The Wheel of Awareness – My Practice
“The Wheel of Awareness: A visual metaphor of the mind that is also a time-in practice to promote neural integration. The outer rim of the wheel represents that which is the object of attention… The hub represents the experience of being aware.”
— Daniel J. Siegel, MD, Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology
Before I ever learned the Wheel of Awareness, Dr. Siegel taught me something deceptively simple and profoundly life-changing -I could choose where to place my attention.
For someone who had spent much of her life feeling hijacked by fear, overwhelm, and internal fragmentation, this was a revelation. The realization that attention wasn’t fixed, that it could be guided – that I could guide it – offered me my first lived experience of agency within my own mind.
We began simply – just a few minutes a day of breath awareness, gently noticing when my mind wandered and kindly bringing it back. Nothing forced. Nothing corrective. Over time, this simple practice became the foundation for what I would later understand as the Wheel of Awareness – a structured, experiential practice I think of as an immersion into Interpersonal Neurobiology.
The Wheel uses the metaphor of a wheel – I often picture a bicycle wheel. The hub represents awareness itself – the knowing, steady presence that observes. The rim holds everything that can be known – sensory awareness, bodily sensations, emotions, thoughts, and our sense of connection to others and the world beyond the body. The spoke represents attention. By intentionally moving the spoke around the rim, I learned to notice my experience without being consumed by it.
This distinction – between awareness and the contents of awareness – became especially meaningful in my recovery from dissociative identity disorder. The Wheel offered a way to gently support integration among dissociated self-states, while providing a reliable structure for staying present. It allowed me to approach internal experience with curiosity rather than fear, and to engage with the past without being pulled into it.
Perhaps most importantly, the Wheel helped me discover something I’d never truly known before – I wasn’t my trauma. I was simply aware it had happened. That shift from identification to observation was central to my healing.
Today, the Wheel of Awareness isn’t just a therapeutic concept, it’s a daily practice that supports my well-being. I use it personally, and I share it professionally with clients as a powerful pathway toward presence, choice, and integration.
If you’d like to learn more about the Wheel of Awareness, free guided Wheel meditations are available at www.drdansiegel.com.
