There is no single definition of consciousness but it can be summed up as our experiences while undergoing through sensations, perceptions, emotions, feelings, and thoughts. These experiences shape our mental subjectivity, i.e., our own consciousness. Neuroscience aims to find the connection between biological and physical processes and conscious experiences.
The neuronal correlates of consciousness consist of the research of what occurs in our brain during a conscious experience. An accepted distinction is that consciousness is divided into world consciousness (environment, surroundings) and self-consciousness. Another classification refers to the level of consciousness, i.e., how conscious we are and our conscious content in terms of something.
Chalmers (1995) proposes that studying consciousness through neuroscience, there are two problems: the easy problem and the hard problem. In the easy problem, we can consider, among others, the following aspects: finding the neuronal correlates of consciousness in relation to sensory discrimination; information integration; the focus of attention; behavior control and the difference between wakefulness and sleep.
On the issues of the hard problem, there is why consciousness is felt in some way, i.e., the subjective aspect of our sensory experience, and how a physical process leads to subjective experiences.
In brain functioning, certain aspects of the subjective experience do not arise from physical evidence. According to Nagel (1974), the physical evidence is objective and consciousness is subjective so it cannot be explained by physical evidence.
We are conscious when we verbalize what we are experiencing. Skiing consciousness is evaluated when, for example, we express how our sensorial experience was at descending the slope, i.e., through questions we introspectively analyze our performance. This analysis is a conscious form of internally viewing the scene of our descent and reflecting on it. This reflexive skiing consciousness is not only expressing what we have sensed; it is also questioning the sensory experience, since perceiving a sensation is the beginning of consciousness.
Consciousness and attention have such a direct relationship that for some authors they mean the same. When we pay attention to something, we automatically are conscious of its properties and conditions. Looking at a skiing scene, we are conscious of giving visual attention to the foreground but we can also be conscious of some aspects of the background although we are not focusing it with our gaze.
Skiing consciousness could also be defined as the knowledge we have of our own skiing actions. We are involved in actions control through constant information perceived from the environment and the information provided by our memory. It is the understanding of ourselves as well as the discernment of our movements and actions, all together with the interpretation of our skiing reality.
Skiing consciousness is the active process of becoming aware of our sensorial and perceptual experiences in the interaction with the environment, which includes attention, memory, and thoughts. Although we have skiing consciousness as a whole, we can guide it to a specific part of our body or towards a particular movement or action. In certain situations, like in learning, we need the facts to occur slowly, facilitating the assimilation of our conscious process. Consciousness is lost when we stop responding sensorial and mentally, and when this happens, our skiing control is usually lost.
Seth et al. (2008) maintain the theory that any mental state could be defined as conscious if we can express its content in behavior or, in other words, we are conscious when we can discriminate an environmental feature through a chosen behavior. Without skiing consciousness, we resign skiing without understanding what actually happens and why it happens, that is, we do not know how to interpret our sensations. Skiing without consciousness of what is happening is freeing harmful reactions that favor the acquisition of structural errors difficult to modify.
There is not a unique state of consciousness since we experience various mental functioning according to how we adapt to each context. We are conscious of what is going on when skiing, like terrain characteristics or other skiers/snowboarders, but we may not be conscious about our thinking. Conscious conditions may deliberately change due to one sensation that leads to reflect on what we had sensed and the desire to reproduce it in future actions. This consciousness related to our performances personalizes our skiing.
While our experiences contribute, the simple accumulation of these does not make us to be conscious but the participation of our Self that acts and senses, interpreting movements and actions in motion.
The tendency to increase consciousness facing a minimum complication is normal. Our consciousness increases confronting a difficulty, instead, if there is not any, consciousness level may tend to decrease.
Attention and introspection are fundamental components of skiing consciousness to optimize our alert state, which is essential to increase skiing efficiency, limiting wrong decisions that lead us to potential risks. Skiing consciousness acts as an internal and external information processor. If we do not use it properly, then we will perform our skiing actions by reacting instinctively.
