5 Ways to Be More Conscious

The following are suggestions for thoughts and actions that can help shift your consciousness and see life through the lens of higher consciousness.

Switch Your Perspective

When something in your life changes (it can be slight or big), sit with your first reaction but then switch to another perspective. Ask yourself if there’s another way to see this change? Look into what it is in your subconscious that may be influencing your feelings. Don’t worry if you cannot sustain perspective and neutrality at all times; it is a process and a practice to shift consciousness. It is also not an avoidance of issues or actions you need to take. Rather it’s a way to gain a calm, higher consciousness that will help you face any situation.

Let Your Feelings Go

Practice staying in the moment, and don’t get stuck in any particular mindset. Keep bringing the mind back to neutrality and the concept of impermanence. Grasping burdens our consciousness. Greet events, take them in and feel your feelings. Then, let those feelings go. Depending on what they are, you may or may not revisit the emotions, but you will have practiced consciously shifting your perspective. Try this with small reactions (anger when another driver cuts you off, frustration when your partner leaves food out, a canceled client that complicates your schedule, etc.), then apply the muscle of letting go with realizing the unimportance of the matter in the larger scheme of things. .

Find Joy in the Inevitability of Change

Shift negative to positive: Everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen to you, comes as it is meant to. Try to see opportunity in every event and situation. It’s arrived not to hurt you, but to wake you up. It could be a catalyst for change, for reflection, for letting go. When it feels as though your boat is burning, look at it as a message that it is time to learn how to swim. Once you are on that journey – whether you think you made a choice for it or not – realize it will take you somewhere else and that there’s joy in the inevitability of change. Loss can be painful but a new space has opened. You can make a conscious decision to see life from this perspective.

Make Conscious, Positive Choices

Think about making conscious choices in your life that will be positive. You know that exercise, eating healthy, and connecting with nature will feel good, though the motivation to do so could feel like an avoidable task. Make a point of rewarding yourself by consciously remembering the end result. Focus on the company you keep. Are you spending time with people who are positive and reinforce your growth and self-worth? Do you allow negativity into your life because it feels familiar? If you keep it up, you are not using the powers of your consciousness to make a choice. If someone is being unloving, and you keep listening to them again and again, you are gaining negative karma. Look into the subconscious reasons you persist with this pattern and switch your consciousness to self-care by saying, “If you don’t have anything loving to say, I have to remove from myself from this friendship/relationship.” Though we can tap into all kinds of external help in life, ultimately you must look out for yourself. Your consciousness is your partner in the journey.

Create a Gratitude Practice

Implement a gratitude practice into your life. Gratitude teaches us to live with consciousness and purpose. Make a list, express gratitude to loved ones, keep perspective of your challenges in relation to what others in the world are facing, and be of service to others whenever possible. When you are grateful for your life, you have a greater understanding of it and you’re able to look at its complexities in a more neutral light.

New Meditations

Derek O’Neill has released 5 new powerful meditations. They offer a wonderful vibrational sound bath and sacred chants to move energy into the matrix of the nervous system and chakras, to expand, clear, and energize your entire being.

Photo by Ashley Batz on Unsplash