The Wheel of Awareness is designed to enhance your sense of presence and wellbeing by distinguishing and then connecting different aspects of consciousness.

Imagine the Wheel of Awareness as a mental map. The hub of this wheel symbolizes the personal experience of awareness or knowing. The rim, on the other hand, signifies everything we can be aware of, such as thoughts, sensations, and perceptions. The spoke of the wheel is a representation of attention, which connects the knower to the known.

The practice begins with focusing on your breath. Then, your attention moves through the first segment of the rim, distinguishing each of the five senses - hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch. After this, it moves to the second segment, distinguishing bodily sensations like muscles, organs, and heart.

Your attention then shifts to the third segment of mental activities. Here, the practice encourages open awareness, being receptive to any feeling, thought, or memory that arises, without judgment. This is followed by reflection on how mental activities arise, stay, and pass away in consciousness.

The fourth segment involves a sense of connection to people and things beyond oneself. The full practice concludes by bending the spoke back to the hub, becoming aware of awareness itself. Then, statements of kindness and care are introduced.

This practice can strengthen your capacity for presence by distinguishing focal attention, open awareness, and kind intention. It enables you to notice when you get immersed in thought streams on the rim versus resting in the equanimity of the hub. With practice, you can gain freedom from identification with transient mental contents.

The mental map is not meant to solidify fixed locations in the brain. The Wheel is considered an experiential tool to illuminate the texture of consciousness and hone mental skills of attention, awareness, and connection. Regular practice is said to facilitate wellbeing via neural integration.