifted to explore various areas of the wheel. Since the spoke is linked to the hub, it is essential to stay grounded in the center while engaging with any one point on the rim.

How does our Wheel of Awareness template work?

The Wheel of Awareness is a helpful mindfulness tool designed by Dr Dan Siegel that allows individuals the chance to develop awareness and practice mindfulness. Our printable template serves the same purpose. As a clinician, you can use this tool with your clients to promote mindfulness and facilitate greater self-awareness.

Step 1: Access the template

You can access and download our printable Wheel of Awareness template by either clicking the “Use Template” or “Download Template” button above or searching “Wheel of Awareness” in Carepatron's template library on our website or app.

Step 2: Explain and work through the wheel

Being by introducing the Wheel of Awareness and its purpose. Explain the clients are the "hub" of awareness, representing the calm center of their consciousness. Further explain that the spoke of attention should be visualized as a dynamic arrow that moves around the wheel, connecting the hub to the rim, allowing exploration of different aspects while staying grounded.

Outline the rim's four segments, each focusing on: the five senses, bodily sensations, mental activities and interconnectedness. Our Wheel of Awareness also includes additional keywords related to each of the four segments to help clients think specifically about all the points in their experience, guiding them in their exploration and enhancing their mindfulness practice.

Step 3: Ongoing use of the Wheel of Awareness

Continue to use the Wheel of Awareness as needed. You can combine this template with other free resources available on the Carepatron website, such as the Coping Wheel Template for patients who are struggling to cope with stress, or the Self-Care Wheel for clients wanting to reflect and write on different aspects of their lives.

When to use the Wheel of Awareness?

The Wheel of Awareness can be used as a mindfulness tool for people who are feeling overwhelmed, stress or disconnected. Regular use can be beneficial for many individuals who seek therapy including those who are managing chronic pain, anxiety and depression. The template can also be used as a valuable tool for tracking a client's progress over time. It can provide insight into the client's mindfulness journey over time.

You can choose to use the Wheel of Awareness template either during therapy sessions or assign it to your client as homework they can complete between sessions.

• During sessions: You can have your client complete the template as you guide them through the steps in your session.
• As homework: You can assign the template as an exercise clients can complete in their own time or when they may feel they need it most throughout their week. Encourage clients to reflect on their experiences and bring the template back to you for further discussion.

Reference

Garrison Institute. (2018, August 21). Dr. Dan Siegel’s Wheel of Awareness - Garrison Institute. https://www.garrisoninstitute.org/the-wheel-of-awareness/

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