There are few people who exist in a perfect, blissful higher consciousness. Our challenge is to bring our life (our consciousness) back to a place of harmony with life-affirming energy and resilience. That said, it is not enough to read teachings about higher consciousness, thinking you understand and hope your life will magically transform. Whatever you learn must be applied in your life. But where do you start? This article explores 5 practical tips to help you develop greater self-awareness, so you can transform your life.
1. Be The Change
How do we truly change what seems to make us unhappy? Do you try to control your world instead of your mind? Change begins with a process of thoughts, words, and actions. If we change our thoughts, words, and actions, our reality changes. This is the only way to create change for individuals and for the world.
If you don’t change your mind, you cannot change your world. Your world is in your mind. It’s like a projector that sends out messages that, in turn, shapes your experiences. The outward world might be in turmoil but if you also live in chaos and confusion, you won’t be able to take part and move through challenges. The journey of life is inward, not outward. When you know your own mind, you have the courage to step up to anything you meet.
It is up to you to be the change in your own life. It is important to know how to be open to receiving help and love – that is essential. Yet, ultimately you are the one who decides the way your mind is going to process all that affects it, and all that we want to transform. Like the foundation of a building, you need to build a solid foundation for yourself. There are five values – love, truth, peace, non-violence, and right conduct. The mortar that holds them together is gratitude and knowing what is important.
2. Choose Your Attitude
You only have to look around you to see that we are being greeted by the collective gathering of past and future karma every day of our lives, and every day is an opportunity to confront and change it.
You can choose your attitude. You can choose to be empowered or you can choose to be a victim. There is nothing we can do to change the past, and the future is unknown. How things affect us is directly related to how we react. The power of our minds is amazing. When we have been living a certain way, with resentments or other feelings we have come to treat as immovable truths, we cannot be present, or able to move on to better things.
Consciously choosing an attitude such as gratitude, grounds you in love and understanding for yourself. When you approach life with a conscious attitude, you are strong and able to be helpful to others, even if your life presents challenges.
If we wait for something to change or to come into our lives, or to be relieved of a problem or situation, true transformation cannot happen. Stop waiting. Share what you have now.
3. Challenge Negative Self-Talk
How much of your time is spent looking for the negative? Are you always complaining, comparing, or expressing what you perceive as injustices that have happened?
When your mind travels to the negative, ask yourself if you are spending just as much mental energy on the positive. It all starts with trying to change the ratio, and little by little, you will see the harsh voice diminish. It’s unrealistic to think it will go away entirely, but practice means that you will become better at shifting a negative feeling – once you have acknowledged it – turn towards a positive one. You are delaying your happiness if you can’t learn to let go of the past.
4. Choose Your Satsang
Satsang means the company you keep. “Show me the company you are keeping and I’ll show you what you are going to become.” If you hang out in a den of thieves, you are going to become a thief. If you socialize with a group of people who drink heavily, you are going to drink heavily. If you spend a lot of time around people who are always moaning and groaning about society, guess who will be miserable and complaining right along with them?
If you want to be happy, seek out happy people and imitate them. The same is true for whatever you wish to change for yourself. We tend to naturally gravitate to others with similar feelings and situations, but shifting something takes an atmosphere that is conducive to that transformation.
You might think, “but I’m not like those happy people,” but you have a lot to learn from them! Acting “as if” until you have the attributes that you want isn’t dishonest or counterproductive. It teaches and conditions you to know how to shift your perspective and self-image. Choose your company wisely.
5. Belief With Certainty
Belief that has certainty will result in success; belief with less certainty results in possible success; and belief that you are not good enough will result in failure. What you believe is what you get.
If you believe you’re not good enough, there isn’t anyone or anything that will change that for you. Shift your beliefs about yourself and you’ll change your results. You are the master of manifestation. Your belief is driving everything. See it with certainty.
That doesn’t mean that we will get exactly what we want, but we will receive what we are meant to. It also doesn’t mean that you close down to only one possibility or result. Certainty keeps self-doubt and defeatism from diminishing you before you’ve tried your best and lived as fully as you can.
#LLLD
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