4 Mind 4 Life: Health and Mental Health

1. Be aware of your breathing: are you breathing properly?

Being aware of your breathing means being fully conscious of your breathing pattern. Though something as simple as breathing in-and-out is an automatic function of our body, being aware of how you are breathing is important. Unfortunately, many people are unaware that there is actually a proper way to breathe. A way of breathing that is optimal for your body and brain.

Proper breathing involves inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth upon every breath. When I first attempted this breathing pattern, I was very skeptical of its effectiveness. However, after being open-minded and giving what has been deemed “proper breathing” a shot, I noticed that I felt better, had a clearer thought process, and actually had more energy. Surprisingly, an automatic process as simple as breathing can actually have a profound impact on the way in which you feel and think. If you are interested in learning how to breathe properly and reaping the benefits that this practice has to offer, then do a Google search for the keywords: How To Breathe Properly and read some of the content that comes up.

Once you are able to breathe properly, you will have a much easier time being consciously aware of your breathing. To be fully conscious of your breathing, you must learn to fully shift your awareness to your breathing pattern. It is not necessary to be fully aware of your breathing at all times, but practicing the exercise has serious potential to boost your conscious brain power. As I have mentioned in previous articles, my favorite way to focus on proper breathing is through meditation. Learning to shift my entire focus to my breathing pattern has not only allowed me to learn proper breathing, it has allowed me to go deeper into meditation.

To begin a breath-awareness type meditation: get yourself into a comfortable position that will allow your body to relax. Next, close your eyes and shift your attention to your breathing cycle. Take note of how you are currently breathing. Make sure that you are inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. After my body is fully relaxed, I focus completely on my breathing cycle and breath. Initially, I may take deep several deep breaths to get myself even more relaxed. After the deep relaxation has been achieved, I focus on a cycle of air flow: air gets inhaled through my nose, exhaled through my mouth, and cycled back up to my nose. What previously seemed like inhalation and exhalation becomes complete: like a continuously recycling the same air. I then keep my focus on my breathing for as long as I feel necessary. As you come out of meditation, you will probably notice an increased awareness of your breathing pattern.

The process of becoming more aware of my breathing through exercises like meditation and conscious breathing have significantly helped me increase my overall level of focus, emotional stability, and level of consciousness. Though the act of breathing is very simple, to be able to shift your entire focus on it for an extended period of time takes conscious brain power. Do yourself a favor and give proper breathing a 7 day trial to see how quickly your raw, conscious processing power improves!

2. Spend more time with yourself

In the fast-paced lifestyle of the 21st century, it is very common for people to spend time with others, yet never take personal time to spend with themselves and focus on their own life. I realize that it can indeed be fun, and satisfying to spend a lot of time with others, but do you realize how fulfilling it can be to spend time with yourself? The reason that many people are unhappy in life is due to the fact that they do not give themselves any personal time.

If you are an individual who is currently not taking enough time for yourself each day, try starting up a personal routine. Examples of ways that you could spend time with yourself, contributing positively to your own life include: taking time for internal reflection (meditation), letting yourself know how much you love yourself, going on a walk to listen to your own thoughts, giving gratitude for everything that you have in your life, or getting involved in a hobby that inspires you. Simply taking 20 minutes a day for personal fulfillment can really work wonders for conscious improvement. Taking time for yourself teaches you to build awareness to fit your personal needs and development.

There is plenty of time each day for you to at least take some for yourself. Realize that spending time with yourself can actually be more powerful and rewarding than spending time with others. Ultimately, all exercises that help you better understand yourself will lead to greater self-awareness, self-mastery, and conscious growth.

3. Listen more than you speak

In this day in age, it seems as though there is always someone that wants to be the center of attention; conversations easily become viewed as egoistic competitions. While being the center of attention can feel great and can be a rewarding experience, it can become consciously dangerous if motivated by the ego. To counteract the ego getting involved in your personal interactions and relationships, make a conscious effort to listen more often than you speak. While this advice may be very difficult to grasp for highly extroverted people, it will provide greater satisfaction and awareness when involved in relationships.

Listening more often than you speak shows a conscious ability to be compassionate for others and truly helps you remain in full control of your ego. When the time is right to speak, speaking is fine. However, when the constant want to take control of every conversation can guide your consciousness down an unconscious path. By practicing the act of listening more often than you speak, you can train yourself to be more consciously aware of others, while still holding the conscious ability to politely contribute to a conversation. Developing the ability to listen, and actually care about what another person is saying, may take some significant conscious work. With that said, it will be a much more rewarding trait to develop in relationships and will indeed raise your consciousness.

4. Muster up some courage; be courageous

Being highly conscious means doing what you want to do, saying what you want to say, and living how you want to live at every moment. Somewhere along the path towards developing a highly conscious mindset, you will need to be courageous. You may initially have some fear about sharing your decision to be a vegetarian with your family, telling someone how you really feel about them, or explaining your current philosophy in life to a crowd – but these fears need to be overcome. As was already mentioned in a previous installment in the “raising your consciousness series,” it is important to develop and muster up the courage to face your fears.

Having fears does not mean that you have some sort of disorder or disease. It just means that you are afraid of something. Most everyone has a long list of things that they fear or dread. However, most healthy fears need to be faced in order for conscious advancement. Being courageous in all situations is a trait that resembles a highly conscious individual. A great exercise for building your courage is to make a long list of your fears. Then, expose yourself to every single one. Q: Are there any other ways to build up courage? A: No. Exposing yourself to your fears is really the only way to go.

After you are able to successfully learn to consistently muster up courage that’s needed to face the things that you fear most, you allow yourself to truly live life to the fullest. Many people have a motto of: living life to the fullest. Well, if those same people are not facing everything that they fear on their journey in life, are they actually living life to the fullest? No. Developing a sense of courage is an integral step, possibly a phase that may last several years, on your journey to become more conscious.

5. Always act with compassion

Having complete compassion for others is a direct result of becoming more conscious. Unfortunately, there are few people here on Earth that are honestly able to make the claim that they always act with complete compassion for others. Because compassion is such a key ingredient in the process of developing consciousness, it is important to develop compassion. There are many factors that you should take into account when determining your level of compassion. Do you eat animals? – Is eating animals (meat) an action that a person with unshakable compassion would take? Are you respectful of others and their beliefs – Or do you like arguing over why your beliefs and life strategies are better than the next guy? Is that a compassionate action to take?

In my opinion, you should strive to be compassionate in every area of your life. One great way to always keep yourself acting with utmost compassion is to ask yourself questions while completing various tasks throughout your day. Ask yourself if certain actions that you are taking are allowing yourself to express your true compassion. If they are, you may not need to make changes in your level of compassion. If not, you may want to consider re-evaluating / revising your actions and making changes to become more compassionate.

Other ways to get yourself in a compassionate mindset include: making a conscious effort to think compassionate thoughts and through practicing compassion meditation. Compassion meditation involves entering a mental state consisting of only complete love and compassion for others. Consistently practicing compassion meditation is a phenomenal way to boost your overall levels of compassion in your life. Compassion meditation also allows you to learn how to shift your mental focus from any state into one of pure love for others. Entering a completely compassionate state of mind has been studied and is associated with: healthy structural changes in the brain, pleasurable neurotransmitter changes, healthy brainwave pattern changes, and states of complete bliss. As you may have already guessed, practicing compassion can be one of the single most powerful exercises for boosting your level of consciousness.

6. Improve your mental focus; enhance your clarity

Improving our mental focus helps us get a better understanding of reality and provides us with more inner clarity. As we enhance our level of focus and clarity, concepts that had previously seemed very difficult to understand become simple knowledge. We get a better sense of understanding within ourselves and of the world around us. Cultivating a state of mental focus allows us to consciously advance – whereas being distracted, unfocused, or bored, will naturally shift us towards a lesser state of awareness.

There are many qualified methods for boosting your level of mental focus. Several examples include: concentration meditation, self-hypnosis, developing self-discipline, and eating a diet that provides optimal brain functioning. There are even healthy supplements like fish oil that have been proven to increase the ability to focus. As you practice techniques that allow you to increase your focus, you will develop greater mental clarity and a deeper understanding of reality.

As you continue the process of boosting your focus levels, you allow yourself to create a significant amount of positive change in your life. The act of being able to focus helps you better express your emotions, become more productive, and expand your consciousness. As your focus increases, so will your level of consciousness. You will better understand others, your reality, you will be better at retaining knowledge and being able to consciously apply your knowledge in every aspect of your life.

7. Think rationally and logically

Being able to think rationally and logically allows you to positively interact with your reality much easier than being irrational and illogical. In fact, being irrational and illogical will actually lower your current level of awareness. Activities such as: arguing, fighting, hating, etc. are usually extremely irrational and illogical ways to act. For this reason, it is very important to learn to think and behave with rationality.

Allowing yourself to be overcome with unhealthy emotions and throwing a fit of distress will quickly move you to a lower state. Instead, your primary goal should be to act rationally in all situations at all times; even if that means holding back your rage of pent-up negative emotion. Thinking rationally allows yourself to quickly deal with severe forms of stress very quickly. Rational thinking is a byproduct of a high functioning brain, particularly the high activity within your left-prefrontal cortex. One great way to increase your ability to rationalize is to strengthen your brain’s level of functioning by boosting your brain power.

In essence, it will genuinely help to develop your ability to rationalize. While you are experiencing an upsetting, disturbing, or distressing event, your ability to think logically will allow you to detach yourself from all negative emotional aspects of your situation. You will literally be able to think your way out of what may seem like tragedies. A large majority of people negatively react with strong unconscious emotions when they experience a distressing event. Therefore, being able to be rational when faced with distress, will allow you to better develop your awareness. Probably the best exercise for developing and encouraging rational thinking is through concentration meditation. While practicing this type of meditation, bloodflow to your brain increases and your left-prefrontal cortex of the brain heightens with activity. This is the part that has been long associated with logical, rational thinking, and healthy, positive emotional expression. Even if used as your only tool, concentration meditation will definitely get you on the right track towards raising your level of consciousness.

8. Purify your body; detox

One great way to become more conscious is to purify your body. You can help purify your body by going on a specific diet, by cutting certain substances from your diet, by decreasing stress and learning to deeply relax, by cutting certain substances from your diet, by sitting in a sauna to sweat out toxins, etc. There are many methods that you can utilize that will help you to detoxify / purify your system. Do a simple internet search for How To Detox and choose a method that sounds best.

Why would anyone want to detox their body? A great reason to want to detox is to become more conscious. Other smaller reasons that lead to becoming more conscious include: releasing chemical build-ups, clearing toxins from your body, reestablishing a sense of peace within, encouraging an optimal mind-body connection, enhancing your spirituality, etc. The fact is, purifying your body through detoxification will aid in the process of keeping yourself pure. Every system could use a good cleaning now and then. When you allow chemicals, animal hormones, artificial flavoring, processed foods, etc. to build up in your system over an extended period of time, they can have a largely negative impact on your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing!

While following a detox routine, be conscious of what you are doing to your body. Be fully aware that you should choose a detox routine that has been researched and proven effective in order to avoid risking bodily damage in the process. With that said, choosing to purify or cleanse your body can really work magic for your current level of consciousness.

9. Start a personal journal / blog

Starting a personal journal or blog is a great time investment that will allow yourself to become more conscious of your: thoughts, feelings, actions, philosophies, beliefs, etc. Writing entries in a daily journal or on a personal blog can be extremely helpful in the process of understanding your current state of awareness. What is nice about keeping tabs on yourself is the fact that you can watch your progress as you undertake a conscious journey. At the beginning of your journey, your journal may be filled with entries about certain concepts in life just don’t make sense. As you advance, those same concepts that you initially may have struggled with may seem to become general knowledge.

Starting a personal blog or website allows you to analyze your consciousness from a third person point of view, revisit the past, and consciously observe your growth. Seeing your life from an alternative perspective can provide you with greater self-awareness and understanding. If you haven’t yet started a journal, you should highly consider it! The act of journaling has actually been scientifically studied and linked to increased ability to deal with your emotions, greater personal happiness, and a greater ability to retain past events in your long-term memory.

If you are interested in starting a blog or personal website for journaling, all that’s really necessary is choosing a reliable webhost to help get you started. Sure it will cost around $7 dollars a month for a quality webhost, but the purpose of having your own host is to have personal freedom and full ownership of your material. Freedom to choose your own URL (website address), freedom to own all content published on your website, freedom to put up any advertising that you choose, and many more freedoms that having a blogger-hosted website wouldn’t provide you with.

However, if you don’t care to much about having personal freedom over your website and full ownership over your personal content, you can run a free blogger blog. If you are happy with your decision to run a blogger blog, I am happy with your decision. Blogger blogs don’t require you to pay money and you still can have some freedom with your URL choice (though there will always be a “dot blogspot” in part of it). The downfall is: you will not own full rights to all of your content. With that said, you can still earn money off of advertising and can still operate a free, quick, and easy blog.

Another way to journal is to use a pen and a journaling book. For those of you who are less tech-savvy and would prefer to use a good ole-fashioned, pen-and-paper style journal, go right ahead. Some advantages to keeping a hard-copy journal are: it is easily accessible (no need to boot up the computer to write an entry), you can take it anywhere (easily transportable), and the fact that it looks like an authentic journal. Disadvantages to keeping non-computerized journal include: invasion of privacy (strangers finding it and reading it), you losing it (misplacement), and it being used for a firestarter (maybe a bit extreme)…

You could also use a journaling software by downloading one to your computer. Using a journaling software would allow you to keep saved electronic tabs on your consciousness. Google the keywords “journal software” and you’ll probably find something helpful. And for those of you who are uber-desperate to start a free journal in a short amount of time, open up Microsoft Word or Wordpad and journal til your heart’s content.

In my personal experience with journaling, it has been much easier for me to do it via my computer. I can type much faster than I can write and am much more productive when I type. However, what matters most is not your method of keeping your journal, but the fact that you actually are keeping a journal. No matter your strategy for journaling, understand that keeping tabs on yourself and events in your life is a great way to develop a deeper sense of understanding, knowledge, and conscious awareness.

10. Make others laugh; tell a joke

Being funny and making others laugh is a great way to ease stress and create a more positive outlook in life for yourself and for others. Though you may not be an expert comedian, being able to make others laugh is extremely rewarding and satisfying. It is satisfying to you for making another person laugh, and for the other person who gets the laugh out of your joke; a true win-win situation. Depending on your current state of awareness and perspective on life, certain jokes may be extremely funny to you, while to your children or parents, they may be extremely obnoxious. What matters is that you are always conscious of your joke telling and its side-effects.

What is important when telling a joke is to understand the individuals in which you are telling it to. Telling appropriate jokes at the appropriate time and being conscious of whether or not what you say may offend someone will increase your consciousness. Many times, certain jokes may be very funny to certain individuals, while they may remain tasteless to others. Being conscious of your ability to make others laugh and when to use a certain jokes in appropriate situations will increase your ability to empathize with others and create a sense of happiness and peace.

In my opinion, any remarks that are aimed to insult, degrade, or hurt another individual are definitely not jokes. Making others laugh through the act of an insult will not lead you to greater conscious growth. As you tell jokes, you may also be tempted to get your ego involved. I recommend trying to tell jokes without allowing your ego to get involved. When the ego takes the joke-telling hot-seat, what may have been good, clean jokes, turn into hateful or disgusting words.

If you are able to make others laugh and put a smile on the faces of others, joke telling can prove to be a rewarding trait to develop. Making others laugh and smile shifts all attention away from pain and negative emotions, towards one of pure enjoyment and happiness. Good comedians can make certain people laugh. Great comedians are able to make anybody laugh while suppressing their ego. The act of telling jokes is a great way to improve quality of consciousness by allowing you to look at life from a different perspective.

Can’t get enough laughter and jokes? Want to become a more conscious individual through the act of laughing? Well, believe it or not, there actually is a form of meditation called Laughter Meditation. The process of laughter meditation seems very pleasurable and fun, though I’ve yet to give it a shot. To try laughter meditation, get yourself into a comfortable position and consciously relax your mind. Next, focus vividly on a funny past experience, fully visualizing it within your mind. After you are able to recall a past experience, begin laughing. Try not to start with natural laughter, but if it does not come, fake it til you make it! Allow yourself to consciously laugh as loud as possible – be sure to fake the laughter if you need to. Because eventually, your fake laughter will be converted through your brain into a phase of real laughter. Eventually, you will essentially be able to laugh upon conscious command. To come out of the laughter meditation state, quiet down your laughter until you are no longer laughing, just smiling. Then tell yourself that anytime something feels troubling to you, you can use laughter to look at the situation from a funnier, happier perspective.

Though I haven’t tried laughter meditation in substitute for my current meditation routine, I will eventually get around to it. Jokes and the ability to laugh can really change your entire perspective from what may seem like a grim, serious situation, to a happier, more positive one. They also have the potential to help increase positivity in the lives of others. Making yourself laugh and possessing the ability to tell funny jokes to others will allow you to easily guide yourself and others through what may perceived as distressing life events.

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1. Practice personal development

Taking action to better your life through the concept of personal development is an extremely effective way to make yourself a more conscious human being. Virtually every aspect of personal development deals with upgrading your state of awareness whether it be directly or a side-effect from something like overcoming fear. Think of personal development as the act of upgrading every area of your life to function at the highest possible level: health, finances, relationships, etc.

There are tons of awesome ways to practice personal development. Actions that I take to educate myself in the field of personal development include: reading personal development books, reading personal development blogs, listening to personal development audio programs, talking with others interested in personal development, and using internal reflection (meditation) to consciously learn from and understand my life. I like to think of personal development as a learning process involving the act of applying wisdom from myself and others to be a better functioning human being.

For the long-term, personal development has potential to make you a healthy, wealthy, and wise person. With that said, the advice that you gain from pursuing your personal development is only as effective as the degree to which you are able to apply the advice to your life. I believe that an easy way to apply what you’ve learned from personal development to your life is to take immediate action after learning an important piece of material. Take immediate action in the act of applying your new knowledge to your life. Without taking any form of action after learning a new personal development technique, the advice can be deemed absolutely useless to your life.

If you find yourself interested in the concept of using personal development for conscious advancement, there are many wonderful online sources to help you with your journey. There are also many great books to help you move forward with your conscious advancement with a primary focus on personal development. I think that if you are interested in the concept of conscious development, pursuing personal development can prove to be highly rewarding.

In contrast, conscious advancement and personal development are very similar concepts that yield similar results. Comparatively, conscious advancement is just one aspect of personal development, while virtually all aspects of personal development lead to greater conscious development.

2. Shift your conscious focus; focus on the now

Being preoccupied with thoughts of past events and of the future has potential to lead your consciousness in the wrong direction. Focusing your attention on this exact moment (commonly referred to as “the now”), however, is a great way to raise your level of awareness. It is a great habit to get yourself into focusing on the now because the practice has been associated with many positive life changes. Focusing your attention on this exact moment in time is a great way to get rid of negative emotions, enjoy the moment, and really in full control of your consciousness.

A great way to practice focusing your attention on the now is to guide your consciousness. Every time that you catch your mind wandering towards past memories or future hopes, shift your attention back to this exact moment. Ask yourself what you can do in this exact moment to ensure optimal conscious development. As you work on your conscious development, focusing on the now will become much easier. Individuals at higher levels of conscious functioning, understand the concept that there really is no past or future, there’s only right now.

Imagine what depressed individuals could do if they could just shift their focus to the moment of the now and decide that from this point on, they are going to be happy. It would work, because there is no reason to feel depressed unless by choice if you are able to avoid thoughts about the past or future. The truth is, most people feel a certain way due to momentum from their past. Momentum from the past and preoccupation with past thoughts has a very big impact on the way in which we are feeling right now. This is why it may be very difficult for some to shift their focus away from depression and consciously choose to be happy instead. When our focus cannot be shifted from a lower state like depression, consciousness automatically is guided to an even lower state of functioning.

Therefore, a great exercise to practice if you’re ever feeling depressed is to shift your focus to the now (this exact moment), and decide to be grateful for everything positive in your life. If you are more consciously advanced, you will instantly be able to shift from depression to a state of gratitude and happiness.

Heres another realistic scenario: Let’s say that you are in an argument with another individual and are in a state of pure fury due to the remarks made by the other individual. If you would simply shift your focus to this exact moment, you could program yourself with the idea that in the grand scheme of life, this dispute is a minor rough patch that can be peacefully resolved. You then could consciously take full control and decide to positively change yourself to put yourself in position to make peace of the argument. All fury and anger will instantly vanish as soon as you shift your entire focus to something else.

Focusing on the now is an extremely powerful concept that has potential to instantly change the entire focus of your life. Focusing on the now is one of my favorite exercises to practice throughout the day. It will do a great job at teaching you to be consciously aware of your thoughts and shifting them from a state of past and future into the moment. Meditation also boosts my ability to focus on the now. By learning techniques that allow you to shift your awareness to this exact moment, you can work wonders in the process of conscious advancement.

3. Be energetic; allow others to feel your radiance

Being energetic can be very powerful for advancing your state of consciousness and for inspiring others to become more consciously advanced. Your body can become energized and your brain can become energized. When both are operating in at maximum intensity and energy, you are said to be in a state of peak performance.

Energy serves the purpose of giving you conscious power to help your own awareness and that of others. Acting lively, speaking passionately, and using your energy to achieve maximum positive expression will attract positive, conscious attention. On the other hand, acting tired all the time, speaking sluggishly, without enthusiasm or excitement, or expressing your energy an unhealthy way will attract negative attention. Healthy ways to express your energy include: smiling, laughing, starting an interesting conversation, giving a compliment, exercising, getting proper sleep, and using relaxation techniques. Unhealthy ways to express your energy include: thinking negatively, stressing yourself out, arguing with others, fighting with others, and any action that can be considered self-harm. What’s ironic is that all of the unhealthy ways to express your energy are much more draining of energy than all of the healthy ways to express your energy.

Allowing others to get a positive vibe from your energy will first require that you make a conscious effort to express your energy in a positive manner. Every single action that you take draws from a specific type of energy within. As you increase the number of times that you positively express your energy each day, you will be naturally reciprocated and replenished with excess energy to positively express your the future. Coincidentally, increasing the amount of unhealthy ways in which you express your energy will drain your overall energy for your future. Become more conscious by directing and expressing your energy in as most positive manner as possible.

4. Make healthy dietary changes; be conscious of what you consume

Making healthy dietary changes means searching to find the best possible diet to fit your mental needs, physical needs, spiritual needs; to fit your needs. Are you fully conscious of what you are consuming? Are you a meat eater? Did you ever consider consciously thinking about the pain of the animal that suffered and died before you ate that big piece of ribeye steak? Or are you a person who lacks total compassion for animals and disregards them as a beautiful expression of life here on Earth? Or are you a vegetarian that has never opened up your belief system and tried thinking that eating meat may actually be good for you – providing your body with vital nutrients that the vegetarian diet misses?

I am currently a vegetarian for personal, moral, and ethical reasons: I am consciously aware of the pain, suffering, and killing cycle of animals for food sacrifice and I feel that it should be stopped. I also have yet to witness any evidence in my physical body or mental ability that would lead me to believe that vegetarianism is unhealthy. I have read cases where certain individuals didn’t react well to switching to a vegetarian diet, while others actually felt much better after the change. It all depends on the person; we are all unique. As already mentioned in the previous article, trying new things and consciously experimenting in life will raise your awareness.

Maybe you need to cut sugar and sweets from your diet for optimum health, maybe you should try a vegan diet, maybe a raw foods diet will work best. No matter your diet of choice, it is important to be non-judgmental towards the diets of others. Arguments can be made in support and in opposition of eating meat; they can also be made for and against eating a vegetarian diet, raw food diet, and virtually every other type of diet. Debates can be made for and against any diet.

What matters most for conscious advancement is to find a diet that works best for your needs, while being completely conscious of what you consume. Simple questions such as: how will eating this affect my thinking, body, health, etc. are all questions you should be asking. You should also ask other questions such as: How does eating this affect the planet? AND Did an animal suffer and die for my personal benefit? Be aware of where your food came from, if it has been chemically treated or altered, injected with additives or preservatives, and if it is healthy for your body.

To advance consciously it is important to be respectful and accepting of the diets of other individuals without making spiteful judgments. But most importantly, in order to boost your own level of consciousness, it is important to be fully aware of the food in which you are consuming in your diet.

5. Accept others for who they are

As mentioned above in being conscious of what you eat, it is important to be accepting of the diets that others choose to use. Whether they make a conscious decision to have an unhealthy diet or unconscious decision, accept their actions. Accepting others can apply to every area of life. No matter if you disagree with another person’s actions, disagree with their personality, or disagree with their perception of life, it is important to accept them for who they are and not try to force changes upon them. Settle your disagreements with other individuals by purely accepting them for who they are.

Realize that we are all unique individuals with different needs, different life stories, and different interpretations of life. The easiest way to overcome all disagreements is to accept others for their differences and be grateful for the unique perspective that each person brings to the table. If everyone were the same in life, life just wouldn’t be as much fun! Pure acceptance for others may not be easy initially, especially if you are a person that likes to fix bad habits in others.

Chances are good that if another person is involved in a bad habit, he or she may want to break that habit. What you can do is work with them to make conscious positive change to replace bad habits with good ones if they want to break the habit. However, if the individual doesn’t feel any urge to change his or her bad habits, don’t try to be in control of their life; you’ve already got your own to deal with. Let others live their own life without being judgmental. Don’t attempt to take control over others; it gets your ego heavily involved. Instead realize and accept the fact that everyone will have their time to consciously evolve and deal with perceived personal shortcomings.

6. Accept and love yourself for who are; count your blessings

Life’s journey becomes much easier and significantly enriched if you can learn to accept yourself for who you are. Depending on your current state of consciousness, it may be difficult to love and accept who you are. Often times people operating in lower levels search for ways to externally look better, places to buy fancier clothing, ways to make more money, and the best place to get breast implants. Q: Why do they do it? A: Because they truly believe that it will make them happier.

The real truth is, none of these things will make a person happier in the long-term. What will make you happy is being deeply grateful for what you already have. Though you may not have a lot of money, top-notch clothing, a perfect face, or have Hooter’s girl sized breasts, there are wonderful gifts that you were blessed with that nobody else has been given.

We are all unique and all have a unique, rich set of things to be profoundly grateful for. Maybe you are a fast runner, maybe you are a natural comedian, maybe you have a genius level I.Q., maybe you have a very positive personality, maybe you are very consciously advanced, maybe you have a natural talent for singing, maybe you have many friends. Whatever you have – be grateful for it! Celebrate it! Celebrate your individuality and uniqueness by fully accepting who you are and loving yourself.

Things like changing your external appearance by getting breast implants, buying expensive clothing, and getting rich will only bring you some short-lived happiness. What causes you to shift towards the polarity of unconsciousness is the act of not being grateful for what you’ve already got. For long-lasting happiness and for conscious advancement, accept yourself for who you are and feel truly blessed to have what you’ve got. Take the time to count your blessings, be accepting of yourself and your level of consciousness. Realize that at this current moment you are doing the best that you know how to do in order to advance consciously.

7. Understand your own thought process

An extremely effective way to become more conscious is to take note of your thought process and understand it to the best of your ability. I’ve seen many people run themselves in mental circles due to an ineffective understanding of their own thought process. Being consciously aware of your thoughts and why you are thinking them is an integral step in creating an accurate understanding of your reality.

What causes one person to shed tears of joy, may be a boring event to watch for others. What may feel pleasing to one person may feel extremely painful to a different person. What is one man’s junk is another mans treasure… you get the picture. Everyone has a different internal working model and unique thought processing. To become more conscious is to learn how understand your thoughts and why you think certain thoughts when faced with certain situations within your reality.

A great way to understand your thoughts is to simply be aware of what you are thinking while you are thinking it. I personally recommend meditation to help yourself understand your thinking. Meditation has been proven to boost activity in the left-prefrontal cortex of your brain which allows you to be more aware of your thoughts with less mental effort. Therefore, to supplement your current state of awareness and become more conscious of your thoughts, you may find that meditation proves to be extremely helpful. Once you are aware of your thinking patterns, you can effectively learn to quickly change your reality, belief systems, and understanding of your uniqueness. This is a great situation to put yourself in for conscious advancement.

8. Bless everything that happens; look at the bright side

There are times throughout life when amazing things happen to us and other times when upsetting events take place. Just like accepting who you are and blessing what you are thankful for, you should also learn to bless everything that happens in your life. No matter how bad an event, it has potential to make a positive impact on your life in the long run.

Let’s use an example of a perceived bad event and understand why it should be blessed. Hypothetically, let’s say that you were involved in a crime and thrown in prison. Your life situation is looking extremely grim, but there is still a lot of potential for your life. Here’s where it’s important to recognize [the perceived negative event of] getting thrown in prison as a blessing in disguise. Though you may be in prison, you now have potential to stop your criminal behavior, understand why your actions were wrong, the ability to make some big conscious decisions about your life while you’re locked up, the ability to make positive conscious change, the ability to do push-ups to strengthen your body, the ability to make a positive impact on lives of others in prison, the ability to meditate to strengthen your mind, and the potential to get out of prison earlier than expected! This situation, though initially looking absolutely terrible, has lightened up. Let’s say that you are now out of jail and become a multi-millionaire that has learned to become highly conscious.

In hindsight going to jail could’ve been the best thing that happened to your life to “wake you up” out of your low functioning state and guide your consciousness in a better direction. Who knows, you may still be a criminal if you hadn’t gone to jail. For this reason, it is important to count your blessings and be thankful for what you’ve got in every situation.

Though I did choose somewhat of a bad example, I was still able to demonstrate the ability to bless what appeared as an unfavorable stage of life. The ability to bless everything that happens in your life comes with conscious experience and being able to think positively. No matter what has happened in your life, look back and force yourself to optimistically bless every event. Every event in your life has happened for a reason – whether you are aware or unaware of that reason depends on your current level of consciousness. Blessing everything that happens to you is a highly conscious tool that helps greatly for dealing with life. Your ability to bless and appreciate, even what may be initially perceived as a worst case scenario, will ultimately provide you great conscious satisfaction.

9. Take time for internal reflection; meditate

Taking time for internal reflection is the single most effective way to learn more about yourself and your state of consciousness. Internal reflection will certainly help you better understand your thoughts, emotions, spirituality, and current life situation. Internal reflection is basically the act of meditation. Simply closing your eyes and observing your thoughts can be extremely effective for learning more about your consciousness. Do your best to interpret the feedback that your internal reflection provides.

My favorite internal reflection / meditation practice begins by getting into a comfortable position and consciously focusing all of my awareness on my breathing. I then focus my attention on relaxing individual parts of my body. After I am deeply relaxed, I will shift my attention towards my entire internal state. Usually the subconscious will throw something at me during meditation that may be insightful, may be interesting, or may just be a long-time memory of the past.

No matter what information you are able to extract from your internal reflection, it will help you advance consciously. Sometimes you may not get anything out of your experience with internal reflection, other times you may be bombarded with a plethora of internal information. Be happy with yourself and results and understand that the insight you are provided with was meant to be. The more often you take time to meditate or internally reflect, the better you will understand yourself and be able to create conscious change. If you don’t currently take time to internally reflect: start up a 20 minute meditation routine each morning and observe the difference it quickly makes in your state of consciousness!

10. Focus on advancing consciously; tune out distractions

In the process of conscious development, it’s important to focus exactly on what you are trying to accomplish: the act of becoming more conscious. During this process, it is important to tune out all unhealthy distractions such as: negative relationships, abuse, fighting, illicit drugs, etc. If you allow yourself to become distracted with unhealthy, unconscious habits, then act of advancing consciously will become a much more difficult or slower process than normal.

One very helpful way to ensure conscious advancement is to pack your daily schedule full of healthy habits. Here is the example of a typical day that you could consciously force yourself to have: wake up – go into meditation; after meditation lace up your kicks and go for a run; after your workout, eat a wholesome, healthy breakfast; after your breakfast educate yourself by reading an interesting article; after your reading go to work – while you’re there, make an effort to share your positivity with others by smiling, giving compliments, and making others laugh; after work (maybe on the drive home), use positive incantations to change your belief system; when you get home, celebrate your family by talking with them about their day and spending time with them; after dinner, plan a fun activity (like going bowling) that allows you to express your vibrant energy; after bowling, stop by 4 Mind 4 Life and read another interesting article; finally end your day with a positive visualization of tomorrow; get a good night’s sleep to ensure optimum health. This is just one day that is packed with consciousness boosters. By packing your schedule with consciousness-boosting, healthy roadblocks, it becomes very easy to tune out all distractions and stay focused on your conscious advancement.

Focusing on advancing consciously and tuning out distractions will make the process of your journey become very quick and highly effective. Eliminating all unhealthy patterns and putting up conscious enhancing roadblocks will ultimately help you reach the advanced state of awareness that you were trying to achieve much more quickly. It’s obvious that distractions slow progress – so do away with them! Being unable to tune out distractions will only slow or impede your conscious progress!

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1. Expand your horizons: try something new

Trying something new can pertain to any area of your life. Maybe you want to try to add a new healthy habit to your daily routine, shop at an organic store, or even host a block party for the first time. The act of trying something new sounds very easy, but for most people, trying new activities brings out some fear and anxiety. Having courage raises your consciousness and by constantly trying new things, you boost your cognitive ability to adapt and push through any lower states of fear.

Participating in new activities can also be wonderful for boosting your understanding about different traditions, cultures, and values. It can also entail learning new ways to share your purpose. An example of trying something new would be the act of starting a blog to share your message with others through the internet. Beginning blogging meant trying something new for me. I didn’t even learn or understand blogging until around October 2007. I decided to take a risk and start 4 Mind 4 Life. I thought that it would be a fun and beneficial way for me to share my message with others and allow it to make a positive influence in the lives of others. Using blogging as a medium is just one way to share your message with others. Having a neighborhood block party and connecting with many individuals on a more personal level may also be another great way for you to share your purpose.

Trying something new will ultimately benefit your consciousness by replacing fear with a deeper sense of understanding and enhanced levels of courage. Experimenting with new activities can pertain to any area of your life too, which leaves you a lot of conscious choice. You may want to try yoga instead of meditation, a raw food diet instead of vegetarian, or even try something as simple as eating at a new restaurant. All new activities will work to expand your horizons and overall level of awareness. When choosing new activities to try, be conscious about it and preferably choose an activity that is healthy.

2. Face your deepest fears

Are there any fears that you’re holding inside that are prevent you from making conscious advancement? At certain stages along the ladder of consciousness, it can be extremely difficult to face your fears. With that said, facing your fears will provide you with more conscious power. A great exercise for determining what you fear is to simply make a list of every single fear that you currently have. After you’ve made the list, make a conscious commitment to conquer every single item on the list that you fear.

Once when I was engrossed in a deep state of anxiety, I used this exercise as a form of therapy. Though it was difficult to force myself along through my list, I made a commitment with myself to finish this form of exposure therapy. The personal power that resulted was incredible! As you conquer each fear, cross off each item and be consciously aware of the power that you’re feeling from inside. What’s interesting about the process is the concept that though your inner fear may not completely disappear, you will consciously learn how to be courageous when faced with the fearful situation. And, you will be able to face any future fears much easier rather than freeze up and become paralyzed.

Facing your inner fears is not only extremely satisfying, it will give you the much needed momentum to advance consciously. Again, I emphasize the importance to be conscious when listing your fears. Don’t write down something like: “I fear going 100 MPH in a 35 MPH zone while driving,” therefore I need to try it to get it out of my system. It’s obvious that you would be wise not to face something that is against the law. Same goes for “fear of trying illicit substances,” which is obviously not something wise to try. Use common sense and conscious judgment about your list. Healthy fears include: giving a speech, singing in front of others, or throwing a party; this would be a great list of fears to go out and conquer! The choice to face these will help you considerably in your ability to make conscious advances.

3. Use powerful incantations

Incantations are simply words or phrases repeated over and over with emotional intensity for personal or spiritual benefit. They have commonly been used in religious practices to praise certain Gods or deities, but they have also be used for personal development and in the process of becoming more conscious. No matter what way you choose to use incantations, they can be very helpful and a powerful catalyst for helping you become more conscious.

I first heard about using incantations in a Tony Robbins audio program, and have given them a valid shot. In my personal experience, they have been very helpful with the process of changing my core beliefs. After taking personal time to repeat a new belief with emotional intensity and power, it seems as though the use of incantations is a very helpful way to consciously develop. I haven’t yet tried them in a religious manner or in prayer, but I am confident that they are powerful and effective if used correctly.

An example of an incantation that you could use would be: “Every day in every way, I am becoming a more conscious human being.” Say your incantation intensely to yourself in your car, outside on a walk, or at the beginning of a workout. Be sure to connect emotionally with what you’re saying. The use of certain energetic breathing patterns can help with the process. The phrases that you choose for your incantations should have a strong emotional impact and rhythm associated with the practice. In my personal experience, it has been better to stick with one incantation for awhile instead of trying to use several different ones at once. I recommend using one phrase for change until you feel that has been deeply implanted in your conscious and subconscious. Then you can safely attempt another, new incantation. Incantations are great for changing beliefs and boosting your mental functioning.

4. Practice positive affirmations

Affirmations are a bit different than using incantations, though the concepts are very similar. Affirmations are used to change beliefs and thinking patterns. When using affirmations, I like to get myself into a state of relaxation through guided meditation or self-hypnosis and play recorded phrases of myself speaking that I’d like to implant in my subconscious. I have found the most effective way to record my own sessions has been through using Neuro-Programmer 2 Professional software. With NP2 Professional, I am able to record my own affirmations with my computer microphone, then choose to add an introductory relaxation voice, and possibly custom brainwave patterns. When I get deeply relaxed, my recorded beliefs will play, and the affirmation process will take place.

With that said, you can use affirmations in a completely awake state without NP2 Professional and still benefit to a high degree. The idea of using affirmations while awake is to program your mind to believe a certain positive phrase about yourself. The repeating action is supposed to eventually fill your subconscious mind with the new, repeated positive belief and drown the power of the negative thoughts. The use of affirmations for conscious advancement is an interesting concept that has been proven effective. However, like any form of exercise, its effectiveness will be directly related to the effort that you put into it.

Examples of positive affirmations include: “I am healthy,” “I am positive,” and “I am intelligent.” Notice that these examples do not include a focus on what they are trying to get rid of or replace. Putting primary focus on what is distressing only amplifies the difficulty to change. Therefore you shouldn’t write: “I am not negative.” Your subconscious mind will not recognize the “not” in the sentence, but will recognize the word “negative.” Therefore, using “I am not negative” has potential to make you even more negative! Affirmations should also be written in present tense format. Writing them in future tense like: “I will become positive” keeps reinforcing in your subconscious the fact that you haven’t yet reached and possibly haven’t experienced a state of positivity. The basic, yet key idea behind affirmations is to choose positive phrases written in present tense as if they have already been achieved. The goal of using affirmations should be to replace unhealthy beliefs and thought patterns with healthier ones; making it easier to scale the mountain of consciousness.

5. Be aware of your state of consciousness

Unfortunately, many people aren’t aware of their current state of consciousness or what even defines consciousness. You may not even be consciously aware of the many diverse possible states of consciousness due to the fact that you may have only experienced one primary state throughout your lifetime. There is absolutely nothing wrong with not experiencing many different states. However, if you are a person who hasn’t experienced other states or most importantly cannot seem to understand your own state, you are definitely missing out some important aspects and understandings of conscious perception. Certain factors: like brainwave patterns, dietary habits, and ability to deal with life in general all play a role in determining your state of consciousness and awareness of it. On this blog, I have written articles covering basic brainwave patterns that you may want to check out.

Highly conscious individuals are able to shift through all brainwave patterns upon command. This ability to shift, is a form of advanced self-mastery and can be found in many gurus, religious leaders, healers, top athletes, and top business executives. The specific pattern of this special brainwave activity has been displayed on E.E.G. readings and is commonly referred to as an awakened mind. I recommend reading the book The High-Performance Mind by Anna Wise if you are further interested in the “awakened mind” concept. It is a very helpful book for learning the basics.

To help you know and understand your current brainwave state, you can read through my articles discussing various brainwave patterns and try to self-analyze. Most people are very, very rarely in primarily “gamma brainwave” or “delta brainwave” states, so exclude those patterns from your analysis. To help you out, I’ll tell you that the majority of people, especially adults, are operating in a beta brainwave or high-beta brainwave state. Most relaxed, mellow, chilled-out individuals or individuals who commonly practice meditation or other stress-relieving techniques are likely to be in a primarily alpha brainwave state or a mixed combination of primarily alpha and theta brainwaves. Individuals with P.T.S.D., trauma, A.D.D. and A.D.H.D. are in primarily disorganized theta brainwave states. These individuals also show virtually little to zero beta brainwave activity in their E.E.G. Also, individuals with severe, advanced forms of stress end up in a high-beta, high-theta combination brainwave state, which is also a fairly rare state.

There are certain, unique benefits that are associated with each brainwave pattern. Therefore, becoming more conscious can certainly include developing your ability to shift to whatever brainwave state you feel is most beneficial for your current life situation. Taking control of your brainwaves and being able to shift mental states upon conscious command is a powerful concept that will ultimately make you a more conscious person.

6. Set a positive example for others

Setting a positive example for others can pertain to any area of life and is highly encouraged. Setting a healthy, positive example for others to follow spreads a direct positive image into the lives and minds of others. The way that you choose to express your positivity to set an example for others is completely up to you. Simply going for a run outdoors displays and encourages exercise. Anyone that sees you exercising is being positively advertised and exposed to a healthy habit which has potential to rub off into their consciousness. Other ways to set a positive example include: giving someone a compliment or simply sending a smile to spread your happiness.

Setting a positive example for others to take note of is a win-win situation for both parties. You are expanding your consciousness and encouraging a more conscious state in others though your actions. As you become a more conscious human being, the ways that you will be able to express your purpose and make a positive impact in the lives of others will naturally increase. In lower states of awareness, the example that you may be setting may be poorer due to lack of conscious judgment. In higher states of awareness, determining what is “a positive example” becomes much easier. Trying to consciously set a good example will further enhance your consciousness. Setting a bad example, or unconscious example, will slow, halt, or reverse your conscious development.

7. Guide others interested in raising their consciousness

There are many ways to aid others in the process of raising their awareness, especially if you are a more consciously advanced individual. Chances are good that you’ll need to do some personal work with raising your own consciousness before you can put yourself in an effective position to help others raise their consciousness. What you may want to do, though, is encourage others to practice some items in the raising your consciousness series on 4 Mind 4 Life.

Most items mentioned in these lists will have a profound impact on boosting their level of consciousness. Point your friends, relatives, and other people in the right direction by guiding them towards healthy activities like meditation. Helping others can be an extremely rewarding experience for both you, and all of the people that you are able to help. In my opinion, the easiest people to help with consciousness work are your good friends. Chances are that your current good friends and yourself have a lot in common, so showing them and introducing to them ways to become more conscious may be a fun task to undertake together as friends!

Also, realize that by helping others, you are making a positive impact in the lives of others and setting a healthy example of how to be a more conscious individual. When you share the power of your consciousness, you provide others with the chance to advance to your current conscious position by acting as their guide. After others advance to a state that allows them to reach out to people in their lives and offer guidance, your initial message of helping one friend has amplified. Think of it like this: I reach out to ten of my friends and help them advance to a highly conscious state that provides them with knowledge to teach others how to become more conscious. Let’s further assume that my initial ten friends each reach out to ten of their friends and help them with consciousness work.

Already totaled, 100 individuals plus the initial 10 friends that I taught are in position to help others consciously advance. From there, let’s say that the each of the 100 individuals that were taught, individually reach out and teach 10 of their friends. We now have one-thousand people operating in an advanced state of consciousness that are in position to help others in lower states of awareness! If each of those 1,000 people reach out to 10 of their friends, we now have 10,000 people. From 10,000 to 100,000. From 100,000 to 1,000,000. From 1,000,000 to 10,000,000 and from 10,000,000 to 100,000,000, etc., etc., etc. and from that larger number to the rest of the world. As more people shift towards a higher state of awareness, other people naturally follow as a direct result of the massive change. It could quickly become a global movement if done correctly. It would be very interesting and cool to see a massive change like the one I described. Making yourself and others more conscious is beneficial for yourself, others, and our population as a whole. Do your best to help others that are interested in the process.

8. Share your unique insight and wisdom

Everyone has a different perspective based on their personal experience, purpose, and personality. Therefore, each individual has a unique form of insight that they can share with others. To put it bluntly: everyone is different, therefore everyone will have a different piece of wisdom and different forms of advice to bring to the table of life. What you learn in certain situations and the life lessons that you are learning or have learned are unique to you and your unique personal experience here on Earth. Though you have unique forms of insight and wisdom, there are times when sharing your learned insight with others will greatly help them in a difficult life situation.

There are many ways that you can share your insight with others. Using #7: (helping others raise their conscious awareness) is just one way in which you can choose to share your personal insight. Guiding the consciousness of others is certainly a great way to share your wisdom. However, there are many other activities such as: giving a public speech, starting your own blog, writing a book, writing open letters in your local newspaper, or expressing your message through artwork are all great ways to share your insight. There are endless ways and opportunities for you to express and share your knowledge with others. All that you need to do is take action towards finding a medium most effective for allowing you to share your insight. If you provide enough value to others by the act of sharing your insight, you may be able to turn your message into a profitable career that affects your purpose.

9. Gain wisdom from others

No single person holds all the wisdom of the universe in their brain. For this reason, it is important to study the wisdom of others and try to apply their wisdom to your life. As mentioned earlier, everyone has a unique perspective and knowledge-base to bring to the table. Studying the wisdom of others can be done in many ways. Examples include: meeting face-to-face with a more consciously advanced individual and ask them for life advice, reading positivity and personal development websites from several different sources, or maybe attending different personal development seminars.

It doesn’t matter which medium or mediums that you choose to use to learn through. My personal preference for learning about the wisdom of others is through reading books, blogs, and articles. However, just listening to a Tony Robbins program via my iPod also feels extremely rewarding. No matter if you choose to attend speeches, read articles, or the combination of both, it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that you make an attempt to gain knowledge from others and move forward to develop the most highly-conscious state of functioning that you feel is possible for you to achieve.

10. Keep your ego in check

The more aware you are of your ego, the easier it is to become more conscious. With that said, as your awareness increases, so does your state of consciousness. The reverse also applies: as your consciousness increases, so does your awareness. One key aspect for ourselves to be especially aware of is our ego. It is important to keep the negativity of our ego in check and have the awareness that prevents it from getting out of control. Letting our ego get out of control and take the driver’s seat in our consciousness has potential to quickly lower our state of functioning. Allow yourself to become completely aware of your ego and the unconscious actions that you may be provoked to take.

An example of letting your ego get out of control could be the act of lashing out in a dispute. If someone makes a degrading remark, it is important to be assertive, but lashing out and displaying aggression allows your ego and unconscious to take control. Allowing your ego to take control causes yourself to shift from a conscious polarity towards an unconscious one. Taking full control and responsibility to keep your ego in check when faced with adversity will allow you to consciously advance in a much easier manner.

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1. Boost your brain power and functioning

There are many helpful exercises that you can do to boost your brain power and overall level of functioning. One of my most popular articles, 50 Ways To Boost Your Brain Power, should get you on the right track if you are currently confused about the topic or don’t know where to start. Raising your level of consciousness will naturally boost your overall brain power, and boosting your brain power will raise your level of consciousness; both affect each other in direct proportion.

As you learn to enter a higher state of mental functioning and understand the effects resulting from a more powerful brain, you will have a much easier time dealing with reality and connect deeper with deeper parts of yourself. Your senses of taste, hearing, smell, vision, and touch become significantly enhanced. As your brain power increases, so do the baseline levels of various helpful neurotransmitters, making conscious thinking and awareness a much easier state to access. You’d be very surprised at the large number of exercises that you can do to raise your consciousness and brain power. Simply cutting unhealthy substances from your diet will have a profound impact on your mental wellbeing. You be the judge as to what works best for you and stick with it.

2. Take full control of your lifestyle

Are you living the lifestyle that you feel is most beneficial for your mental and physical wellbeing? Maybe there are certain bad habits that you need to get rid of or certain good habits that you’d like to implement in your daily routine. Don’t be afraid to act now and make necessary positive changes in your lifestyle to help you take full control. In my opinion, it definitely helps to befriend like-minded individuals who have similar interests and mindsets towards making positive lifestyle changes.

One example of an easy lifestyle change that most people can make is: adding a daily exercise routine to their schedule. Let’s face it, most people don’t workout everyday, which can definitely turn into 2 days, then 3 days, a week, a month, then an unhealthy habit. Consider either talking to a friend about going for a walk each day – and having a nice talk while working out, or purchase that Y.M.C.A. membership you’ve long thought about. Next, schedule a time period that will work best during your day for you to go do some exercise. Any amount of exercising, no matter how small, is better than none! And adding a daily exercise routine to your schedule is just one of many positive changes that you have potential to make!

Think positively about your lifestyle change and continue the process by making more changes. Once you are able to effectively able to make one lifestyle change, add another positive one. The process of making lifestyle changes gets much easier as you continue the process. Initially it may take some self-motivation and solid support from friends. As you raise your level of consciousness to a higher level of functioning by making lifestyle changes, future changes become quite simple.

3. Choose empowering beliefs

In the process of changing beliefs, choose beliefs that are empowering to you at your core. A good way to know what belief will be empowering is to simply ask yourself how you feel about adding the new belief. If you feel a strong connection with a new belief, such as feelings of excitement, it will probably be a very good choice that is very easy to implement. If you aren’t feeling any connection with a new belief, it may be best to wait a bit.

If you tell yourself that you want to change beliefs about “being sad,” to a state of “being happy,” do you feel excited about the change? Does it feel like this belief change is the best you can make at this current moment? These are some questions that you could be asking yourself. Often times when choosing new beliefs to implement, we fantasize about an optimal state of happiness and want to change our emotional beliefs to “I am happy all the time.”

There is nothing wrong with this change, in fact, it is quite a great change to make. However, it may be better to work your way along more slowly and adopt some simpler, more basic beliefs and advance consciously before making the change to “I am happy all the time” – a belief that can be a difficult transition for those in lower levels of consciousness. If you feel that you can tackle adding bigger beliefs to your belief system, go for it; more power to you – literally! Adding empowering beliefs will help you advance in your state of awareness, and on your quest to become a more conscious human being. Make a conscious effort to purge all beliefs that are less than satisfying. Understand also that as you become a more conscious human being, changing your beliefs will become much easier and a more natural process.

4. Avoid physical fighting and abuse

Physical fighting stems from emotional misunderstandings, hatred, and negative emotional expressions. Fighting can be said to be the opposite of peace. Physical fighting and other forms of abuse can really do a great job at distracting us from becoming more conscious human beings. Becoming more conscious involves being peaceful, understanding, loving, and the ability to work out disagreements in a healthy, conscious form of self-expression.

I personally don’t encourage any form of fighting because it usually involves emotional negativity, hatred, and sets a bad example. Even in boxing though there may not initially be any dispute, both parties end up putting their bodies and brains up for potential damage. Allowing yourself to be physically abused or mentally abused will also lower your state of awareness. One hard punch to the head and no doubt brain cells will die. Many punches to the head and you risk developing devastating diseases, disorders, and tumors.

Allow yourself to rise above any forms of violence and work smart in your effort to become more conscious. If you live in an abusive environment, get out. Call for help, talk to someone about it, and get yourself to a safer, healthier environment. If you know someone who gets abused, offer them help and support by getting the law involved. Anything that you can do to stop physical fighting and abuse will ultimately make you and the individuals involved more consciously aware.

5. Be aware and accepting of your emotions

No matter your current emotions, you will profoundly help yourself if you are accepting of them. Some people are in deep states of depression, others are happy, fearful, content, etc. No matter how you feel or how difficult your emotions feel, a great way to cope with them and become more consciously aware is to accept them, feel them, and understand them. We experience certain emotions for a reason: whether we are aware of the reason or not.

Going through life resisting your emotions and trapping them inside yourself makes life much more difficult. Trying to escape from our emotions lowers our awareness. Many illicit drug addicts, alcoholics, and people on psychiatric medication don’t realize that they are only running from their emotions and ultimately lowering their awareness. If they would learn to consciously accept what they are feeling and take steps to move forward and express themselves, their lives would gradually become much easier. Resisting our emotions lowers our level of consciousness. When you accept what you feel and consciously understand why you feel a certain emotion, your level of consciousness rises.

6. Speak compassionately; be conscious of your words

When having conversation with others, do you choose your words wisely? Or are you the type of person who could care less what you say? The truth is, people who choose their words wisely and consciously think during conversation are the ones who show greater respect for themselves and more compassion for others. Those who care less about what they say are much more prone to lowering their level of consciousness. They often will intentionally, or unintentionally, offend others and themselves, both of which will lower their state of functioning.

Choosing your words wisely will attract positive conversation, and others will naturally find you much easier to relate to rather than those who could care less about their speech. All of the benefits that result from choosing your words wisely and having intelligent conversations will ultimately benefit your consciousness and the consciousness of those that you interact with. Make a conscious effort to speak compassionately and healthy results will follow.

7. Think positive, act positive: be positive

Being a positive influence sets a good example for others and for yourself. It is also very beneficial for raising your consciousness and the consciousness of others. Make an effort to replace any negative thoughts with more positive ones. Thinking positive really rubs off on your own consciousness and making it a habit is very beneficial for your mental health. Acting in a positive manner around others sets a great example. The act of being positive entails both thinking, and acting positive.

Positivity and states of being positive are direct effects of raising your consciousness. I highly recommend trying to be a more positive person in all areas of life; you will notice and feel the beneficial changes in your awareness. It also will feel phenomenal to know that your positivity makes your consciousness expand and causes the consciousness of others to be more receptive to positivity each time they associate with you!

8. Have sexual intercourse

Having sexual intercourse is a great way to spread and share your love with another person. The best way to have sexual intercourse is with another positive, healthy, person in which you fully love and trust. Having sexual intercourse is a loving way of transferring and sharing energy with another person. No matter who you have sexual intercourse with, there can be many conscious benefits.

As mentioned in the article 20 Ways To Murder Stress: Killer Relaxation Tips, sex is an extremely effective way to reduce stress. Reducing stress and becoming a calmer individual is just one way in which sex helps raise your awareness. Being with a loving partner can be an extremely loving, soul-bonding experience. The deep connection that sexual intercourse can provide is literally beyond expression through words. Besides being a great experience, it will boost your current level of consciousness provided the experience was one of mutual love.

9. Identify with your soul

Realize that at your core, you are a spiritual being who is living in a physical body. In lower stages of consciousness, this concept may seem unrealistic and may be very difficult to grasp. For the most part though, once you become aware that you are a spiritual beings that have manifested in physical form, you can learn to identify better with your soul. Identifying with our soul will ultimately make us more aware of our soul’s interests.

I personally believe that the best exercise for identifying with our soul is meditation. With that said, other practices such as: self-hypnosis and yoga have been proven to be extremely effective. Besides practicing meditation, feel free to supplement the idea of identifying with your soul while in an awake state. In essence, as you become better at identifying with your soul, you become better at working your way up the mountain of consciousness.

10. See perceived faults of others as a mirror image

When you look at the faults of others and identify faults in other people, use them as a teaching tool for yourself. The people that are in your life weren’t put there by mistake, they were put there to teach you something about yourself. Other individuals have the potential to teach us more about ourselves. Many times when we look at what we perceive as faults in others, we probably carry the same problems within ourself. When we do notice faults of others consistently, it is often that they are a mirror image of ourselves being shifted into personal focus.

We can choose to deny our faults and continue to blame others for theirs, or we can rise up and better ourselves. Raising consciousness involves never looking down on others or perceiving them as any less worthy than yourself. Our ego sometimes has potential to push us down the path of blaming others and creating disputes. By being able to take personal responsibility for what is being displayed by others into your conscious focus, you can take the information and make very healthy changes.

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1. Treat yourself with respect

Having respect for yourself and your actions will ultimately boost the amount of love that you express towards yourself and others. Respecting your thoughts will significantly help you make progress in life with less stress. You will naturally become more conscious of yourself and understand why treating yourself with respect is so powerful. Learn to respect your body by providing it with healthy food and nutrition. Learn to respect your mind by equipping it with intelligence and spirituality. Learn to respect your unique personality by surrounding yourself with loving friends, quality relationships, and a stimulating environment.

Anytime you ingest illicit substances, besides usually killing your brain cells, you are lowering the level of respect for yourself. Make wise, respectful decisions that reflect your values and have strong respect for your personal beliefs. Treating others with respect will help you become a more conscious human being too, but before you respect others properly, you must first learn to show the utmost respect towards yourself.

2. Practice forgiveness: yourself and others

Forgiving yourself can be very difficult sometimes: especially if you are operating in a lower state of consciousness. Realize that in order to rise up, advance, and become a more conscious person, you must be compassionate and forgiving towards yourself; and that applies to all areas of life. Any hateful thoughts or pent up negative emotions that you may be holding towards yourself need to be released. Negative thoughts and emotions can easily lower our level of consciousness if we do not practice compassion and forgiveness.

My favorite way to forgive myself is to go into a state of meditation, with an initial primary focus on my breathing. I then go deeper into relaxation and visualize myself and surround any hateful or negative thoughts about myself with love, light, and compassion. As I come out of my meditation, I focus and intently visualize myself being fully healed. After I consciously heal myself, I shift my focus back to my breathing. When I open my eyes and add a synchronized, low beta brainwave to my consciousness. I do this by either: talking to myself or another person about my experience during meditation, or writing a documentation of what I experienced during meditation. Both are done done immediately after my meditation to ensure proper awareness of the healing that took place.

No matter what actions lead to an argument, abuse, or a hateful relationship, it is important to learn to forgive others too. Even your most evil nemesis needs to be forgiven for their actions for you to advance consciously. A very effective way to forgive others that I’ve found is through meditation. Allow yourself to go fairly deep into meditation, while keeping a vivid picture of that person and your experience with them in your mind. Go deeper, become more relaxed, and picture yourself forgiving the person in which you held negative emotions towards.

Forgiving others is extremely important in the process of any spiritual, mental, and emotional growth. The act of compassionately sending love towards those you may hate, creates a better, more healthier planet and allows you to rise up above any negativity. Even if the person in which you forgive still holds a grudge, don’t worry about it, move on and in time realize that they too will recover to advance in spirituality and consciousness. There’s absolutely no need to force someone to forgive you: be the change you want to see in the world by forgiving them and moving on with your own life.

3. Cultivate a high-performance mind

Cultivating a high-performance mind is a very fun, invigorating process that involves consciously accessing the brainwave state that you consciously choose, whenever you feel appropriate for a certain situation. I, myself have been developing a high-performance mind state by using meditation, biofeedback cues, and by using techniques from the book The High Performance Mind by Anna Wise. I am still in the process of conducting more research on how to consciously access certain states that are not discussed in the book.

For those who want to understand more about developing a high-performance mind, I recommend that you go check out the book The High Performance Mind by Anna Wise. It is written in a very logical, step by step manner and is extremely easy to understand. It covers all the basics towards the development, cultivation, and spiritual side-effects of a high-performance state. The primary focus of developing this highly conscious state, as explained by the book, is to develop self-mastery. So, should you choose to develop a higher state by using the teachings discussed in Anna’s book, I have no doubt that you will make significant advances in your state of consciousness. In a later post, I will go more in-depth on the subject, discuss my personal experiences, and answer any questions that my readers may have.

4. Connect through prayer

The act of simply closing your eyes, folding your hands and saying a prayer will raise your level of consciousness. There are many different ways to practice prayer and there are many different practices, that when combined with prayer, enhance the power of your message. When I practice prayer, I enjoy combining advanced visualization techniques with the message that I’m trying to convey.

For simply raising your consciousness, I personally like the idea of sharing prayers of gratitude. Though I adopted this method from a Tony Robbins program, I have made slight adjustments to my technique. I begin the process by reflecting on my life and consciously recognizing and feeling grateful for everything that I have been given and everything that I’ve created. Next, I branch outward to reflect on family members that I’m grateful for, friends that I’m grateful for, old friends that I no longer connect with, deceased relatives that positively impacted my life, and the wonderment of planet Earth.

That is my personal account and use of prayer. You can use prayer however you want and it will be a very effective tool towards becoming a more conscious human being. In my experience, what you get out of prayer, is a direct result of the type of prayer, and form of energy that you insert into the prayer. Overall, prayer is a great experience that has potential to aid in your conscious awareness.

5. Challenge your belief system

This one can be difficult for many individuals due to the influence of imprinted beliefs by their parents or guardians during childhood. In my experience, changing beliefs and experimenting with adopting new beliefs has been an extremely effective way to raise my consciousness. Keeping the same beliefs certainly isn’t as exciting as trying something new and consciously creating change in my life. If you are going to challenge your belief system, I highly recommend targeting one key belief that you have considered changing. The belief may be negative, and it may be positive depending on your personality and mental state. I find it the most challenging to change negative beliefs to more positive ones, but anything goes.

Some examples of beliefs that you could change include: dietary (changing to a vegetarian), spiritual (from Christianity to Atheism – or vice versa), emotional (from sadness to happiness), mental (from dumb to smart), etc. The possibilities are literally endless. There are many effective methods that have been devised to aid in the process of changing your beliefs – I will address many in later articles. For now, do your best to implement a new belief, and use your imagination with how you might do it. I think you’ll be surprised at how high your success rate is if you stick with it.

My most recent implementation of a new belief has been going quite well. This past Monday, I decided to implement the belief that: my life is easy. Today being Saturday, I am still focused on this single belief and have noticed shifts in some of my other beliefs in reflection of this single belief change. For now, if you are interested in changing your beliefs, I highly recommend sticking with changing just one belief and letting it completely unfold into your consciousness until you are satisfied. Then choose another new belief when you’re ready and continue the process. By changing your belief system and experimenting with new beliefs, you make yourself more conscious of life’s endless possibilities.

6. Befriend like-minded individuals

On your journey towards becoming a more conscious individual, befriending like-minded people can be extremely helpful. If you are going through many spiritual, emotional, and mental changes without the company of others, the process can be much more difficult and confusing than when you have a guide, guru, or some friends that are traveling at a similar pace to you. Finding like-minded individuals to travel through life with will naturally raise your state of awareness, especially if they are at a more advanced stage of life than yourself; you can really learn a lot.

Coincidentally, being around others who are at a lower state of processing can be mentally, emotionally, and spiritually draining. Find people to be around that allow you to express your true self and personality. True friends that are always encouraging, optimistic, and positive about your life and your journey are the ones in which you should associate yourself, and identify with. Not only is being around like-minded individuals healthy, and optimal for your consciousness, it will ultimately give you more joy in life!

7. Pursue a path of spirituality

Pursuing a path of spirituality and becoming more spiritual will aid you considerably in the process of becoming a more conscious human being. Being spiritual doesn’t necessarily mean being religious and practicing a religion. However, a religion can help you with your quest towards becoming more spiritual. There isn’t really a right or wrong activity that a person needs to do to advance spiritually.

I’ve personally found meditation to be the most helpful exercise with cultivating and advancing my state of spirituality, but many people are different. Some prefer prayer, others find that the simple act of going to church on Sunday gives them spiritual satisfaction. Whatever exercise or action gives you spiritual satisfaction, I highly recommend that you continue the process – it will ultimately make you more conscious. With that said, don’t be afraid to add a new spiritual practice to your arsenal – you never know what may be most effective or a life changing experience.

8. Express gratitude on a daily basis

Expressing gratitude on a daily basis is a very positive, fulfilling exercise to practice. Ways to express gratitude on a daily basis include: giving thanks for your food, expressing gratitude for yourself and others through prayer (as discussed earlier), complimenting others, and letting another person know that you are thankful for having them in your life. There are many little things to be grateful for, just like there are many big things to be grateful for. Find a way to be thankful for them all!

Find a way to share and express your gratitude with other people too! When you let another person know that you are grateful for them, you build a deeper sense of trust, understanding, and love for that person. They will probably come to really enjoy you too. By sharing and expressing gratitude, you feel extremely satisfied and will become more consciously aware of the things that you truly appreciate in life.

9. Make yourself happy

What sort of things make you happy? The answer is usually different for everyone. You can do yourself a favor right now by making a long list of everything that makes you happy in life. Maybe certain actions that you take such as: exercising your body, the act of flirting, having sexual intercourse with someone close, watching sports, listening to music, choosing happy thoughts, or simply eating an ice cream cone make you especially happy. Whatever makes you happy, you should act on. Making yourself happy and content with who you are allows you to spread, direct, and easily share your happiness with others.

Acting on things that make you happy gives you more conscious control over your life, and makes you want to continue on the process towards becoming more conscious. Happiness involves the act of focusing your awareness on what makes you happy. When you focus on things that make you happy, you naturally become happy. Feeling and experiencing happiness in your life also will give you the powerful drive that it takes to make yourself more conscious. Cherish happiness, celebrate happiness, feel happiness, experience happiness, and believe in your personal happiness.

10. Act on your desires

Simply having any form of desire will raise your consciousness. Desire encourages us to take action to advance consciously. The process of attaining what you desire will teach you a lot about your life and lessons that you can learn along the way. With the experience that comes from learning lessons along the way on the path towards obtaining your desires, you raise your consciousness. As discussed earlier, increasing your knowledge and learning life lessons will raise your awareness.

The desire to become a more conscious individual alone is a form of desire. Realize that if you desire to become more conscious, you are naturally raising your consciousness. Along the way, you will learn a lot of valuable information about yourself, your state of consciousness, and your ability to act on desires. Always think of having desires as a good thing in life. The state of apathy, or not caring about your consciousness, will naturally lower your consciousness. Desire is a powerful way to raise your consciousness.

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1. Close your eyes – The act of simply closing your eyes causes a change in brainwave production from fast-paced beta brainwaves to slower, peaceful alpha waves. Give yourself at least 10 – 15 minutes of quiet time with your eyes closed and you’ll naturally feel more relaxed.

2. Relax your tongue – Sounds fairly silly and ridiculous to most people, yet it is an extremely potent way to effectively calm your mind. Calming alpha brainwaves increase when your tongue relaxes, and beta brainwaves (stressful brainwaves) decrease. Let your entire jaw relax along with your tongue and go into a calmer state of awareness.

3. Go jogging, walking, hiking – Exercise is a great way to desensitize your nervous system and do away with stressful feelings. Get your butt moving and go for a nice jog at the gym, walk through the neighborhood, or hike through the mountains!

4. Lay out in the sun – Laying out and soaking up sun rays naturally boosts levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, and allows us to effectively go into a deep state of relaxation. Feel free to go to the beach and feel the vibrant radiance of the sun while laying in the soothing sand. While your at it, feel free to get a nice tan!

5. Guided meditations – Guided meditations usually involve an individual consciously relaxing their entire body. Set aside 10 – 15 minutes to scale your body for areas of tension and replace all tension with a feeling of relaxation. You will feel great and be able to quickly unwind and unstress after a short guided meditation.

6. Deep breathing – We all realize that when we allow ourselves to be overcome with stress, our breathing cycle is shorter and quicker than normal. To directly attack stress, take deep breaths by inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. This quickly changes us from a state of intense stress to one of peacefulness.

7. Get a massage – If you just don’t feel like doing any of the other suggestions, getting a quality massage will be extremely effective at reducing your stress. The physical relaxation that results from getting a massage, will slow down your stressful mental processing and leave your body and mind with a new sense of vitality.

8. Take a vacation – Sometimes when we allow ourselves to get caught up in a work-related stress cycle, the best thing to do is take a nice vacation. For some, a vacation could mean taking the day off work, while for others, it could mean taking a two week all-inclusive stay in the Bahamas. Sometimes taking a vacation is clearly your best option for letting go of stress!

9. Deal with the root cause – Ask yourself what event, person, or thing is the root cause of your stress. After you understand what is causing your stress, target and eliminate the root cause in as respectful and peaceful of manner as possible.

10. Accept your stress – The action of accepting your body and mind’s reaction to stress alone will help you recover from stress quicker. When you don’t accept your adrenaline, rapid thoughts, etc., you put yourself in a position to become more stressed out over what is happening to yourself. Accepting yourself will break the cycle and allow you to feel more peaceful.

11. Lift weights, pump some iron – There has been mounting evidence that lifting weights is great for relieving stress. Though lifting weights obviously isn’t as vigorous as intense aerobic exercise, it does help us release and lower stress levels by releasing tension within our muscle groups.

12. Talk with friends, release some heat – Expressing your emotions by having a quality conversation about your stress with a trusted friend will always help relieve stress. Your friends may provide helpful suggestions, encourage your relaxation, help take stress off of your focus, and allow you to get the bottled-up fury out of your system.

13. Get involved with nature – Experience nature and appreciate it’s beauty. I have mentioned this in my first article in the 10×10 series to becoming more conscious because it can be a very blissful experience. Appreciating what nature has to offer, by seeing the animals, plants, the encompassing sky, and pure beauty, you will naturally lose focus of stress.

14. Sexual orgasm – What some may not understand is that the act of sexual orgasm really is a profound way to relax. Usually, after sex, you feel tired. Sex provides a great workout, bonding with a partner, and is really one of the best ways to let go of stress. Though stress may really take your mind off of sex, it may just be a key ingredient in the process of your recovery.

15. Take a nap – We already know that taking a nap has been proven to boost brain power, but what you may not think about are the stress relieving benefits that napping can provide. Sometimes the only way for your brain to fully recover is to snooze on it and allow your subconscious to sort itself out.

16. Brainwave entrainment – As you probably already know, I am an advocate for brainwave entrainment. Why? Because it helped me through a time in which I desperately needed relaxation and desensitization. After just one alpha or theta brainwave session, most people feel completely calm, revitalized, and rejuvenated. If you’d like to give some brainwave entrainment a shot, I recommend any of the featured products in my “recommended products” section.

17. Listen to soothing music – Ever tried to listen to some nature music, beach music, or meditation type music? Listening to soothing music is an awesome experience and definitely feels great to listen to when feeling stressed. It has potential to shift your thoughts from a cycle of stress to one of calmness.

18. Say a peaceful prayer – Say a prayer that resonates with your purpose, beliefs, and soul’s values. Keeping your prayers peaceful and add visualizations if necessary. Make as lucid and peaceful of visualizations as possible during your prayer and try to connect deeply. When you can successfully pull of a deep, soulful prayer, it will encompass your body and mind with beautiful quietude.

19. Be around calm people; positive people – A great technique is to surround yourself with calm people. Their beliefs, actions, and behaviorism will naturally rub off into your consciousness. Spending time with stressful, negative, or hyperactive individuals will probably drain your energy and will not aid you in the process of de-stressing. If you must hang out with some monks for awhile to become more calm, then do it!

20. Hit a punching bag – If you feel that you need to release some pent up stress from your muscles, got hit a punching bag until you can no longer move your body. It may help to think of the punching bag as your inner stress and with each hit, you are becoming more peaceful. For some individuals, a good ole fashioned punching bag is all they need and want to calm down.

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1. Connect with nature

Nothing feels more natural or more pleasing than going for a nice healthy walk and appreciating nature. Appreciating the beauty that nature provides and appreciating the forms of life in which nature manifests itself is truly fulfilling. I am personally strongly against the killing or destruction of nature because I feel that it is a very important part of humanity that needs more conscious recognition and the act of acknowledging it’s beauty will make you a more conscious individual.

Go for a walk in the forest, jungle, field of daisies, or wherever you feel like getting a connection with nature. If you are an avid meditator, feel free to enjoy a meditation session in the field of daisies: it will feel wonderful and allow you to feel more deeply connected. It is really possible to connect with nature on a level that is beyond verbal expression. It is possible to feel completely at peace and completely one with nature. As you learn to connect and appreciate nature, you allow your consciousness to rise up.

2. Exercise, dance, get your body moving

Exercise is a great way to help you become a more conscious human being. The act of exercise, dance, or any other form of movement are healthy. Get off your rump and help yourself build a healthier lifestyle, more brain power (via neurogenesis), reap “the feel good effect” (endorphins), and lowered stress levels.

Exercise and dancing will raise your consciousness by promoting healthy brainwave patterns, healthy neurotransmitter levels, and great circulation throughout your nervous system. They support longevity, can slow aging, and ward off harmful diseases. Many people in lower states of consciousness have created so many unhealthy patterns in their lives that even the simplest forms of exercise cause a great deal of strain and effort.

When you have consciously or unconsciously blocked out the pattern of exercise in your life, you are causing yourself harm. Help yourself rise up and break the pattern of not exercising by going for a friendly walk with one of your friends or even going to the club to dance: both are easy, fun, and empowering. Most importantly, they will make you a more conscious human being.

3. Simple meditation

I have discussed the benefits of meditation and am definitely an advocate of meditation. Whether you meditate with a primary focus of improving health, spirituality, boosted brain power, healing, or all of the above, meditation will make you a more conscious human being. The simple act of setting aside 10 – 15 minutes of your day for closing your eyes and focusing on your breathing can be a very powerful form of meditation. When you meditate, you allow yourself to get closer to a state of optimal brain activity, functioning, and developing a high performance consciousness.

Whether you are an advanced meditator or a beginner, the benefits are tremendous and will allow you to tap into your highest state of conscious functioning if you stick around long enough. I find the act of meditation to be enjoyable and very pleasurable. It is an act that will definitely raise your conscious awareness and allow you to attain greater focus, discipline, and develop a deeper joyous connection to life.

4. Spending time with true friends

Another gem towards raising your level of consciousness is connecting with others: most importantly, spending time with your true friends. Find only friends that align with who you are, your beliefs, and your values – they will make you more conscious. These are your true friends, and though they can be tough to find, they should definitely be cherished. True friends are individuals that express unconditional love for your life, are always supportive, and respect your personal choices in life.

When you spend time with the true friends that matter most in your life, you are able to successfully spread your love and receive love in return. True friends are gems: they encourage positive change and support you when the going may get a little bit tougher than expected. Friends are great for emotional bonding, sharing ideas with, and doing healthy activities with. Give some of your true friends a call and make it a habit to spend more time with them.

5. Have the intention to raise your consciousness

If you have the intention to raise your consciousness and state of awareness, you are on the right track. Having the intention alone will make you more focused on finding ways to raise your consciousness. Obviously, if you found this article with the intention of raising your consciousness, you were able to manifest the information that you were looking for!

If you don’t have an intention of either raising or lowering your state of consciousness, the process will happen unconsciously and you’ll either be drawn towards the polarity of pure unconsciousness, pure consciousness, or forever remain somewhere in the middle with scrambled characteristics of both in your life. Most of the human population is stuck somewhere in the middle (which isn’t a bad thing); they just don’t fully understand where they’re at in life or why they haven’t changed much throughout life.

On a personal note, I started out life remaining unconsciously in the middle until drastic negative changes kept happening in my life: abusive relationships, fear, depression, pain, lack of focus, etc. Most of these negative changes occurred unconsciously and I felt like I had absolutely zero control of my life and believed it! I became so stressed out and lowered my state of functioning so low that my choices were either: suicide or growth. I consciously chose to grow and from my experience, I have consciously worked my way past “the middle” and into a much higher state of consciousness.

6. Tell the truth, be honest with yourself

Anytime you tell the truth, you raise your level of consciousness. Why do people tell lies? To protect themselves in lower states of consciousness. People in higher states of consciousness don’t lie because they want to be true to themselves, others, and make relationships in humanity more conscious. Telling lies creates a false sense of security, Enron scandals, and unhealthy relationships.

Make it a conscious habit to always tell the truth. There’s really no excuse to go around telling lies, they just make us more unconscious and unaware as the entire body of humanity. Imagine the fun living in a world that told no lies. Be the change you want to see in this world by always telling the truth and valuing honesty. Do you like when people lie to you? No. The real truth is, life is too short to go around telling lies. Be real, be truthful, and stick up for what you believe in! You will benefit by enjoying a boosted level of consciousness.

7. Find and live your purpose in life

The act of searching for your purpose is great. Searching for a purpose will help you find your true purpose here on Earth. I personally believe that everyone was put here on Earth to share individuality and love in different ways. Though I haven’t yet found a clear-cut purpose in my life yet, I have always been pursuing activities that I enjoy and ones that bring me fulfillment. I think that when a person is able to find his or her purpose, it is definitely a soulful experience that will have a major impact on one’s state of consciousness.

I believe that to really understand your life’s purpose, you must be able to access a higher state of consciousness.  Eventually, when you find your purpose and are able to share it with the rest of the world, you will continue to raise your level of consciousness. The expression of your purpose will also aid in the process of raising the consciousness of our entire humanity.

8. Take conscious control of your decisions

When you take conscious control of all your decisions, you are actually activating certain neural pathways in your brain that help promote self-control, calmness, and inner peace. Every time you allow others to dictate your decisions or you don’t take full conscious responsibility for your decisions, you become less conscious over your life.

At each point throughout the day when you make a decision, make it a conscious one. What you choose to eat: whether it be meat, veggies, fruit, or brownies, make it a fully conscious decision. Whether you choose to accept or decline an invitation from a friend to go to a movie or play a sport, you should make it a conscious decision. If you consciously choose to decline the invitation, then tell your friend truthfully why you declined. If you chose not to go because you just “didn’t feel like going to a movie,” then tell your friend truthfully. It is important to be truthful with your reasoning in order to be conscious.

9. Always be open-minded

Being open-minded is a key aspect in the process of becoming a more conscious individual. When you haven’t accepted the diversity that our planet has to offer: ranging from different cultures, religions, wildlife, and beliefs, you will stay in your same state of consciousness or lower your state. When you try something new or open yourself up to accepting a new set of beliefs, you allow your consciousness to rise up through experiencing, learning, and respecting what humanity and the Earth have to offer.

Though it may be difficult for some people to be open-minded at first, especially when they have had certain beliefs ingrained in their mind since childhood, it can be done. It can definitely be a challenge to be open-minded in certain areas of life when you have been conditioned your entire life by parents, friends, society, etc. to believe a specific negative belief. Let’s use the example of being a racist.

If a child is raised with racist parents, in a racist community, where his beliefs are never challenged and he grows up and is now in his mid-20′s, it will take a lot more work to change his belief that “all black people are subhuman.” It may be extremely difficult to get this person to open his or her mind up to the fact that skin color, race, nationality, or any other denominations do not define a person.

However, once this individual is able to see beyond his or her negatively ingrained belief, he or she will become a much more conscious individual. Being open-minded doesn’t only need to be for beliefs, it can be having an open-mind to try something new such as: a new exercise routine, spiritual practice, or trying a new food. Keeping an open-mind is key when working towards a more conscious reality.

10. Pursue higher intelligence

There are many ways to become more intelligent. Not everyone is intelligent in every area of their life. Some people are more emotionally intelligent, some have a higher I.Q., while some are more spiritually intelligent. Whether you feel like you should continue to pursue a higher I.Q., work on your emotional intelligence, or become more spiritually intelligent is completely up to you. Forms of intelligence range among the most intelligent: check out the List Of Geniuses: Top 50 Influential Minds and see for yourself.

In order to become more conscious, you would be wise to choose to become more intelligent in every area of life. I’m not suggesting that you must read books to improve every area of life, but if they help you become more aware, why not do it? If you feel you should join a group of Zen meditators to deepen your spirituality, give it a shot.

If you need to work with a psychotherapist or practice biofeedback in order to become more emotionally intelligent, then I encourage you to get started. Whatever you need to do to make yourself more intelligent in any area of life that you feel is important, you should strongly encourage yourself to pursue that activity. All intelligence increases and enhancement will help you on your journey towards expanding your awareness and becoming a more conscious human being.

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