Your awareness is not your mind. I see my awareness as being grounded to the energetic field that arises from my heart. My mind arises from the functioning of the cortical/thalamic complex...where all the images, and sounds and things we feel, are created from the primary sensory stimulus arising from within and outside our body.

From the moment we sit in meditation our mind, at one level or another, is intent on getting us to move. It is not natural for the body to sit like this without moving or sleeping. Our mind resists this intensely.

Regardless of whatever distractions arise, within and outside, simply remain in the meditative posture. Do not move. Maintain this, despite increasing internal resistance, and the brain will naturally enter brain states that are not normally experienced. The longer you can do this the more 'profound' these states of being will become.