What Are You Spending Your Awareness On?
The goal of raising your awareness (consciousness) is to reestablish contact with the higher portions of yourself, and ultimately remember who you truly are – not who you’ve been told you “need” to be. It’s about remembering and reclaiming what’s locked away within ourselves, by first remembering that we both hold – and are – the key to that very treasure itself.
What’s Awareness?
When we talk about consciousness, what we’re really talking about is awareness. What is awareness? Exactly what it sounds like. You’re directing your present attention to something. The question is…what are you paying attention to?
On their own, 90%-95% of your decisions are Subconscious, meaning you’re currently unaware of them. They run on auto-pilot, and essentially control your behavior from behind the scenes. To increase your current level of awareness is to bring more of that Subconscious darkness into the light, and reclaim more of your true personal power.
You’ve always had this power, however; you’ve just been unaware of it! What do you currently spend your awareness on? Are you spending your awareness on low-level rewards, like TV and internet browsing? Or are you using your awareness to go after your goals and dreams with gusto? Do you spend your awareness focusing on negative thoughts and assumptions, or do you focus on the good things? Do you raise or lower your awareness?
As you will see, raising your awareness has many amazing, life-changing benefits!
Transcend Anxiety, Worry, Doubt, and Confusion Through Raised Conscious Awareness!
This is also the first true step to understanding your emotional states in an unbiased, observational manner.
This is precisely how you “break the grip” of negative emotional reactivity; you shine the light of awareness on it!
It’s precisely what I mean when I talk about lucid living.
In lucid dreaming, you gradually realize that:
1. You’re dreaming.
2. You can control yourself in that dream, and do amazing things.
Waking consciousness works the same way, only things happen much more gradually and slowly on this level of reality.
Raising your awareness first involves becoming aware that you are in fact aware.
You become conscious of the fact that you’re conscious. From this new center of balance, you can more intelligently make choices, because you’re more in tune with reality.
This is the true “secret” to managing your emotional states, as well as your instantly-negative thoughts, responses, and reactions to current life circumstances.
Raising your awareness of your power of choice (when it comes to emotional states) is exactly how you break out of that negative, self-limiting feedback loop.
This is precisely how you begin moving in the direction that allows you to reclaim yourself from the grip of anxiety.
HOW to Raise Your Awareness Via Meditation in 5 Easy Steps!
I will come flat out and say it: the number one reason I practice meditation is because it raises my awareness, and thus I’m able to shift myself in and out of any emotional state at any given moment.
This is the #1 thing I teach ALL my clients.
I think this is a bigger deal than most will readily admit; can you appreciate the power of being able to switch out of a negative thought-rut on the fly – in a completely valid way that doesn’t gloss over the facts – but rather gives you the rest of the facts you’ve been missing, and thus experiencing anxiety over…?
So, I do it for the objective benefit of increased awareness (consciousness), clarity of thought and emotion, and the feelings of peace those things naturally provide.
For me, that’s why raising your awareness really is the most important things you can do.
There’s a very simple meditation you can begin doing today, which directly raises your current level of conscious awareness. I call it my “Ten Breath” meditation (I wrote an entire eBook on it last summer: check out The Practice of Presence), because I’ve gotten so good with it, I can re-center myself “within ten breaths” now.
It goes as follow:
1. Set & Setting: Sit in a comfortable position on the floor, in a chair, on your bed, etc. The goal of this meditation is to free yourself to focus on your internal world; not whether or not your back is sitting correctly, or your shoulders are sore from sitting wrong. I typically sit in a traditional Zazen style, legs cross, hands on knees, eyes closed.
2. Set Your Breathing Rhythm: Take your first big, deep breath inward, and fill your lungs as full as you’re capable of doing. Hold the peak of your inward breath for about two full seconds, then exhale in a similar slow, full manner. Do this for a moment or two until you start getting a rhythm going with your breath. The purpose of this is to establish higher awareness that you are indeed breathing, alive, here, and present. Focus on your breathing, then begin directing your focus to the rest of your body.
How does your face and hair feel in the cool room? What about your feet? Don’t move them; just send your attention (awareness/consciousness) there as you sit.
3. Observe Your Thinking: Once you feel that you’re doing a decent enough job of being aware of your breathing and other bodily sensations, return your focus to your thoughts. DO NOT RESIST any naturally-occurring thoughts here; simply “accept them”, and let them pass by the screen of your consciousness.
All thoughts are choices, and you know this once your mind quiets a bit.
This is incredibly self-empowering, and this is the true seat of your personal power and ability to manifest your dreams into reality.
4. Observe Your Feeling: Now, pay attention to the fact that you’re indeed choosing how to perceive (think and feel) about the thoughts that pass by. They have no meaning until you decide they do. Not only do you decide that “this thing is important”, you also decide upon a definition (driven by a belief) as to “WHY” (the reasoning behind your decision, which is influenced by your belief) this thing is important. “I don’t have a nice car, so I have to feel lousy because society only appreciates status”.
If you simply run with conditioned beliefs like the example above, you’re quite literally flowing your energy through beliefs and definitions which are out of alignment with who you truly are. This is why you experience anxiety! They (conditioned beliefs) feel important because you’ve been taught to make them important; this is the entire purpose of conditioning.
You haven’t been taught that you’re deciding to do this each and every second, however. This is the entire purpose of raising your awareness!
You’re never not choosing a response to life as it occurs around you – you’re just not always aware of this fact! Can you see how important awareness is?!
As we saw above, about 90% of your decisions are unconscious. This is analogous to writing blank checks and paying interest on loans which don’t even exist yet. This is why you have anxiety, and experience a constant barrage of negative thoughts and emotions.
When you realize you can simply choose positive thoughts for no reason other than you have the power to do so – you also catalyze positive emotional states as a consequence. This implies that you can intentionally think about the state you’d like to occupy, and create the emotional response for absolutely no reason. This means you can create and achieve any emotional state on the fly – with practice, of course!
5. Choosing Happiness & Excitement: When you allow yourself the freedom to begin thinking with and identifying with the things that genuinely excite you – you access your true happiness. You can create this feeling of happiness instantly (for no reason other than you want to be happy) by focusing on what it is, for you, that represents THE most exciting thing you can possibly imagine.
This is the art of re-programming your Subconscious Mind with the new beliefs and definitions which are congruent with who you truly are – not who you’ve been told you need to be. You are effectively reverse-conditioning yourself for success instead of self-sabotage.
You finally reclaim the keys to yourself!
Learn How to Effectively Uproot Old Beliefs & Definitions, and Plant New Empowering, Liberating, and Fulfilling Ones!
It’s important to note that your level of awareness is going to directly depend on a variety of factors – most of which, are within the realm of your immediate control and/or influence.
The benefits of higher awareness should be obvious: increased emotional balance and power, a can-do motivated attitude which arises naturally out of a genuine, connected feeling to the universe around you, and most of all – increased clarity of thought, intention, and action.
When your awareness is raised, you will see and understand things from a higher perspective. The same circumstances and contexts you presently find yourself in will suddenly be seen in a new light. You see and understand how relative and temporary everything is, and you feel a natural drive to follow your passions and goals. This is the True You I’m speaking of!
It provides you with a much clearer perspective on your life and what’s going on, and you genuinely feel connected to the ideas and ways you can make changes for yourself. It’s like you get night-vision, in a sense. You can “see your obstacles” through the darkness that was lower awareness states. You’re donning your spiritual binoculars.
You’re freeing the sword from the stone. That sword is conscious awareness. At first, it’s tricky to wield. It’s cumbersome, heavy, and awkward to manage. Then one day, after many days and hours of practice – it finally yields to your command. From that point onward, it’s like riding a bike.
Whenever you slip back into lower awareness states, you’ll forever have an anchor/escape rope leading back as a reminder that all states are temporary, and you can and will return to higher awareness (consciousness) shortly.
The choice is yours – it always has been, and always will be – as long as you can manage to stay aware of your awareness!
About the author:
Website: http://www.jasondemakis.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jasondemakis
Email: JasonDemakis@Gmail.com
The goal of raising your awareness (consciousness) is to reestablish contact with the higher portions of yourself, and ultimately remember who you truly are – not who you’ve been told you “need” to be. It’s about remembering and reclaiming what’s locked away within ourselves, by first remembering that we both hold – and are – the key to that very treasure itself.
What’s Awareness?
When we talk about consciousness, what we’re really talking about is awareness. What is awareness? Exactly what it sounds like. You’re directing your present attention to something. The question is…what are you paying attention to?
On their own, 90%-95% of your decisions are Subconscious, meaning you’re currently unaware of them. They run on auto-pilot, and essentially control your behavior from behind the scenes. To increase your current level of awareness is to bring more of that Subconscious darkness into the light, and reclaim more of your true personal power.
You’ve always had this power, however; you’ve just been unaware of it! What do you currently spend your awareness on? Are you spending your awareness on low-level rewards, like TV and internet browsing? Or are you using your awareness to go after your goals and dreams with gusto? Do you spend your awareness focusing on negative thoughts and assumptions, or do you focus on the good things? Do you raise or lower your awareness?
As you will see, raising your awareness has many amazing, life-changing benefits!
Transcend Anxiety, Worry, Doubt, and Confusion Through Raised Conscious Awareness!
Increasing or raising your awareness simply means to turn your focus inward, observe yourself – and then realize that you’re observing yourself observing yourself.This is the first measure and degree of lucidity; of self-remembrance and intuitive connectivity.
This is also the first true step to understanding your emotional states in an unbiased, observational manner.
This is precisely how you “break the grip” of negative emotional reactivity; you shine the light of awareness on it!
It’s precisely what I mean when I talk about lucid living.
In lucid dreaming, you gradually realize that:
1. You’re dreaming.
2. You can control yourself in that dream, and do amazing things.
Waking consciousness works the same way, only things happen much more gradually and slowly on this level of reality.
When you turn inward and begin observing yourself observing yourself (becoming conscious of the fact that you’re conscious) – you can start returning your awareness to your thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, etc. This gives you the chance to decide, from a new higher, clearer perspective, whether you’re using the correct response for any given situation.This further raises your awareness, because you’ll gradually begin assessing your current circumstances from a new, higher perspective.
Raising your awareness first involves becoming aware that you are in fact aware.
You become conscious of the fact that you’re conscious. From this new center of balance, you can more intelligently make choices, because you’re more in tune with reality.
This is the true “secret” to managing your emotional states, as well as your instantly-negative thoughts, responses, and reactions to current life circumstances.
Raising your awareness of your power of choice (when it comes to emotional states) is exactly how you break out of that negative, self-limiting feedback loop.
This is precisely how you begin moving in the direction that allows you to reclaim yourself from the grip of anxiety.
HOW to Raise Your Awareness Via Meditation in 5 Easy Steps!
I will come flat out and say it: the number one reason I practice meditation is because it raises my awareness, and thus I’m able to shift myself in and out of any emotional state at any given moment.
This is the #1 thing I teach ALL my clients.
I think this is a bigger deal than most will readily admit; can you appreciate the power of being able to switch out of a negative thought-rut on the fly – in a completely valid way that doesn’t gloss over the facts – but rather gives you the rest of the facts you’ve been missing, and thus experiencing anxiety over…?
So, I do it for the objective benefit of increased awareness (consciousness), clarity of thought and emotion, and the feelings of peace those things naturally provide.
For me, that’s why raising your awareness really is the most important things you can do.
There’s a very simple meditation you can begin doing today, which directly raises your current level of conscious awareness. I call it my “Ten Breath” meditation (I wrote an entire eBook on it last summer: check out The Practice of Presence), because I’ve gotten so good with it, I can re-center myself “within ten breaths” now.
It goes as follow:
1. Set & Setting: Sit in a comfortable position on the floor, in a chair, on your bed, etc. The goal of this meditation is to free yourself to focus on your internal world; not whether or not your back is sitting correctly, or your shoulders are sore from sitting wrong. I typically sit in a traditional Zazen style, legs cross, hands on knees, eyes closed.
2. Set Your Breathing Rhythm: Take your first big, deep breath inward, and fill your lungs as full as you’re capable of doing. Hold the peak of your inward breath for about two full seconds, then exhale in a similar slow, full manner. Do this for a moment or two until you start getting a rhythm going with your breath. The purpose of this is to establish higher awareness that you are indeed breathing, alive, here, and present. Focus on your breathing, then begin directing your focus to the rest of your body.
How does your face and hair feel in the cool room? What about your feet? Don’t move them; just send your attention (awareness/consciousness) there as you sit.
3. Observe Your Thinking: Once you feel that you’re doing a decent enough job of being aware of your breathing and other bodily sensations, return your focus to your thoughts. DO NOT RESIST any naturally-occurring thoughts here; simply “accept them”, and let them pass by the screen of your consciousness.
All thoughts are choices, and you know this once your mind quiets a bit.
When you slow down your thinking via meditation, you realize you don’t have to emotionally invest in any one particular thought, just because it pops up.While you may not always be the source of your negative thinking, you’re always able to choose a way out of it!
This is incredibly self-empowering, and this is the true seat of your personal power and ability to manifest your dreams into reality.
4. Observe Your Feeling: Now, pay attention to the fact that you’re indeed choosing how to perceive (think and feel) about the thoughts that pass by. They have no meaning until you decide they do. Not only do you decide that “this thing is important”, you also decide upon a definition (driven by a belief) as to “WHY” (the reasoning behind your decision, which is influenced by your belief) this thing is important. “I don’t have a nice car, so I have to feel lousy because society only appreciates status”.
This “deciding” is what’s creating your entire reality experience/experience of reality.You may have an initial reaction, such as to resist a particular thought. This resistance is a choice of response. This is how your emotional centers are triggered.
If you simply run with conditioned beliefs like the example above, you’re quite literally flowing your energy through beliefs and definitions which are out of alignment with who you truly are. This is why you experience anxiety! They (conditioned beliefs) feel important because you’ve been taught to make them important; this is the entire purpose of conditioning.
You haven’t been taught that you’re deciding to do this each and every second, however. This is the entire purpose of raising your awareness!
You’re never not choosing a response to life as it occurs around you – you’re just not always aware of this fact! Can you see how important awareness is?!
As we saw above, about 90% of your decisions are unconscious. This is analogous to writing blank checks and paying interest on loans which don’t even exist yet. This is why you have anxiety, and experience a constant barrage of negative thoughts and emotions.
When you realize you can simply choose positive thoughts for no reason other than you have the power to do so – you also catalyze positive emotional states as a consequence. This implies that you can intentionally think about the state you’d like to occupy, and create the emotional response for absolutely no reason. This means you can create and achieve any emotional state on the fly – with practice, of course!
5. Choosing Happiness & Excitement: When you allow yourself the freedom to begin thinking with and identifying with the things that genuinely excite you – you access your true happiness. You can create this feeling of happiness instantly (for no reason other than you want to be happy) by focusing on what it is, for you, that represents THE most exciting thing you can possibly imagine.
The entire purpose of your imagination is to allow you to anchor to new states when you’re “stuck” in a state you don’t prefer.Many will think this is delusional – until they start relating to their current environment in new ways, and thus begin getting new results.
This is the art of re-programming your Subconscious Mind with the new beliefs and definitions which are congruent with who you truly are – not who you’ve been told you need to be. You are effectively reverse-conditioning yourself for success instead of self-sabotage.
You finally reclaim the keys to yourself!
Learn How to Effectively Uproot Old Beliefs & Definitions, and Plant New Empowering, Liberating, and Fulfilling Ones!
It’s important to note that your level of awareness is going to directly depend on a variety of factors – most of which, are within the realm of your immediate control and/or influence.
The benefits of higher awareness should be obvious: increased emotional balance and power, a can-do motivated attitude which arises naturally out of a genuine, connected feeling to the universe around you, and most of all – increased clarity of thought, intention, and action.
When your awareness is raised, you will see and understand things from a higher perspective. The same circumstances and contexts you presently find yourself in will suddenly be seen in a new light. You see and understand how relative and temporary everything is, and you feel a natural drive to follow your passions and goals. This is the True You I’m speaking of!
It provides you with a much clearer perspective on your life and what’s going on, and you genuinely feel connected to the ideas and ways you can make changes for yourself. It’s like you get night-vision, in a sense. You can “see your obstacles” through the darkness that was lower awareness states. You’re donning your spiritual binoculars.
You’re freeing the sword from the stone. That sword is conscious awareness. At first, it’s tricky to wield. It’s cumbersome, heavy, and awkward to manage. Then one day, after many days and hours of practice – it finally yields to your command. From that point onward, it’s like riding a bike.
Whenever you slip back into lower awareness states, you’ll forever have an anchor/escape rope leading back as a reminder that all states are temporary, and you can and will return to higher awareness (consciousness) shortly.
Remember: there are no limits, only perceived limitation. Consciousness (awareness) gives you the tools to re-perceive those limitations as choices of perception.So, the question now arises: will you continue to spend your awareness on low-level distractions that cause you to forget the True You (and thus create all sorts of anxiety as a result) – or will you raise your awareness, and bring more of that 90%-95% Subconscious darkness into the light of consciousness?
The choice is yours – it always has been, and always will be – as long as you can manage to stay aware of your awareness!
About the author:
Jason Demakis a frequent Expanded Consciousness contributing writer. Read more of Jason’s articles HERE. Jason is best known for his writings of consciousness and meditation, and has profound knowledge in each.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jasondemakis
Email: JasonDemakis@Gmail.com
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