the aware system

the aware system

biological observation

about

the aware system is a daily record of your nervous system.

who it is for

you have sat with a professional and done the work. it helped. then the hour ended.

that is not a failure of the hour. conditioning runs across months and a session is sixty minutes long. there is no version of an hour that covers the months.

this is the instrument for the months. it is not a replacement for the hour with a person.

what biological observation means here

it means objective self-observation. you observe your own biology, with the least interpretation that can be managed between the thing happening and the record of it.

the lanes are self-report. the system does not measure your physiology and it has not been validated against anything that does. what it holds is what you said, when you said it. the comparison it makes is between your own logs and your own earlier logs, and nothing else.

what it does not do

it does not score you. it does not diagnose anything. everything it shows you came out of something you logged, so if you did not put it in, it cannot come out.

how it is produced matters too. counts, comparisons and anything that comes out as a number are computed from your log by fixed rules. the written readings in review, the replies in reflect and the suggested sequences in examine are put into words by a language model, working only from your record. the app asks before any of it is sent, you can switch it off in preferences, and like any model it can be wrong. it is something to think against.

what it is built on

the structure of the tool follows documented mechanisms in stress biology. behaviour is a response tied to a context where it was learned, so the system compares days under the same conditions. whether a recalled memory can be updated, and under what conditions, is an emerging and contested area, and it is not treated here as settled. the wider view of stress and behaviour is influenced by Sapolsky's two books. the lane structure, the logging rules and the cross-lane comparisons are the system's own design, not findings from these studies.

sources

influences2
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    Sapolsky RM. Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst. The Bodley Head, 2017.

  2. 2

    Sapolsky RM. Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, 3rd ed. Henry Holt and Company, 2004.

observe16

breath

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    Balban MY, Neri E, Kogon MM, Weed L, Nouriani B, Jo B, et al. Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine, 4(1):100895, 2023. emerging doi

body

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    Craig AD. How do you feel? Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3(8):655–666, 2002. doi

mind

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    Nolen-Hoeksema S, Wisco BE, Lyubomirsky S. Rethinking rumination. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(5):400–424, 2008. doi

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    Watkins ER. Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. Psychological Bulletin, 134(2):163–206, 2008. doi

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    Brosschot JF, Gerin W, Thayer JF. The perseverative cognition hypothesis: a review of worry, prolonged stress-related physiological activation, and health. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 60(2):113–124, 2006. emerging doi

command

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    Haggard P. Human volition: towards a neuroscience of will. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(12):934–946, 2008. doi

regulate

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    Gross JJ. Emotion regulation: current status and future prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26(1):1–26, 2015. doi

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    Aldao A, Nolen-Hoeksema S, Schweizer S. Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: a meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(2):217–237, 2010. doi

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    Weiss JM. Effects of coping behavior in different warning signal conditions on stress pathology in rats. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 77(1):1–13, 1971. doi

logging

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    Shiffman S, Stone AA, Hufford MR. Ecological momentary assessment. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 4:1–32, 2008. doi

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    Kahneman D, Krueger AB, Schkade DA, Schwarz N, Stone AA. A survey method for characterizing daily life experience: the day reconstruction method. Science, 306(5702):1776–1780, 2004. doi

review4
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    Wilson TD, Dunn EW. Self-knowledge: its limits, value, and potential for improvement. Annual Review of Psychology, 55:493–518, 2004. doi

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    Harkin B, Webb TL, Chang BPI, Prestwich A, Conner M, Kellar I, et al. Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 142(2):198–229, 2016. doi

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    Garfinkel SN, Seth AK, Barrett AB, Suzuki K, Critchley HD. Knowing your own heart: distinguishing interoceptive accuracy from interoceptive awareness. Biological Psychology, 104:65–74, 2015. doi

reflect5
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    Lieberman MD, Eisenberger NI, Crockett MJ, Tom SM, Pfeifer JH, Way BM. Putting feelings into words: affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli. Psychological Science, 18(5):421–428, 2007. doi

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    Torre JB, Lieberman MD. Putting feelings into words: affect labeling as implicit emotion regulation. Emotion Review, 10(2):116–124, 2018. doi

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    Kross E, Ayduk O. Self-distancing: theory, research, and current directions. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 55:81–136, 2017. doi

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    Pennebaker JW. Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process. Psychological Science, 8(3):162–166, 1997. doi

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    Frattaroli J. Experimental disclosure and its moderators: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(6):823–865, 2006. doi

examine18

identify

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    Dickerson SS, Kemeny ME. Acute stressors and cortisol responses: a theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research. Psychological Bulletin, 130(3):355–391, 2004. doi

question

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    LeDoux JE. Emotion circuits in the brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 23:155–184, 2000. doi

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    Maier SF, Seligman MEP. Learned helplessness at fifty: insights from neuroscience. Psychological Review, 123(4):349–367, 2016. doi

feel

  1. 9

    Craig AD. How do you feel? Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3(8):655–666, 2002. doi

  2. 22

    Garfinkel SN, Seth AK, Barrett AB, Suzuki K, Critchley HD. Knowing your own heart: distinguishing interoceptive accuracy from interoceptive awareness. Biological Psychology, 104:65–74, 2015. doi

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    Khalsa SS, Adolphs R, Cameron OG, Critchley HD, Davenport PW, Feinstein JS, et al. Interoception and mental health: a roadmap. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 3(6):501–513, 2018. doi

trace

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    Felitti VJ, Anda RF, Nordenberg D, Williamson DF, Spitz AM, Edwards V, et al. Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4):245–258, 1998. doi

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    Weaver ICG, Cervoni N, Champagne FA, D'Alessio AC, Sharma S, Seckl JR, et al. Epigenetic programming by maternal behavior. Nature Neuroscience, 7(8):847–854, 2004. doi

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    Dias BG, Ressler KJ. Parental olfactory experience influences behavior and neural structure in subsequent generations. Nature Neuroscience, 17(1):89–96, 2014. contested doi

recondition

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    Bouton ME. Context and behavioral processes in extinction. Learning & Memory, 11(5):485–494, 2004. doi

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    Nader K, Schafe GE, LeDoux JE. Fear memories require protein synthesis in the amygdala for reconsolidation after retrieval. Nature, 406(6797):722–726, 2000. doi

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    Schiller D, Monfils MH, Raio CM, Johnson DC, LeDoux JE, Phelps EA. Preventing the return of fear in humans using reconsolidation update mechanisms. Nature, 463(7277):49–53, 2010. contested doi

  4. 39

    Liston C, McEwen BS, Casey BJ. Psychosocial stress reversibly disrupts prefrontal processing and attentional control. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(3):912–917, 2009. emerging doi

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    Lally P, van Jaarsveld CHM, Potts HWW, Wardle J. How are habits formed: modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6):998–1009, 2010. emerging doi

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    Wood W, Rünger D. Psychology of habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67:289–314, 2016. doi

  7. 42

    Gollwitzer PM. Implementation intentions: strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54(7):493–503, 1999. doi

learn9
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    Selye H. A syndrome produced by diverse nocuous agents. Nature, 138(3479):32, 1936. doi

  2. 44

    Sapolsky RM, Romero LM, Munck AU. How do glucocorticoids influence stress responses? Integrating permissive, suppressive, stimulatory, and preparative actions. Endocrine Reviews, 21(1):55–89, 2000. doi

  3. 45

    Jänig W. The Integrative Action of the Autonomic Nervous System. Cambridge University Press, 2006. doi

  4. 46

    Thayer JF, Lane RD. A model of neurovisceral integration in emotion regulation and dysregulation. Journal of Affective Disorders, 61(3):201–216, 2000. doi

  5. 47

    Khalsa SS, Adolphs R, Cameron OG, Critchley HD, Davenport PW, Feinstein JS, et al. Interoception and mental health: a roadmap. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 3(6):501–513, 2018. doi

  6. 48

    Boyle NB, Lawton C, Dye L. The effects of magnesium supplementation on subjective anxiety and stress: a systematic review. Nutrients, 9(5):429, 2017. emerging doi

  7. 49

    Kuhfuß M, Maldei T, Hetmanek A, Baumann N. Somatic experiencing: effectiveness and key factors of a body-oriented trauma therapy: a scoping literature review. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 12(1):1929023, 2021. emerging doi

  8. 50

    Porges SW. The polyvagal perspective. Biological Psychology, 74(2):116–143, 2007. contested doi

  9. 51

    Grossman P. Fundamental challenges and likely refutations of the five basic premises of the polyvagal theory. Biological Psychology, 180:108589, 2023. contested doi

citation of a source does not imply endorsement by, or affiliation with, its authors or publishers.

the aware system is not a medical device and does not diagnose, treat or replace professional care.

who operates it

the aware system is operated by aware movement (pty) ltd, registration 2025/500633/07, a private company registered in the republic of south africa. correspondence, including any request about your personal information, goes to hello@theawaresystem.com.

where it came from

i built this because i needed it.

i read everything i could find about human behaviour and eventually turned it on myself.

what i wanted was to see the pattern while it was happening, or before it happened, rather than afterwards.

on 31 may 2025 i began observing myself every day, and i have not stopped. the aware system is the fourth version of that record, designed properly.

the aware system is not therapy, diagnosis or treatment.

email me directly at tan@theawaresystem.com. i will reply within two working days.

tannah