1. Truth - Truth raises your consciousness.
Falsehood lowers it.
First, accept the truth. Whatever you're afraid to know lowers your consciousness.
Secondly, speak the truth. If honesty is a challenge for you, it’s because you
aren’t being honest enough with yourself. Lies you tell others are shadowed by
lies you tell yourself.
As your consciousness
increases, genuine honesty will come more easily to you.
Yes, there may be consequences when you switch from lies and half-truths to the
full truth. Not everyone will appreciate the real you, especially if they’ve
grown accustomed to a false version, but that won’t matter once you accept and
appreciate yourself.
A short-term adjustment is nothing compared to the joys of living honestly and
openly. It’s so much easier and less stressful to be yourself and allow others
to do the same.
2. Courage - Courage raises your
consciousness.
Cowardice lowers it.
Courage is the gatekeeper between unconscious growth and conscious growth. As
long as you remain on the unconscious side, life will keep throwing problems at
you until you step up and take charge. When you face your fear, the fear
vanishes, and problems transform into opportunities. But when you run from your
problems, your fear only grows.
A powerful guiding principle to adopt is "whatever I fear, I must face." The more fears you face down, the more conscious you become. As you master this lesson, eventually courage becomes less necessary.
Once you develop the courage to face any fear life throws at you, you stop
attracting so many fear-based experiences into your life. This is why courage
is the dividing line between unconscious growth and conscious growth.
The mastery of courage gives you the power to decide how you’ll grow instead of
being a victim of the whims of fate.
3. Compassion - Compassion raises
your consciousness.
Cruelty lowers it.
A great way to become more conscious is to search for signs of unconscious
cruelty and disconnection in your life. This can be very difficult to do since
it also requires courage. We naturally resist facing our own cruelty, but it’s
there just waiting to be uncovered.
Compassion is the root of unconditional love, a feeling of connectedness with
everything that exists. Do you feel connected to yourself? To others? To
animals? To all living things? To everything that exists? The more you develop
this connection, the more conscious and aware you become.
4. Desire - Desire raises your
consciousness.
Apathy lowers it.
When you get clear about what you want, such as by setting a goal, you raise
your consciousness. Clarity focuses your mind and gives you the power to think
and act intelligently.
On the other hand, when
your desire is unclear, your consciousness is muddled. Your thoughts lack focus
and direction, and you merely spin your wheels.
Strive to become more clear about what you truly desire most, and your
consciousness will expand.
5. Attention - Attention raises
your consciousness.
Distraction lowers it.
Improving your ability to
concentrate will make you more conscious. Pick up a rock and give it your full
and complete attention, and notice what happens. But allow your mind to be
riddled with distractions, and your consciousness will sink. A distracted mind
is a powerless mind.
Meditation is a great way to practice attention and concentration. Sit quietly,
breathe deeply, and focus your mind as you do your best to tune out distracting
thoughts.
6. Knowledge - Knowledge raises
your consciousness.
Ignorance lowers it.
First and foremost, know thyself. Think deeply about your life, and keep a
journal to record your thoughts. Ask questions to which you don’t know the
answer, and then search for those answers.
Look around you as well, and soak up knowledge like a sponge. Interact with
your environment with a sense of curiosity and wonder. Study it. Learn from it.
Experiment with it.
Strive to understand reality, including your role in it, as accurately as
possible. The more accurate your beliefs about reality are, the more conscious
you become.
7. Reason - Reason raises your
consciousness.
Irrationality lowers it.
Logic is a powerful tool of
consciousness when used correctly. It lends structure and substance to thought.
However, the great challenge of logic is the avoidance of false assumptions. A
single false assumption can throw off a lifetime of otherwise logical
conclusions. So challenge all of your beliefs, and never have too much
certainty about those that rest on clouds.
8. Conscious people - Conscious
people raise your consciousness.
Unconscious
people lower it.
Seek out others you perceive to be at a higher level of consciousness than you
are. Talk to them, ask questions, and enjoy their presence. Allow their ideas
and awareness to infect you, and you’ll find yourself expanding in all
directions. You’ll become more honest, more courageous, more compassionate, and
so on.
But spend time with people at a lower level of consciousness, and you’ll
gradually sink to their level. Their thoughts will infect you as well, causing
you to become more dishonest, more fearful, more apathetic, etc.
Strive to find a balance between spending time with those who raise your
consciousness vs. spending time with those you can help. Learn from those who
are a little more conscious, and help those who are a little less conscious
than you. In this manner you serve the highest good of all, expanding
consciousness everywhere.
9. Energy - Energy raises your
consciousness.
Disease lowers it.
Take care of your physical
body, for it is your primary means of interacting with the world. Energy gives
you an ongoing flow of vital life experiences. But without energy you starve
your consciousness.
Eat with an awareness of what you’re consuming. Exercise with an awareness of
how you’re affecting your body and mind.
Before putting anything in
your body, consider its effect on your energy, not just in the short term but
in the long term as well. Always ask yourself, “Will this produce energy or
disease?”
10. Intention - The intention to
raise your consciousness raises it.
The intention to lower
your consciousness lowers it.
Consciousness has the capacity to self-expand or self-contract, just as you have
the capacity to grow or to commit suicide. In any given moment, you have the
freedom of choice.
By genuinely voicing the intention “I intend to become more conscious and
aware,” you will initiate the expansion of your consciousness.
Alternatively, you are perfectly free to lower your consciousness at any time.
While it’s unlikely you would choose to do so directly, you can achieve the
same effect indirectly by lowering your performance in any of the previous nine
areas. By choosing to lie, to succumb to fear, to commit acts of cruelty, to
remain ignorant, and so on, you put out the intention to lower your
consciousness. And in so doing, you initiate a process that will attract more
falsehood, fear, cruelty, ignorance, etc. into your life.
great post
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