Being conscious is paying attention and becoming aware of current features like ‘here’ as space and ‘now’ as time. As we learn new things with old things, to be able to combine the unusual with what we already know, it is essential to ski with the here-and-now consciousness.
Being conscious is being vigilant paying attention to take advantage of every skiing moment and experiencing each instant in each descent. We become conscious only if we can experiment by being active, but being active does not mean only to move; it means to be conscious of the action.
Being conscious is to notice what is going on at any given time and includes ideas, sensations, and perceptions that we differentiate. It is to know how to detect the moment that things occur recognizing the internal and external stimuli. A stimulus is an impulse, any physical agent that triggers a functional reaction of our organism.
We do not only observe what is happening in our skiing; we are also conscious of what we would like to happen to us and the decisions we make. To consider being fully conscious of our skiing, it should intervene the following premises: we should be conscious of our bodily sensations, of what is happening in our surroundings, and of creating mental images before, during and after our actions to memorize our movements.
Being Aware and Being Conscious
Being aware and being conscious have different meanings which are normally misinterpreted. Being aware is to have knowledge of something and being conscious is the meaning of that knowledge.
Consciousness is the state or disposition of being aware. We can be aware without being conscious but we cannot be conscious without being aware first. Being aware is a pre-requisite of being conscious and does not require the full knowledge of things while being conscious requires the depth of being aware of something in particular.
To become conscious, we must get a full understanding of something. When we become aware of something, we perceive a global image of the situation, but when we are conscious of our skiing, it means we understand what is occurring in every single detail.
Being conscious is being connected with the skiing situation and, on the contrary, disconnecting is to lose consciousness. A state of sub-consciousness is when we do not have the appropriate sensorial guidelines and our cognition is partially active.
Being aware and being conscious play fundamental roles in skiing. We are aware about our skiing but we may not be conscious of our sensations and perceptions while doing it. We are aware of the snow, the trees, the slopes or the environment but we are conscious that it is our last day at the ski resort.
Being aware is related to something physical. For example, we are aware that we are skiing at a fast speed and then we become conscious we may fall and get hurt. We collide with someone and we become aware of that physical situation but then we take consciousness of what we could have done. We are aware of skiing off-piste but are not conscious of the potential hazards. We are aware of danger and we are conscious of finding a solution, a way out or avoidance. We are aware that skiing too much leads to fatigue but we are not conscious that fatigue induces greater possibility of falling and injuring ourselves. Very often we are aware of what we do affects our skiing and are aware of our reality by our sensations and perceptions recognizing what it is but do not know how to relate it to our skiing.
Being conscious goes beyond tangible experiences and has a deeper meaning. We cannot be conscious of something if before we are not aware of it. We become conscious when we begin questioning and reasoning our own realities. Questioning our skiing and discerning what is right and what is wrong, what is useful and what is not allows conscious decisions. We take good decisions by being aware but make better decisions if we are fully conscious of the situation. To improve our performance, before asking ourselves what we have sensed, we should have paid attention to what we were doing. It is of no use questioning our sensations when we did not pay attention because were altered by someone that crossed in front or because our attention was oriented to resolve an imbalance situation or avoiding a fall.
After achieving consciousness, we reach the next cognitive level which is questioning. In this stage, we wonder what we do when skiing and why we do it for. The answers to these questions will, eventually, take us to the next level which is reaching a change. So, after experiencing the various cognitive stages of paying attention, being aware, being conscious and questioning, we may accomplish an evolution in our skiing.
On-Slope Examples of Being Skiing Conscious
| Concept Name | Academic Core | “On-Slope” Example |
| Here-and-Now Consciousness | The active alignment of neurological attention to current spatial boundaries (“here”) and immediate time constraints (“now”) to blend novel sensory environments with existing motor habits. | • Shifting from daydreaming on a long cat-track to instantly tracking a rapidly approaching patch of slick, wet spring snow right under the tips. |
| Active Action Consciousness | A state of sensory vigilance where physical movement is entirely paired with conscious real-time perception rather than mindless, automated motor execution. | • Navigating a busy trail intersection while being fully aware of how your outside leg muscle group contracts to carve, instead of just drifting passively through the crowd. |
| Functional Organism Reaction Trigger | The immediate biochemical or physical change launched by the nervous system when exposed to a specific internal or external stimulus. | • An unexpected sheet of bulletproof ice triggers an immediate, involuntary shot of adrenaline that instantly causes your heart rate to skyrocket. |
| Sensory Memorization Mental Imaging | The practice of generating high-fidelity mental pictures of a movement sequence before, during, and after an action to physically encode it into memory networks. | • Sitting on the chairlift vividly visualizing the exact line and turn transitions you will use on the upcoming steep run. |
| Awareness vs. Consciousness Distinction | The cognitive boundary separating the passive, global knowledge of a situation (Awareness) from the deep, operational understanding of its exact mechanics (Consciousness). | • Being aware that you are skiing down an advanced black diamond run, versus being conscious of the exact angle your ankles are tilting inside your boots. |
| Sub-Consciousness Disconnection | A cognitive state where active sensory tracking drops off and processing is partially inactive, leaving the motor cortex running on unguided, inefficient instincts. | • Experiencing deep physical fatigue late in the afternoon, causing you to slide blindly into a field of moguls without tracking a clean line or checking your stance. |
| Fatigue-Injury Blind Spot | Being aware of a physical symptom (tiredness) while completely failing to consciously realize that it severely slows neural reaction speeds, increasing crash risks. | • A skier acknowledges their legs are burning on the final run of the day, but ignores it to chase one last high-speed line, leading to a nasty tumble. |
| Cognitive Questioning Evolution | The advanced cognitive stage where a skier actively analyzes what they are doing and challenges why they are doing it to break bad habits and force change. | • Stopping at the side of a trail to explicitly question why your body automatically leans backward toward the mountain whenever the slope steepens. |
According to these considerations, you can apply the following recommendations in your own skiing:
- First, be aware of what is happening around you, then be conscious of your own actions.
- Take advantage of each descent to experience sensory stimulus.
- Before descending, create a sensory mental image of the sensations you are looking for.
- To enhance your sensory skills, ski with the here and now consciousness.
