1. Truth
Truth raises your consciousness.
Falsehood lowers it.
First, accept the truth. Whatever
you’re afraid to know lowers your consciousness. Step on the
scale to see how much you weigh. Have a long talk with your
spouse about the status of your relationship.
Take a deep look at your career. In
every case accept the outcome. Don’t just acknowledge the
current status and dismiss it. Really accept it as the truth.
Think about what it means for this to be true. Also accept your
feelings about the truth, whether you like them or not.
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.
Take note of those areas where you
feel incapable of genuine honesty, and dig deep enough to find
out why. You’ll find that you uncover a part of yourself you’ve
been unwilling to accept. You don’t lie about the parts of
yourself that you accept 100%.
The more you’re able to accept and
speak the truth, the more conscious you become. Raise your
consciousness by uncovering and dumping all traces of falsehood
from your life. Allow this to be a gradual process. 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, but
highly conscious people know that crossing that bridge is well
worth the effect. 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.
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.
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. You can feel this effect whenever you think
about something you definitely want.
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, 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.
This is simple to learn, but it can
take a lifetime to master.
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 answers, 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
(or by offering the prayer),
“I intend to become more conscious
and aware,” you will initiate the expansion of your
consciousness.
Holding the intention to improve in any of the
previous nine areas will yield a similar effect.
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.
