4 Mind 4 Life: Mental Health Tips

I’ve recently been doing an experiment with brainwave entrainment. I started the experiment several days ago and am entraining the left hemisphere of my brain with an 18 Hz beta brainwave frequency. Thus far, my progress has been great and I’m definitely noticing changes. In this article I will discuss the specifications regarding my current brainwave entrainment / life experiment. To create my 18 Hz frequency I used the program Neuro Programmer 2 Professional, which is featured in my recommended products section.

What side-effects are commonly associated with entraining the 18 Hz beta brainwave frequency?

• Outward awareness and sensory processing – The focus of my awareness is supposed to shift from focus on more internal matters to more external matters. For example – my focus may have been more on my emotions and internal feelings rather than on someone else’s. Another example: my focus could’ve been locked on what was going on inside my body rather than the people around me.

• Throws brain’s sodium / potassium levels out of balance - The 18 Hz beta brainwave frequency has been associated with throwing the brain’s sodium and potassium levels out of balance. I don’t exactly know to what degree, but I know that after awhile, it cannot be too healthy. I am also only stimulating my left-hemisphere which may lessen the degree of a sodium / potassium imbalance.

• Mental fatigue - Staying in the 18 Hz beta brainwave frequency for too long can obviously cause mental fatigue. Basically, you end up thinking too much and actually ‘overworking’ your brain. Think of it as you running a mile: sprinting the first 2 laps around the track will probably leave you dead tired for the final 2 laps. Your brain is the same way… Think of 18 Hz as a pretty fast jog for your brain (a speed to fast to run the entire mile at). If you stay in this state too long, you can actually become mentally fatigued. I have yet to experience any yet, but I have only begun the entrainment process.

• Relaxed body / focused mind state of awareness - For certain individuals, the 18 Hz brainwave frequency can allow them to retain a relaxed body + concentration-type state at the exact same time. This is a cool state of consciousness to achieve because the body feels good and the brain is still able to perform all the demanding functions within the beta brainwave state.

• Fully awake / some stress / anxiety - 18 Hz beta brainwaves are associated with being fully awake, fully conscious thinking. Think of it as the exact opposite of brain fog: crystal clear concentration. With that said, this crystal clear thinking and focus can cause stress and anxiety after awhile. Sometimes, when individuals are in this 18 Hz state for too long, they can experience stress or anxiety. As a matter of fact, some people who have anxiety disorders and stress problems are often in too high of beta brainwave states like 18 Hz and would be recommended to entrain the alpha brainwave.

• Memory improvements - It is not a surprise that memory improvements are associated with the 18 Hz beta brainwave because conscious thinking is associated with the recollection of past memories. The beta brainwave state is great for recalling old memories and improving your overall cognition. Your brainwaves are cycling quicker and bring your consciousness more information (from more thoughts) than slower brainwave states.

• Reading speed, speaking, and spelling improvements - Beta brainwaves are associated with the left-hemisphere of the brain (that is where they are largely produced). Because the left hemisphere is associated with thinking, memory, speaking, and spelling, it is no wonder that 18 Hz will do the trick to improve your overall critical thinking and working skills.

• Math improvements / less hypearactivity - Math is another subject that is associated with the left, logical side of the brain. Math improvements are very common when someone is stimulated with the beta brainwave. In fact, 18 Hz has been specifically linked to improvements in mathematics. Also, less overall hyperactivity (in most cases) will be experienced. 18 Hz has been long associated with quieting and / or eliminating the symptoms experienced by most individuals with ADD / ADHD.

What I am hoping to get out of this experiment:

Increases in overall energy levels

I am hoping that the 18 Hz frequency will give me an energy boost (especially in the mornings). I usually feel sluggish in the mornings and don’t want to get up. I remember when I used to be in a high-beta brainwave state I could just jump out of bed and feel excited and ready for the day. I want to experience a little boost in the mornings without drinking coffee or other caffeinated beverages. The beta brainwave range should to a great job getting me up and keeping me up in the morning without forcing me to ingest any (potentially harmful) substances.

Improvements in concentration + focus

Though I think that I could concentrate fine before I began the experiment, I have noticed improvements. All I would like is to improve my concentration and focus levels. Improving my concentration allows me to blog more efficiently and stay focused on certain activities. I am able to exercise more efficiently and get tasks done quicker in a smaller period of time; a natural productivity booster.

Increased overall excitement and motivation

If there is one thing that you’ll really feel from beta brainwave entrainment it’s excitement. Every time I get into the mid to high beta brainwave range, I feel excited. Not about anything in particular, just life, the day, or events coming up. Sometimes the excitement is accompanied by anxiety or stress, but it feels really good. It’s similar to the jolt of energy you get when you feel nervous about something (i.e. before skydiving, bungee jumping, a roller coaster, etc.) – except it feels good. This increase in excitement is associated with a more positive mood, and feeling more motivated.

Less negative emotions and negative thinking

Since beta brainwaves are largely associated with the left-hemisphere of the brain, they tend to make an individual less ‘emotional,’ more rational, and more likely to think-before-doing. Usually people in these states are energetic, thoughtful, respectful, and quick-witted. However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the ADD / ADHD individuals and people struggling with depression.

These people are usually very emotional and are usually in a theta brainwave state of consciousness. The remedy for lessening the havoc that can be caused by too many theta brainwaves is to stimulate the brain with beta brainwaves. Beta brainwave entrainment will naturally lessen the overall amount of theta brainwaves and make you feel less impulsive, more in-control, and more conscious. You will also probably think more positively. Think of them as natural anti-depressants.

Increased logical thinking

If you currently struggle with illogical thinking or random thoughts that don’t make much sense, beta brainwaves may be in order. They are derived and primarily produced by the left-hemisphere of the brain. The left-hemisphere regulates logical thinking, whereas the right-hemisphere is associated with intuition, emotions, and less logical thoughts. Slower brainwaves are produced by the right-hemisphere. If you’d like to experience logical thinking or feel that you do not think in a logical enough thought-pattern, try some beta brainwave entrainment.

How am I stimulating the left-hemisphere only?

I can stimulate the left-hemisphere of my brain at an 18 Hz brainwave frequency by using an isochronic tone. I first create a customized 18 Hz brainwave entrainment session in my program Neuro-Programmer 2 Professional. Next, I usually upload the session to my iPod and play it with “earbud”-type headphones. Next, I remove the “left earbud” and keep the right earbud in my right ear. I then only hear the isochronic tone at 18 Hz through my right ear.

The right ear is associated with stimulating the left-hemisphere of the brain and vice-versa (left-hemisphere stimulation = increased right hemisphere activity). I typically have my eyes open throughout the entire 18 Hz beta brainwave session. Closing my eyes would likely reduce the effectiveness of this session due to the fact that closed-eyes are associated with producing slower alpha and theta rhythms. Slower rhythms would interfere (at least slightly) with the beta brainwave entrainment.

Why did I choose to entrain only the left-hemisphere of the brain?

I currently don’t want to have a synchronized brainwave state. I want to experiment and see how I feel with a very active left-hemisphere. I also think that synchronized brainwaves can lead to problems or even change the desired result. For example, in certain cases, when high-beta brainwaves become synchronized, they actually boost theta / alpha brainwaves later (after the entrainment process).

So the desired result of more beta actually brings forth a production of extra theta brainwaves. I don’t want to run the risk of something going wrong so I used some logic. Since beta-brainwaves are associated with the left-hemisphere and logical thinking it couldn’t hurt to only stimulate the left-hemisphere. Sure my left-hemisphere will become more active, more powerful, and the frequency of the brainwaves will gradually shift towards an 18 Hz pattern, but that doesn’t mean my right hemisphere will become underactive either; it will still be doing it’s job.

How has it been so far? What changes have I noticed?

So far, my experience with entraining 18 Hz in my left-hemisphere has been great. I started 3 days ago and entrain for around 25 minutes each ‘session.’ I have been noticing gradual changes in my state of consciousness (i.e. my desires, music taste (fast tempo vs. slow), desires, appealing activities, etc. I have definitely been noticing changes in my personality and I feel like brainwave entrainment gives me control to manipulate reality and experiment with different states of consciousness in order to “do whatever I desire” in my lifetime.

The changes that I’ve noticed thus far:

Increased focus level

I have already noticed that I am more focused in both conversation and while working than I was before starting the experiment. It hasn’t been a huge shift in concentration, because I could focus fine before. It’s just that my focus has increased since beginning the experiment. It makes perfect sense that it would too. Beta brainwaves are associated with some of the most focused states of consciousness.

Increased energy levels

I have noticed increased energy in the morning and throughout the mid-afternoon than previously. I feel like my brain is literally creating more energy for me to work with. I am not amped up like I drank a red-bull, but feel like I can stay awake easily throughout the entire day until I fall asleep at night.

Slight anxiety + nervous

Though I haven’t noticed a lot of anxiety, I have noticed some. Since I have dealt with it in the past, the anxiety is not crippling nor preventing me from doing any activity that I’d normally do. If I feel nervous, I understand that it’s from the 18 Hz frequency entrainment and actually feel great about it. I know that I am just experimenting with my brainwaves and learning what the various brainwave states feel like. I also understand that I can always fall back on a lower frequency and I’ll calm down quickly.

More overall thinking + more aware

I have also noticed that I am thinking more than before. I consciously notice myself thinking at a much faster rate than before. I also noticed that I am more aware of everything going on in my environment. Things that I may have previously never thought about I now think about. I know that beta brainwaves can cause an individual to think deeply about very little, which isn’t always good.

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Note: If you enjoy this article, consider reading 5 Ways Of Enhancing Brain Power [Part 1].

No matter how high your current I.Q. or level of education, there are still tons of great things that you can do to boost your brain power!  Boosting your brain power doesn’t always deal with reading books or hanging out with scientists on a daily basis!  There are many great methods that you can use to improve your brain’s overall level of cognition.  The following 5 methods included in this article will definitely help you flex your neural connections a bit and allow you to build a better brain!  In follow-up to the first part of this series (posted above), are 5 more great ways of enhancing your brain power!

1. Take Control Of Your Thoughts (Neurofeedback)

Taking control of your thought-patterns is much easier than most people imagine!

Though the concept of Neurofeedback sounds slightly New-Agey, there is a method of thought-control that you can use to actually boost your brain power! Most people that use it don’t have any idea as to how it works, but definitely are able to testify that it is highly-effective. It is not exactly a method of relaxation or meditation, though you can use it to help yourself relax! What is it? It’s called neurofeedback, and it is slowly gaining credibility in the field of psychology and scientific community.

Neurofeedback stemmed from the practice of Biofeedback and the terms are often used synonymously. Neurofeedback works by showing people (giving them feedback) of real-time measures of things like: brainwaves, heart rate, skin temperature, etc. and encourages them to take conscious control over it. The amazing part of this practice is that though people don’t think it will work initially, walk away with astonishing results proving that they were able to do it!

Neurofeedback has recently gained popularity in neuroscience and psychology to help patients boost their brain power and recover from diseases and disorders like anxiety or ADHD. The very first attempts of neurofeedback were done to increase the amount of alpha brainwaves (associated with a calm, relaxing mental state) displayed in an individual’s E.E.G. So far, researchers and neurofeedback practitioners have had much success with treating things like ADD and ADHD. They have also found plenty of scientific evidence that proves its effectiveness! It also has been effective in treating certain cases of depression, anxiety, stroke, brain injuries, and epilepsy.

Some experimenters have even used brain scanners that allow individuals to see and control brainwave activity in specific parts of their brain! This is an amazing advancement, in my opinion! What about for people that don’t have a brainwave problem? Can neurofeedback be effective for boosting the brain power of an ordinary, average guy? Definitely. Neurofeedback has been proven to improve memory and levels of calmness before exams in many average people.

It has also been effective at improving technique in dancers and musicians. With this said, virtually anyone can benefit from the practice. There is also evidence that the practice of neurofeedback can boost our confidence, levels of creativity, enhance our sexual performance, lift depression, balance brain activity, improve relaxation, and change personality traits. All of this improvement just through the act of controlling out thoughts!

2. Pay Closer Attention (Cut Distractions)

No matter your level of genius, creativity, or common sense, none of it matters unless your mind paying attention!

Paying attention is a fairly complex brain function that allows us to focus on details or see the “big picture.” Though there is no single best way to improve concentration, there are many things you can do to improve it! The first way to enhance your concentration is to increase your level of arousal. When you are in a highly-focused, beta brainwave state, your level of arousal is much higher than usual. The brain’s concentration-state of mind is controlled largely by the production of the neurotransmitters: dopamine and noradrenalin. Dopamine induces a “goal-oriented,” pleasurable, yet highly productive state of mind. Noradrenalin induces an vigilant, slightly paranoid state of mind. It is not shocking that doing activities to raise dopamine levels boost our ability to pay attention.

One way to boost our ability to pay attention is by taking drugs like amphetamines (Ritalin, Adderall, etc.) – drugs that treat ADHD. Caffeine also works well to boost our levels of concentration. I personally prefer a drug-free approach due to safety concerns associated with taking drugs. I know (from experience) that these drugs are not the way to go: they are a short term solution to a problem that needs a long term approach.

Another great way to boost your ability to pay attention is to get a good night’s sleep, eat brain foods, and get plenty of exercise! Meditation is also a great practice to incorporate into your lifestyle. Studies have proven meditation’s effectiveness at increasing our ability to pay attention. After you have chosen one of the methods mentioned above to improve your focus, you need to begin cutting distractions. Studies conducted at the workplace discovered that it takes at least 10 minutes to regain a quality state of focus after becoming distracted.

Psychologists highly recommend that you avoid doing work near noisy, annoying, distracting appliances like the dishwasher, fridge, or T.V. It is best to drown out background noise while working by finding a quiet place to work, using earmuffs or earplugs (if necessary), or even listening to music to kill the other noise. There are plenty of tactics you can use to help you keep paying attention. Pick one method you like best and stick with it!

3. Can You Learn From The Nuns?

If you don’t want to develop senility throughout your old age, you should consider asking a Nun what to do!?

A convent in Mankato, Minnesota may seem like an abnormal place to run a brain experiment… But, a study of 75 to 107 year old nuns has revealed great insight into keeping the brain healthy and powerful moreso than most other experiments to this date! This “Nun study” was done with over 600 total Catholic Nuns and an expert of Alzheimer’s disease and aging.

The nun’s high-levels of longevity is largely attributed to their lifestyle. They do not drink or smoke, they live quietly and socialize, they are calm, deeply spiritual, and have a healthy diet. All of these small differences in lifestyle appeared to make huge differences in brain power and aging later in life. A relatively low percentage of the nuns suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, but many have avoided dementia and senility that most individuals develop. Many of the nun’s brains revealed no signs of excessive aging.

The overall study revealed a few common factors that helped the nuns’ brain power: having the correct amount of vitamin folate, verbal ability early in life, and having positive emotions early in life. Also, activities such as: sewing, doing crossword puzzles, and exercising helped prevent senility. Spirituality and the positive emotions resulting from it, also had significant benefits. Individual differences also matter: irregular metabolism, strokes, and head injuries, all increase your susceptibility towards developing Alzheimer’s disease.

You definitely don’t need to become a nun to stay mentally fit, though! We can all work towards brain power improvements! With that said, this study can provide us with a plethora of great advice to take from the lives of some nuns and apply it to our own lives!

4. Physical Exercise Vs. Mental Exercise

Staying active through physical exercise can not only make you stronger physically, it will boost your brain power!

Are you the type of person who hates studying? Well, according to researchers, exercising for just 30 minutes a day up to 3 times per week can significantly improve your ability to concentrate, use reasoning, and your overall learning abilities by nearly 20 percent! The brain boosting effects of exercise are even more powerful and easier to observe in old people. Elderly individuals that are able to walk regularly perform much better on memory tests than their non-exercising friends. Even more impressive is the fact that over several years, their overall cognitive performance shows much less decline than those who don’t exercise. Every extra exercise session has significant benefits!

Though elderly individuals display the most noticeable changes in mental performance, they are not the only group of people that benefit from exercise. Children have been studied too: school-kids that exercise 3 to 4 times per week get higher exam scores than those who don’t! Though the effect is most observable in male schoolchildren, females do definitely benefit as well! Research suggests that aerobic exercise boosts cognition by getting extra oxygen to the brain.

There is also another great reason that your brain is so fond of physical exercise: it promotes neurogenesis a.K.a. “the growth of new neurons (brain cells)!” Until recently, scientists figured that we were born with a maximum amount of brain cells and that we could not replenish lost or killed brain cells. New studies, however, have confirmed that exercise definitely produces new brain cell growth (in people of all ages), even in adults!

The brain boosting effects of exercise are most seen in the hippocampus – the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory. This is also the brain region that is easily damaged by cortisol – a brain-cell killing stress hormone. This is why if you are ever feeling stressed, the best thing you can do for your brain is to go for a hard run! Even relaxing, stretching-type exercise like hatha yoga can work wonders for your cognition. Scientific researchers have discovered that bending backwards – as opposed to forward bending and standing – is the best way to get a quick mood lift!

Apparently, not only does a fit body positively affect our brain, our brain can actually produce changes in our body! In 2001, researchers at the “Cleveland Clinic Foundation of Ohio” asked volunteer participants to spend 15 minutes each day thinking about exercising their biceps. After 12 short weeks, their bicep muscles were 13 % stronger than they were before! This is very interesting and a phenomenon that (in my opinion) should be studied more! The effects from this study were amazing, just from spending 15 minutes “thinking” about exercising a certain muscle group!

5. Get A Good Night’s Sleep (Seriously…)

You should never underestimate the power associated with getting a good night’s sleep!

Cheating your brain of sleep is actually very harmful to your brain! Depriving yourself of sleep is one of the many things that kill brain cells! (Yikes!) Your ability to problem solve, plan, learn, and concentrate all are significantly reduced. Intelligence scores are lowered. You become unable to properly function: if you have been awake for twenty-one hours straight, your cognitive abilities are equal to someone who is legally drunk! You should not be on the road… lack of sleep is just as bad for your brain as driving drunk. And, you don’t need to pull an all-nighter to suffer from the dangerous effects: just 2 to 3 (back-to-back) late nights with early mornings have the exact same negative side-effects!
What is also interesting is the fact that if you allow someone who isn’t sleep deprived to get an extra hour of sleep, they perform much better on normal tasks requiring high levels of attention, such as taking a test! These are not the only benefits resulting from a good-night’s sleep either! While you are sleeping, your brain is able to process new learned skills, the formation of memories, and solve problems.

An example is working on an extremely difficult math problem… Instead of working 8 hours straight trying to solve the problem, you would be better off working for a couple hours and taking a cat-nap. Why? Because, while you are asleep your brain refreshes and reactivates the neural circuits that it used when you were working on the problem. It then rehearses your memories as you worked on the problem and converts short-term memories into the long-term storage. The same applies to other skills such as learning a sport, playing an instrument, and driving a car.

There is also plenty of evidence that getting quality sleep helps us produce moments of problem-solving insight. Many people claim that their problems are solved sometimes in their dreams. One famous story and example, is that of the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev. He claimed to suddenly “understand” a problem he was trying to solve with the periodic table in a dream, after he had spent an entire day struggling with the problem! It appears as though sleep allows the brain to juggle new experiences and memories, and provide us with flashes of creativity and ah-ha moments! If you are ever in doubt about a problem or stressed out, snooze on it! You may be surprised at what your brain is able to accomplish!

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Below is a compilation of the Raising Your Consciousness: 10 X 10 Series with a brief outline of each article. To read the full article, simply click the link of the article that you wish to read. I truly believe that you will enjoy this series, so take your time to read each article. I’ve provided you with as much value and knowledge as possible. If you have any questions about a certain article or message, feel free to use my contact form.

If you’d like to view all of the ways combined into one single article, check out my article: 100 Ways To Become More Conscious. It is written in a slightly different format that you may prefer. I slimmed up each of the 100 main points and provided quick descriptions in an easy-to-read format.

I. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 1)

1. Connect with nature
2. Get your body moving
3. Simple meditation
4. Spending time with true friends
5. Have the intention to “raise your consciousness”
6. Tell the truth
7. Find and live your purpose
8. Take conscious control of your decisions
9. Always be open-minded
10. Pursue higher intelligence

II. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 2)

1. Treat yourself with respect
2. Practice forgiveness
3. Cultivate a high-performance mind
4. Connect through prayer
5. Challenge your belief system
6. Befriend like-minded individuals
7. Pursue a path of spirituality
8. Express gratitude
9. Make yourself happy
10. Act on your desires

III. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 3)

1. Boost your brain power and functioning
2. Take full control of your lifestyle
3. Choose empowering beliefs
4. Avoid physical fighting and abuse
5. Be aware and accepting of your emotions
6. Speak compassionately
7. Think positive, act positive, be positive
8. Have intimate sex
   
9. Identify with your soul
10. See perceived faults as a mirror image
    

IV. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 4)

1. Expand your horizons
2. Face your deepest fears
3. Use powerful incantations
4. Practice positive affirmations
5. Be aware of your state of consciousness
6. Set a positive example for others
7. Guide others interested in raising their consciousness
8. Share your unique insight and wisdom
9. Gain wisdom from others
10. Keep your ego in check

V. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 5)

1. Practice personal development
2. Shift your conscious focus
3. Be energetic
4. Make healthy dietary changes
5. Accept others for who they are
6. Accept and love yourself for who are
7. Understand your own thought process
8. Bless everything that happens
9. Take time for internal reflection
10. Focus on advancing consciously

VI. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 6)

1. Be aware of your breathing
2. Spend more time with yourself
3. Listen more often than you speak
4. Muster up some courage
5. Always act with compassion
6. Improve your mental focus
7. Think rationally and logically
8. Purify your body
9. Start a personal journal
10. Make others laugh

VII. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 7)

1. Practice a religion
2. Respect the beliefs of others
3. Ask questions about your life
4. Understand that everything changes
5. Realize that you are not alone
6. Push your personal limits
7. Invest in yourself
8. Be open to exploring consciousness
9. Develop a deep relationship
10. Call upon your spirit guides

VIII. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 8)

1. Clear emotional blocks
2. Clear out subconscious “cobwebs”
3. Turn off the T.V. already
4. Read a good book
5. Expand your creativity
6. Develop strong people-skills
7. Allow yourself to be inspired
8. Be courteous towards others
9. Attend a spiritual retreat
10. Form a mastermind group

IX. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 9)

1. Be a mediator
2. Build an accurate model of reality
3. Be a leader
4. Travel the world
5. Be empathetic
6. Set goals
7. Try brainwave entrainment
8. Try self-hypnosis
9. Develop your chakras
10. Release Kundalini energy

X. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 10)

1. Appreciate your surroundings
2. Bring new life to Earth
3. Lead a flexible life
4. Learn from consciously advanced individuals
5. Live a well-balanced life
6. Consider taking healthy supplements
7. Celebrate your accomplishments
8. Always have positive intentions
9. Read and recommend 4 Mind 4 Life dot com to others
10. [This space is intentionally left blank for you to fill in]

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1. Connect with nature – Go for a walk in the forest, jungle, field of daisies, or wherever you feel like getting a connection with nature. It is possible to feel at deep sense of peace and oneness when you attempt to connect with nature. As you learn to connect and appreciate nature, you allow your consciousness to rise up.

2. Get your body moving – Exercise and dancing will raise your consciousness by promoting healthy brainwave patterns, healthy neurotransmitter levels, and great circulation throughout your nervous system. 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 examples are: easy, fun, and empowering.

3. Simple meditation - 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. 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 - 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. 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.

6. Tell the truth - 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.

7. Find and live your purpose - Searching for a purpose will help you find your true purpose here on Earth. 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.

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 slightly conditioned to be less conscious when making choices.

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 drop to a lower state. Being open-minded doesn’t only need to be for beliefs either. It can be having an open-mind to try something new such as: a new exercise routine, spiritual practice, or trying a new food.

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. All forms of intelligence increases and enhancements will help you on your journey towards expanding your awareness and becoming a more conscious human being.

11. 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. 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 can respect others properly, you must first learn to show the utmost respect towards yourself.

12. Practice forgiveness - 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. 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.

13. 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 it is appropriate for a certain situation. Since their is no single best brainwave state to live life in, it helps to train our mind to consciously be able to “switch” states upon command. 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.

14. 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 conscious message. Overall, prayer is a great experience that has potential to aid in your conscious awareness.

15. 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. 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), etc. By changing your belief system and experimenting with new beliefs, you make yourself more conscious of life’s endless possibilities.

16. 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. Not only is being around like-minded individuals healthy, and optimal for your consciousness, it will ultimately give you more joy in life!

17. 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. Never be afraid to add a new spiritual practice to your arsenal – you never know what may be most effective or a life changing experience.

18. Express gratitude - 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. By sharing and expressing gratitude, you feel extremely satisfied and will become more consciously aware of the things that you truly appreciate in life.

19. 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 and acting on your listed items. Feeling and experiencing happiness in your life also will give you the powerful drive that it takes to make yourself more conscious.

20. Act on your desires - Simply having any form of desire will raise your consciousness. Desire encourages us to take action to advance consciously. The state of apathy, or not caring about your consciousness, will naturally lower your consciousness. Desire is a powerful way to raise your consciousness.

21. 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. 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 equal proportion.

22. 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 conscious control.

23. Choose empowering beliefs - In the process of changing beliefs, choose beliefs that are empowering to your soul. 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 of a belief to implement. 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 a much easier, more natural process.

24. Avoid physical fighting and abuse - Physical fighting stems from emotional misunderstandings, hatred, and negative emotional expressions. Fighting can be described as 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. Anything that you can do to stop physical fighting and abuse will ultimately make you and the individuals involved more consciously aware.

25. Be aware and accepting of your emotions - No matter your current emotions, you will profoundly help yourself if you are accepting of them. 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. When you accept what you feel and consciously understand why you feel a certain emotion, your level of consciousness rises.

26. Speak compassionately - 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. Make a conscious effort to speak compassionately and positive results will follow.

27. Think positive, act positive, be positive - Being a positive influence sets a good example for others and for yourself. 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.

28. Have sex with your partner - 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 significant conscious benefits.

29. 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. As you become better at identifying with your soul, you become better at working your way up the mountain of consciousness.

30. See perceived faults 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. 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 positive changes.

31. Expand your horizons - 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. 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.

32. 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 equip your consciousness with more empowerment and energy. 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.

33. 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.

34. 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. Examples of positive affirmations include: “I am healthy,” “I am positive,” and “I am intelligent.” The primary 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.

35. 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 of functioning throughout your lifetime. 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.

36. 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. Trying to consciously set a good example for others, will further raise your consciousness. Setting a bad example, or unconscious example, will slow, halt, or reverse your current conscious development.

37. 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 this article or others on 4 Mind 4 Life dot com.

38. 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. 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.

39. 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.

40. 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. 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. Taking full control and responsibility to keep your ego in check when faced with adversity will allow you to consciously advance in a much healthier manner.

41. 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. 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. Virtually all aspects of personal development lead to greater conscious development in one way or another.

42. Shift your conscious focus - 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. By learning techniques that allow you to shift your awareness to this exact moment, you can work wonders in the process of conscious advancement.

43. Be energetic - 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 conscious performance.

44. Make healthy dietary changes - 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? 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 and to be respectful and accepting of the diets of other individuals without making negative judgments.

45. 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.

46. Accept and love yourself for who are - 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. 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.

47. 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 a key step towards creating an accurate understanding of your reality.

48. Bless everything that happens - 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 is a great habit to get into, 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. Your ability to bless and appreciate, even what may be initially perceived as a worst case scenario, will ultimately provide you great conscious satisfaction.

49. Take time for internal reflection - In my opinion, taking time for internal reflection is the single most effective way to learn more about yourself and your current state of consciousness. Internal reflection will certainly help you better understand your thoughts, emotions, spirituality, and provide clarity in your current life situation. If you don’t currently take time to internally reflect, you could very well start up a 20 minute meditation routine each morning and observe the difference it quickly makes in your state of consciousness.

50. Focus on advancing consciously - 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.

51. Be aware of your breathing - Being aware of your breathing means being fully conscious of your breathing pattern. 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. 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.

52. 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. 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.

53. Listen more often 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 to your consciousness if it is motivated by your ego. 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.

54. Muster up some courage - 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. Developing a sense of courage is an integral step, possibly a phase that may last several years, on your journey to become more conscious.

55. 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. Compassion meditation also allows you to learn how to shift your mental focus from any state into a perspective of pure love for others. As you may have already guessed, practicing compassion can be one of the single most powerful exercises for boosting your level of consciousness.

56. Improve your mental focus - 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 general knowledge. We get a better sense of understanding within ourselves and of the world around us. As your level of focus increases, so will your level of consciousness.

57. 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. 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.

58. Purify your body - 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. 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.

59. Start a personal journal - 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. No matter your strategy for keeping a journal, understand that keeping tabs on yourself and events in your life serves as a great way to develop a deeper sense of understanding, knowledge, and conscious awareness.

60. Make others laugh - 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. Making others laugh and smile shifts all attention away from pain and negative emotions, towards one of pure enjoyment and happiness. 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 outlook.

61. Practice a religion - Practicing a religion is a phenomenal way to become a more conscious person. As you raise your current level of awareness, you will discover that there is really no best religion or Utopian religion to practice. What matters most in conscious advancement is getting a feel for what practices actually make you become more consciously aware. You need to personally determine what works best for you. One of the best ways to do this is via experimenting with many different religions.

62. Respect the beliefs of others - At no time is it loving or respectful to criticize the beliefs of others. No matter how consciously advanced another person is or isn’t, it is important to respect their thoughts and actions. When you try to force others to adopt your lifestyle, beliefs, and force them to become a more conscious human-being, you are indirectly expressing negative emotion towards that individual; you are getting your ego heavily involved. Forcing others to consciously change is not truly accepting them for who they are. If you feel like you should force others to raise their awareness, perhaps you need to raise your awareness some more! It is important to realize that everyone will have their time to advance consciously and will eventually reach the “top of the mountain” on their journey to their higher consciousness.

63. Ask questions about your life - Attempting to learn more about life each day is a great way to increase your overall knowledge base and a great way to become a more conscious person. Nobody “knows-it-all” in life, that’s why asking questions about life and about certain situations in life, will really help you out on your journey. The idea here is to learn as much about life as possible. This will allow you to make your lifestyle more conscious, your choices more conscious, your actions more conscious, and yourself a more knowledgeable person. If you don’t feel like asking others questions, a great way to learn more about life is to ask yourself internal questions. Often times we don’t realize that within ourselves, we hold the answer to every question about our life. Meditation is highly recommended as an exercise for learning more about our inner-self.

64. Understand that everything changes - Whether you realize it or not, everything and everyone is in a constant state of change. Change is undeniable and is happening to yourself and others as you are reading this. There is no way to prevent change, but there is a way to consciously control your change. Be the change that you want to see on this Earth and please: make it a positive, conscious one!

65. Realize that you are not alone - On your journey towards becoming a more conscious human being, it is important to realize that you are never alone in the process. Someone, somewhere is going through the same process and many have already gone through the process. There are likely many individuals that are more consciously advanced than you are: which is a good thing. Look to these individuals for guidance along the way. We can always look to more conscious individuals for personal guidance and advice in life.

66. Push your personal limits - Pushing your personal limits to become the best person that you can be is something that everyone should strive for. Pushing your personal limits is something that you can do in every area of your life: relationships, exercise, consciousness, spirituality, finances, etc. Pushing your personal limits in the areas that you feel most soulfully-connected with are the areas that you should probably put the most work into in order to feel the greatest sense of fulfillment.

67. Invest in yourself - When you make money, do you invest it in stocks? Have you ever thought of investing it in yourself – your purpose, vision, values, and goals? Besides money, we can also invest time in ourselves. In my opinion, investing time in yourself is one of the most effective ways to become more conscious. Investing time in yourself will allow you to discover your true purpose and become a more conscious human being.

68. Be open to exploring consciousness - There are many ways to be open to exploring your consciousness. Several methods to explore your consciousness include: brainwave entrainment, meditation, raising your consciousness, trying new activities, exploring spirituality, exploring different social groups, changing your environment (by traveling), trying neurofeedback, etc. If you don’t know of any healthy ways to expand your consciousness, start with the ones that I’ve listed. No need to unnecessarily kill your brain cells and lower your consciousness by using illicit drugs to “expand your mind…”

69. Develop a deep relationship - Developing deep, trustworthy relationships with other people are not only great for helping you to become more conscious, they are a great way to share love and joy with others. If you haven’t already done so, develop a deep, personal relationship with at least one individual. It could be a good friend, spouse, boyfriend / girlfriend, it could be a good therapist, it could be anyone that you feel is on-the-same-page as you in life, or at the same level of consciousness. Having another person to discuss your personal inner-thoughts with and share your turmoil, joy, and all other emotions with, will actually make you a happier, more conscious person.

70. Call upon your spirit guides - Everyone has spirit guides – whether they believe in them and want to communicate with them or not. Before we are born, we are assigned spirit guides to do just what their name implies: guide our spirit. They can often provide us with valuable advice and some forms of intuitive connection that most of us never imagined was possible. The best way to connect with them is to learn proper meditation. The job of spirit guides are to help guide your spirit in the right direction and they really want to connect with you to help you raise your consciousness. So consider learning ways to connect with them on a personal level, or finding an advanced spiritual seeker / psychic that knows about spirit guides and how to connect with them. It seems as though Erin Pavlina has gotten great reviews discussing her ability to help you connect with your guides. Though her readings are somewhat expensive, getting one could prove to be a great investment in order to accelerate your personal growth and conscious development.

71. Clear emotional blocks - Nearly everyone has some form of subconscious emotional blocks that they have suppressed within their subconscious. Emotional blocks can develop in childhood and can be forgotten by the time a person reaches adulthood. They can drain your conscious control over life if you don’t learn to properly release them. It is not advised to attempt to deal with very powerful emotional blocks or repressed traumatic memories by yourself. Consult a trained therapist or psychologist to help you work through your past powerful emotion. Realize that when you are able to work through your past emotional blocks, you naturally allow yourself to reach a higher state of consciousness.

72. Clear out subconscious “cobwebs” - What exactly are subconscious “cobwebs?” I refer to subconscious cobwebs as any unfulfilling: beliefs and emotions that have been carried around in your subconscious mind for too long. Many times, our subconscious mind is carrying around extra negative emotional baggage and limiting beliefs that need to be released or replaced. If you want to clear out your subconscious “cobwebs” and take conscious control of your subconscious mind, consider trying meditation. Meditation takes your consciousness to a deeper level and makes reprogramming your mind a much easier process.

73. Turn off the T.V. - Depending on your current level of consciousness, watching T.V. may actually be a good thing. For those individuals operating at an extremely low level of functioning, watching T.V. gives them hope, satisfaction, and a boost in consciousness. With that said, to permanently elevate your consciousness, it is recommended to refrain from watching T.V. If you think about the act of watching T.V., it doesn’t reflect your life’s purpose nor allow you to be fully productive. The time that you currently spend watching T.V. could be put to better use by allowing you to accomplish a personal goal, providing you with extra time for exercise, or even giving you time to boost your brain power!

74. Read a good book - Whether you enjoy reading fiction or non-fiction books (or both), reading books is a phenomenal way to help you boost your conscious brain power. Reading books provides you with knowledge, creativity, and allows you to fully expand your intellect. Reading books will also help you become a smarter person, with a mind that is full of new thoughts and ideas. The more credible information that you are able to read, the more information and knowledge your consciousness has to consciously create with.

75. Expand your creativity - There are many ways for us to expand our creativity and abilities to creatively think. Developing ways to creatively think not only boosts brain power, it boosts your consciousness. The use of brainstorming, creative visualization, Zen koans, and meditation have all been known to increase creative thinking skills. Creativity is an important trait to develop when dealing with your reality. Having creativity allows your mind to easily solve even the most difficult of problems. If your creative-side is currently lacking, think of ways to step-it-up a notch to reap the conscious benefits!

76. Develop strong people-skills - Developing strong people-skills will allow you to become more conscious in many different ways. Having strong people skills allows you to be comfortable expressing who you really are in any social situation. Without developing strong people skills, you may be stuck in a state of fear around others in social settings or even worse, you may feel completely uncomfortable expressing your true beliefs, values, and discussing your lifestyle in front of others. Cultivating a strong set of people-skills will allow you to become a more conscious individual and will allow you to share your love with others.

77. Allow yourself to be inspired - Allowing yourself to be inspired helps you to take passionate action. In order for us to be inspired, we usually need to have some sort of emotional connection. Maybe you are deeply inspired by a song that you recently heard on the radio, maybe you are inspired by Barack Obama, maybe you are inspired by Hilary Clinton, maybe you find Pablo Picasso’s artwork inspiring. Everyone is different and everyone is uniquely inspired by different things here on Earth. Inspiration can really work magic in your life if you let it. Taking actions based off of positive inspiration will ultimately guide your consciousness to a higher level of functioning.

78. Be courteous towards others - Being courteous to others is a great way to share love, positivity, and a great way to set a good example for others. Each time that you set an example, you have some influence onto others. Each time that you practice a healthy habit or put courteous actions on display for others to see, they will be much more inclined to follow suit. When you are able to be courteous to everyone that you meet, you are raising your consciousness through compassion.

79. Attend a spiritual retreat - There are many spiritual retreats and spiritual opportunities that can quickly boost your state of consciousness. Meditation retreats and gatherings with your religious group are two of many ways to raise your consciousness. The act of going to church is yet another form of attending a spiritual gathering. Going to an event like a Holosync retreat may also be a great way to connect with a fun, positive group of individuals that could prove to be lifelong friends. You will never truly know nor understand the possibilities of conscious transformation that a retreat has to offer until you actually make it a point to attend.

80. Form a mastermind group - Forming a mastermind group is a great way to help you become more conscious and complete your goals. To participate in a mastermind group, you must first gather up some trustworthy friends. Next, schedule times that your entire group will meet to discuss personal challenges, goals, accomplishments, etc. Meet with each other and discuss your goals. Be as positive and encouraging towards one another as possible. Offer suggestions and serve as a motivation for the rest of your group. Mastermind groups are a form of conscious, positive support that allows you to accomplish your goals much easier. And, social support (i.e. a positive group of friends) is always great to have when working to become more conscious. Do whatever you want with your group, have fun, be positive, and realize that you are raising your consciousness in the process!

81. Be a mediator - There are many situations that arise from negativity in this world. One way to break up these situations in a peaceful manner is to be a mediator. A mediator is a person that is able to resolve conflict between two parties and think of a peaceful solution to a problem that both conflicting parties agree upon. In the end, the best part about a mediation process is the satisfaction that you can derive from helping bring peace to the world. Helping others is a great way to create a true sense of happiness in your life. Anytime that you bring peace, the collective consciousness of humanity takes a step in a positive direction.

82. Build an accurate model of reality - Building an accurate model of reality is a great way to explore the endless possibilities that life has to offer. Gaining conscious control of your thoughts will aid you in the process of creating your reality. When you are able to take control of your focus, building an accurate model of reality becomes an easier task.

83. Be a leader – Being a positive leader is an awesome way to raise your level of consciousness and that of others. If you are able to become a leader who is able to influence large groups of people in a positive manner, you will naturally develop a lot of conscious power. Each person that supports your message, adds to your ability to share your purpose. If you haven’t thought about stepping up and becoming a leader in some way, now is the best time to start thinking about it!

84. Travel the world - Traveling the world most definitely has potential to change and expand your state of awareness. As you travel to different places, you are able to learn about unique: ways of life, ways of thinking, religions, customs, values, etc. This is why it is extremely common for huge changes in perception to occur. Traveling to many different parts of the world is one way of exploration that allows you to experience life on a larger scale.

85. Be empathetic - Advanced empathetic abilities can be cultivated by accessing the lower brainwave states: both the theta and delta brainwaves. Making a conscious effort to become a more empathetic person means trying to understand and relate to others and their emotions in as an effective method as possible. Being empathetic is a great way to spread love and compassion in the world. And spreading love and compassion are great ways to help you become a more conscious person!

86. Set goals and accomplish them - Setting positive goals and working to accomplish them is one of the single most effective ways to advance consciously, without even having the intention to advance consciously. For example: you may set the goal to exercise everyday for one month in order to improve your health. By setting and completing a goal like this, your main focus is improving your health, however, you are also indirectly improving your consciousness.

87. Try brainwave entrainment - Though brainwave entrainment seems like a new-agey, experimental technique, it is a great tool for advancing consciously that actually works. Not only does brainwave entrainment work well, it is an extremely effective way to develop a powerful brain and advanced state of consciousness. By practicing brainwave entrainment, your brain becomes more flexible in the process of shifting to various brainwave states. You can always give brainwave entrainment a trial and evaluate how effective it is at helping you advance consciously! Check out the software featured in my recommended products section and give one of those a trial run.

88. Try self-hypnosis - What many people do not realize is that the act of self-hypnosis is very helpful for achieving states of complete, controlled relaxation. During self-hypnosis you develop full, complete control of the beliefs that are implanted in your subconscious mind. Self-hypnosis relaxes your body and takes you into a state of highly-focused, deep relaxation. No matter whether you enjoy self-hypnosis or meditation more, they are both exercises that will allow you to elevate your consciousness. Give self-hypnosis a shot if you haven’t already – it is a perfectly safe, exercise that will benefit your consciousness greatly!

89. Develop your chakras - Learning to clear and cleanse your chakras could prove to be one of the single best investments that you’ve ever made for yourself. Chakras hold the key allowing you to tap into your higher-self and connect with energy from the Universe. Working directly with your chakras will help you become a more conscious person, making you more aware of your body’s energy centers and how they can affect your entire life.

90. Release your Kundalini energy - My definition of Kundalini: a (usually latent) energy force that is coiled at the base of our spine. We’ve all felt Kundalini from time to time during extremely emotional moments, when a certain song plays, or when we have a powerful experience. What does Kundalini feel like? Kundalini the energy that makes our spine tingle. We get goosebumps throughout our body and our entire spine tingles with emotional energy. Kundalini is a completely healthy and powerful method to advance consciously. It is not recommended to go into a Kundalini experience blindly, though. Do some research on “Kundalini energy” and consider working with a guru or a person who has been through the entire process if you hope to release your Kundalini energy.

91. Appreciate your surroundings - To further allow yourself to develop consciously, it is important to be appreciative and thankful for everything in your environment. Each day and every day, the little things that we may be taking for granted are often some of the most amazing forms of beauty. Simple things like the sunset, a field of flowers, or the face of our neighbors are all beautiful expressions that we may not be taking the time to appreciate. When we are able to realize that everything is connected and that we were truly meant to love and appreciate one-another, we naturally become inherently grateful for our surroundings and what the Earth has to offer – and thus, more conscious.

92. Bring new life to Earth - Each time that you are able to make a contribution to life here on Earth, you bring forth another brilliant expression of our universe. Each time that you bring human life, plant life, animal life, etc. here on Earth, it is something to be truly proud of. Ways that you could contribute to bringing life to this planet include: raising children, adopting a child, planting a flower, or raising an animal. The inner feelings that you may feel as a result of bringing forth new life are perfect for finding true happiness and taking yourself to the next conscious level.

93. Lead a flexible life - Flexibility is a key part of gymnastics… it also is a key part of life and the process of becoming more conscious as a human being. Leading an overly-structured life often becomes overwhelming and unpleasurable. You need to take time to appreciate the moments of spontaneity and spur-of-the-moment type events. Being flexible is a great attribute to cultivate in your life. Though learning to be flexible is just a small habit that will make you more conscious (by opening up your life to new opportunities), it is a highly important principle to implement into your life and reality.

94. Learn from “consciously advanced” individuals - More consciously advanced people have a lot to offer those who are less consciously advanced. They often provide us with great discoveries, insights, and guide our lives in a positive direction. If you happen to know someone that is at a higher cognitive level of functioning than yourself, spend some time with that individual. Ask them questions about their life, questions about your life, or any questions about life in general. See how these individuals feel about raising consciousness and how they can help you work to increase your conscious awareness.

95. Live a well-balanced life - Keeping a balanced life can be very difficult at times. However, keeping activities in proper balance is a great way to become more aware and involved in many areas of life. Make a conscious effort to focus your energy towards what inspires you most, but don’t forget to be flexible and take time for important people and activities like: friends, family, expression, and exercise. Being well-balanced with activities in life provides us with greater conscious satisfaction.

96. Consider taking health supplements - Supplements have long been known to help aid in mental processing and boost physical functioning. I personally have taken a multivitamin in combination with 3.6 grams of fish oil on a daily basis for almost 2 years straight. Overall, I feel that the combination has worked phenomenal for helping my physical functioning and mental processing. Always be open minded: consider taking supplements if you aren’t already. Do a personal experiment to see what supplements work best for you and how various supplements affect your consciousness. In the end, you may decide that all supplements are ineffective and that they were nothing more than placebos.

97. Celebrate your accomplishments - Celebrating your accomplishments is a form of self-praise and self-respect. When you value yourself and appreciate yourself, you are likely to celebrate your accomplishments – and actually have accomplishments to celebrate! Celebrating is a fun and rewarding activity to do to make yourself happier. It increases your levels of overall self-love and respect: both of which are key factors in the process of raising your consciousness.

98. Always have positive intentions - Positive intentions often arise from having a positive mindset. Having a positive mindset and forming the habit of holding good intentions is a great way to boost your level of conscious awareness. When you intend for positive events to happen in your life and always have positive expectations – your life will naturally attract positive people and will result in happiness.

99. Read and recommend 4 Mind 4 Life dot com to others - Remind yourself of ways to become more conscious by re-reading this series and other articles here at 4 Mind 4 Life dot com. I always try to provide you with the most valuable advice to help you boost your level of consciousness. Though the main focus of this website is boosting brain power, your level of consciousness goes hand-in-hand with how powerful your brain is; the more powerful your brain, the easier time in raising your consciousness you will have. I can only promote my message to a certain extent. Each time that you help me by recommending my website or this series to another person, you will be helping guide others towards positive change. I send blessings to everyone who reads this series, recommends this series, recommends this website, or applies advice from this website to better themselves.

100. [This space is intentionally left blank for you to fill in] - Nobody knows and understands what works best to help your consciousness better than you! Be creative, fill in the last blank already! Choose an activity that you enjoy that renews your sense of wellbeing and resonates congruently with your soul. Blessings to everyone that made it this far down the list!

~This marks the last number of the last post in the Raising Your Consciousness: 10X10 Series. I sincerely hope that you all enjoyed it and personally feel that it will serve as a great reference to every visitor in the table of contents section. Feel free to print out your favorite chapter from this series (or all of them). Keep them to yourself or share them with others. Feel free to link to this series from your website if you feel like blogging about it. My goal when writing this series was to motivate others to raise their consciousness and start a movement towards becoming more conscious individuals here on Earth. Are you ready to become more conscious?

For a thorough, more in-depth version of this 100 Ways To Become More Conscious article, I have divided the 100 ways into 10 sections of 10 methods. In each of these sections, I cover each listed number more in-depth than was discussed in this article. For a thorough explanation certain items on the list, click on the corresponding article:

1. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 1) #1 – 10
   
2. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 2) #11 – 20
3. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 3) #21 – 30
4. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 4) #31 – 40
   
5. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 5) #41 – 50
   
6. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 6) #51 – 60
7. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 7) #61 – 70
   
8. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 8) #71 – 80
   
9. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 9) #81 – 90
10. 10X10 Ways To Become More Conscious (Part 10) #91 – 100
    

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1. Appreciate your surroundings (i.e. their natural beauty)

To further allow yourself to develop consciously, it is important to be appreciative and thankful for everything in your environment. Each day and every day, the little things that we may be taking for granted are often some of the most amazing forms of beauty. Simple things like the sunset, a field of flowers, or the face of our neighbors are all beautiful expressions that we may not be taking the time to appreciate. When we are able to realize that everything is connected and that we were truly meant to love and appreciate one-another, we naturally become inherently grateful for our surroundings and what the Earth has to offer.

There are so many amazing expressions of the Universe that – if you are able to appreciate and look at them from a loving perspective – you will actually be able to significantly progress in conscious development. Things like: weather patterns – (sunny days, stormy nights, winter snow, etc.), various forms of wildlife – (plants, animals, trees, etc.), and our family members – (brothers, sisters, grandparents, parents, etc.) all should be appreciated for who they are and the beauty that they bring to life. So many times we get caught up in a rat-race that we lose sight of the beauty that’s already surrounding ourselves!
In order to become more conscious of ourselves, we must also learn to become more conscious of others, and the expression of everything in our reality. When stuck in a vibration of lower consciousness, we often aren’t able to develop the perception that allows us to see the little things in life as expressions of beauty. Making it a habit to focus your attention and love towards things that are already in your life will work wonders for your state of being and will make you more aware of the divine expression that this Earth has to offer.

2. Bring new life to Earth

Each time that you are able to make a contribution to life here on Earth, you bring forth another brilliant expression of our universe. Each time that you bring human life, plant life, animal life, etc. here on Earth, it is something to be truly proud of. There are many ways to bring life to the planet to share the beauty of humanity. Several ways that you could contribute to bringing life to this planet include: settling down with your partner and raising a family of children, having one child, adopting a child, planting a flower, raising an animal, etc. – you get the idea.

Not only does the process of bringing life to Earth feel great deep down, it affects our planet in a positive manner. Each new birth is an expression of our grace – each person and thing has a beautiful message to contribute. Do what you can to help bring new life to our planet. It is a great activity that goes hand-in-hand with boosting your level of conscious awareness. The inner feelings that you may feel as a result from bringing forth new life may be just what you need to find true happiness and take you to the next level consciously.

3. Lead a flexible life

Flexibility is a key part of gymnastics… it also is a key part of life and the process of becoming more conscious as a human being. Leading an overly-structured life often becomes overwhelming and unpleasurable. You need to take time to appreciate the moments of spontaneity and spur-of-the-moment type events. Being flexible is a great attribute to cultivate in your life. Flexibility leads to contentment and happiness with ourselves.

Setting a schedule to plan out your events is often times a great, smart thing to do. However, you do not need to stick to a rigid / permanent schedule at all times. Don’t allow the things that you’ve scheduled to be set in stone! When positive opportunities arise that interfere with your schedule – (whether it be a little or a lot) – should be taken and your schedule should be ditched! Let’s say you have a scheduled work-out routine for an example. Let’s further say that one of your friends from out-of-town stops in your town to visit their family. While in town, this friend gives you a call and wants to spend time with you on Saturday from 9:00 A.M. until 11:00 A.M. Let’s also say that every Saturday from 9:00 to 11:00 A.M. you usually hit the gym to do your workout routine.

Here is a prime example of a situation where flexibility should be utilized. Tell your friend that you will hang out with him or her. Plan to workout from 6:00 to 8:00 A.M. or from 11:30 to 1:30 P.M. instead of your old time. Accommodating time to spend with your friend could prove to be one of the best times that you have ever had. Don’t allow your rigid scheduling to ever takeover your ability to be flexible. You never know what opportunities that you may miss out on if you keep a rigid schedule. Though learning to be flexible is just a small habit that will make you more conscious (by opening up your life to new opportunities), it is a highly important principle to implement into your life and reality.

4. Learn from consciously advanced individuals

More consciously advanced people have a lot to offer those who are less consciously advanced. They often provide us with great discoveries, insights, and guide our lives in a positive direction. If you happen to know someone that is at a higher cognitive level of functioning than yourself, spend some time with that individual. Ask them questions about their life, questions about your life, or any questions about life in general. See how they feel about raising consciousness and what methods they find most effective.

In many cases, advanced meditators, counselors, therapists, healers, psychics, yogic gurus, and spiritual masters are all at higher levels of consciousness than the average person. Most of these individuals hold great gifts that allow them to teach others to advance consciously and help others to tap their unique personal power and live their purpose. If you currently don’t know anyone that is at a higher level of conscious functioning than yourself, go out an meet some people! Go to a meditation retreat, yoga studio, etc. There are certain healthy activities like meditation that people at a high-level of conscious functioning enjoy practicing and are attracted to! Often times they practice these activities on a daily basis.

If you are still stuck for finding others to connect with for face-to-face discussion, you can always search online. Give Google a nice run through and search for others who are interested in conscious advancement, enlightenment, etc. Often times you will stumble across a forum or website that has a high amount of friendly interaction. Most times people involved with forums are happy to share their wisdom and advice. One forum with tons of great advice is Steve Pavlina’s forum. Though you must register to participate, the registration process is simple and 100% worth your small investment of time. I have connected with some highly-conscious individuals who have provided me with tons of knowledge to build off of. This is a great place for you to start if you are currently stuck.

When receiving advice from others, always look for some way to apply it to your life. If you don’t apply their advice, it is useless. After you’ve applied their advice and teachings to your life, evaluate the results. Also realize that just because someone tells you something works, doesn’t mean it will necessarily be as effective for you as it is for them. Everyone is different and just because a certain technique works for another person, doesn’t mean it will be effective in your life. This is why it is important to always learn from yourself. Personally evaluating the effectiveness of certain conscious-practices is all part of becoming more conscious. Though others can provide you with great insight and wisdom – it will greatly help if you learn from a personal evaluation after you’ve applied it.

5. Live a well-balanced life

Keeping a balanced life can be very difficult at times. However, keeping activities in proper balance is a great way to become more aware and involved in many areas of life. Spending too much time getting involved with just one activity is draining and unenlightening. For example, let’s say that you only worked on your blog for an extended period of time. During that period, your relationships would probably definitely suffer, your physical health would slowly deteriorate, and your life would probably not feel complete. Why? Because you are not keeping your blogging habit in balance with the rest of your life.

Often times, there are a large number of hobbies and activities that capture our interest. It is important to find those activities and keep them all in a proper state of balance with each other. Be flexible with your life – don’t allow one area to dominate the rest. I used the example of spending too much time blogging, but the same principle applies for any area of your life. Spending too much time with others doesn’t give you any time for yourself or your personal interests and goals. Therefore, if you hang out with your friends all-the-time instead of doing things like: getting a job, expressing your emotions, and working towards your life’s goals, your life’s balance will get severely thrown out of place.

This is why it’s important to always attempt to keep your life in balance; do what you need to do to to make your life work best. You may need to change up your schedule to be flexible for certain events (i.e. you may need to limit your time blogging so that you don’t get caught up spending too much time online) – but the most important thing is that you are doing what works best. Make a conscious effort to focus your energy towards what inspires you most, but don’t forget to take time for key things like: friends, family, expression, and exercise. Oh yeah, by the way, keeping things in balance doesn’t mean you need to form a rigid, structured schedule… You can be flexible and still lead a well-balanced life.

6. Consider taking healthy supplements

Supplements have long been known to help aid in mental processing and boost physical functioning. I personally have taken a multivitamin in combination with 3.6 grams of fish oil on a daily basis for almost 2 years straight. Overall, I feel that the combination has worked phenomenal for helping my physical functioning and mental processing – especially the fish oil. At certain times throughout the 2 year period, I mixed and matched (experimented with) different supplements like Zinc, chelated Magnesium, etc. and evaluated how I was affected.

I found that I was definitely affected differently by certain supplements and supplement combinations. Some supplements that I took just served as a placebo, while others made me tired. As I took fish oil, I could literally feel a difference in my relaxation and in my outlook on life. Fish oil has greatly helped me to become a more conscious human being. Not only that, there is so much well-documented research associated with positive changes and fish oil, that I have found no need to stop my daily dose of 3.6 grams. As far as my multivitamin supplement goes – I take it to ensure that my body is getting an optimal amount of vital nutrients at all times. I often exercise a lot and burn off a lot of potentially useful vitamins. Taking a multivitamin replenishes my body’s need for essential vitamins.

If you haven’t yet considered taking supplements, I highly recommend that you at least give one a test run. I know that they can be slightly expensive if you are in a financial bind, but they could significantly boost your mental and physical functioning. I have heard great things about flaxseed oil, fish oil, multivitamins, ginkgo biloba, and even vitamin B12 in certain cases. Do a personal experiment to see what works best for you. In the end, you may decide that all supplements are ineffective and that they don’t help your consciousness. For most people though, I’d be willing to bet that fish oil gives them at least a cognitive boost… scientific research has proven that fish oil increases I.Q. and emotional stability. So always be open minded and consider taking supplements if you aren’t already. One last thing: fish oil sometimes takes 2 + months to fully kick-in. For me it took nearly 2 months for me to feel it’s effects. I didn’t notice overnight changes, but over a period of 2 years, I have noticed significant changes in my thought-patterns and entire life.

A side-note: just because a supplement is all natural doesn’t mean that it is effective or healthy. Always do some research before experimenting with various supplements! If you are currently on medication, talk to your doctor to see how the supplement you are taking may react.

7. Celebrate your accomplishments

Celebrating your accomplishments is a form of self-praise and self-respect. When you value yourself and appreciate yourself, you are likely to celebrate your accomplishments, and most importantly, have accomplishments to celebrate! When reaching a milestone in your career, exercise routine, or even your spiritual life, it is important to celebrate your achievements. Celebrating what you have achieved serves as positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement will make you even more likely to accomplish your future goals; it is a concept that has been psychologically proven to be healthy and encourages positive behavior.

Whether you feel that throwing a big party is necessary, or treating yourself to an expensive restaurant with some friends is best, there are many ways to celebrate personal achievements. You could go to the store and buy yourself a new outfit, take the day off of work to celebrate, go to a movie, invite friends over, etc. There are many way to be creative with how you celebrate too. One way of celebration (and conscious advancement) could be treating yourself to a meditation retreat. Whichever form of celebration that you feel will provide you with optimal satisfaction is probably the best way to celebrate! Celebrating is fun, rewarding, and a great way to make yourself happier. It will also enhance your levels of overall self-love and respect – both of which are integral ingredients in the process of raising your consciousness.

8. Always have positive intentions

Positive intentions often arise from having a positive mindset. Having a positive mindset and forming the habit of holding good intentions is a great way to boost your level of conscious awareness. When you intend for positive events to happen in your life and always have positive expectations – your life will naturally attract positive people and will yield happiness. Holding bad or negative intentions will usually result in the manifestation of negative events in your life.

The quickest way to change your mindset from a negative one to a more positive one in order to help you form good intentions is to change your focus. Exercises for learning to shift your focus include: meditation, self-hypnosis, brainwave entrainment, and neurofeedback. See more helpful suggestions provided in this article: 26 Ways To Create Your Reality. As soon as you can shift your focus from negativity to the positives in life, you will be able to shift your mindset. When you understand how to change your mindset through the act of changing your focus, you can learn to always have positive intentions. Each and every time that you intend to advance consciously, you are holding a positive intention! Each time that you hold the intention “to hold a positive intention” when in a negative mindset, you are holding a positive intention (a little more complicated concept).

Learning to always hold positive intentions gives us hope when faced with even the darkest, gloomiest of situations. Positive intentions and thoughts are what allow and inspire individuals to consciously advance. When you hold no intentions at all, you are allowing your life to be run on autopilot – whether that is a good thing or not, I don’t know… I do know, though, that when you form your own positive intentions – you become more in control of your consciousness.

9. Read and recommend 4 Mind 4 Life dot com to others

Remind yourself of ways to become more conscious by re-reading this series and other articles here at 4 Mind 4 Life dot com. I always try to provide you with the most valuable advice to help you boost your level of consciousness. Though the main focus of this website is boosting brain power, your level of consciousness goes hand-in-hand with how powerful your brain is; the more powerful your brain, the easier time in raising your consciousness you will have.

If you know anyone that is interested in raising their current state of consciousness to a higher level, feel free to recommend them to this series. Point them to my table of contents section and feel free to print out any articles that you find helpful. Recommending 4 Mind 4 Life to others will help give others an idea of what it takes to guide their consciousness to a higher level of functioning. Realize that for every person that this series impacts, the quicker that humanity advances as a whole towards a state of peace and love.

I can only promote my message to a certain extent. Each time that you help me by recommending my website or this series to another person, you will be helping guide others towards positive change. Hopefully we all will one day be able to live in a state of harmonious peace and love here on Earth. I send my blessings to: everyone who reads this series, recommends this series, recommends this website, or applies advice from this website to better their own consciousness!

10. [This space is intentionally left blank for you to fill in]

Nobody knows and understands what works best to help your consciousness better than you! Be creative, fill in the last blank already! Choose an activity that you enjoy that renews your sense of wellbeing and resonates with your soul. By choosing an activity to use that is intrinsically motivating to you, you will be able to easily carry through with the process of raising your consciousness by just practicing this certain activity. By letting you choose an activity to use to make you more conscious, you are much more likely to succeed on your quest to advance in your state of consciousness.

This marks the last number of the last post in the Raising Your Consciousness: 10X10 Series. I sincerely hope that you all enjoyed it and personally feel that it will serve as a great reference to every visitor in the table of contents section. Feel free to print out your favorite chapter from this series (or all of them). Keep them to yourself or share them with others. Feel free to link to this series from your website if you feel like blogging about it. My goal when writing this series was to motivate others to raise their consciousness and start a movement towards becoming more conscious individuals here on Earth. For now, soak in this series, and let it saturate in your mind for awhile. Are you ready to become more conscious?

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1. Be a mediator; bring peace to the world

There are many situations that arise from negativity in this world. One way to break up these situations in a peaceful manner is to be a mediator. A mediator is a person that is able to resolve conflict between two parties and think of a peaceful solution to a conflict that both parties agree upon. There are many training courses and a lot of information online that will help you build mediation skills if you are interested. Being a successful mediator requires practice, love, and compassion for others.

Back in grade school, I was fortunate to be trained in the art of mediation. I was a “peer mediator” at my school and learned to mediate by helping other kids resolve their conflicts peacefully. I went through a one-week training course and really learned a lot. I am now able to successfully, and consciously help others solve problems in a quick and effective way. The great thing about becoming a mediator is that you have the ability to train others, and bring peace to this Earth.

Being able to bring peace instead of fuel-for-a-fiery-argument is a great way to help raise consciousness on a global scale. Each time that you are able to bring peace and act as a mediator, you bring more peace to the world that we live in. You also set a great example for others. When they see that you are able to resolve relatively large conflicts in an easy, simple, and effective manner, they will be much more likely to respect your mediation skills. In fact, you will be able to further help the world by training anyone that is interested in learning mediation.

Another great thing about mediation is that it allows you to empathize with others. To hold a successful mediation session, you must first listen to the conflicting points of view. Next, you hold an active discussion involving the conflicting groups and figure out a solution to solve the problem in a peaceful manner. You may offer suggestions and tweak the suggestions to successfully accommodate the needs of both parties. After you’ve finished the mediation process, you can make both parties sign an official document of peace so that the stick to the agreement. In the end, the best part about the entire mediation process is the satisfaction that you can derive from being the individual to help others solve their problems. The satisfaction that helping others brings will also help you discover true happiness in your life; you will notice that your ability to help has helped raise the collective consciousness of humanity here on Earth.

2. Build an accurate model of reality

Building an accurate model of reality is a great way to explore the endless possibilities that life has to offer. In my personal building and shaping of my reality, I have used meditation to help me create. Meditation allows you to gain full conscious control of your thoughts. Your thoughts happen to be what will help you in the process of creating your reality. Building an accurate model of reality simply means: taking control of your thoughts and focus. When you are able to take control of your focus, building reality in a manner that allows you to share love with others, live your purpose, and become as conscious of a person as possible, becomes an easier task.

At the lowest states of mental functioning, building an accurate model of reality may seem somewhat difficult. In lower states, thoughts are more randomized, thinking is unfocused, and therefore your reality becomes unfocused. What you physically manifest is random when you have randomized thinking. Until you hold the desire to work towards becoming more conscious or building an accurate model of reality that reflects your true purpose, you won’t move forward much in conscious advancement.

To build an accurate model of reality, experimentation plays a big role. Experimentation with belief systems, spiritual practices, customs, values, etc. will all change your reality. To build an accurate model of reality, it is important to keep an open-mind and learn to experience as many different states of consciousness as possible. When we are constantly tweaking our mind and consciousness, we will develop a greater understanding in the process of building an accurate model of reality. I talk about meditation a lot – (in case you haven’t noticed) – and feel that it helps the most with building an accurate model of reality. If you are working to develop your consciousness and build an accurate model of reality, meditation is the recommended aid of choice.

3. Be a leader; influence as many people as possible

Being a positive leader is an awesome way to raise your level of consciousness. Leaders often are able to influence large groups of people and develop a lot of conscious power. Each person that a leader influences builds power for that leader’s message. Now, power shouldn’t be thought of from an egotistical point of view – this is a view of lower states of consciousness. There are some people that look to build power through greed, hate, fear, etc. This is not the type of power that you want to strive to build.

The type of power that you should hope to develop should come from your ability to positively influence as many people as possible. Whether it be through your interaction, your blog, your speeches, your music, etc. – expressing positivity as a leader sets a great example for others. When you become a great leader, you have the ability to inspire others to make more positive change here in this world. Your goal as a leader should be to emotionally touch and inspire as many individuals as possible. This will help raise consciousness as an entirety here on Earth.

Becoming a leader has potential to make many people become more conscious. If you look at how many people an internet blogger like Steve Pavlina has inspired simply through his online website, it’s incredible… The guy gets millions of readers a month and is able to share his positive message to others and influence many people. His message has inspired me writing this Raising Your Consciousness: 10X10 Series and certain decisions that I’ve made in my life. You can tell that Steve is a leader who expresses his purpose in a manner that has made a big, potentially life-changing, impact in the lives of millions. And Steve is just one of many positive examples out there in the world.

4. Travel the world; learn new cultures

Traveling the world most definitely has potential to change and expand your state of awareness. As you travel to different places, you are able to learn about unique: ways of life, ways of thinking, religions, customs, values, etc. There are new weather patterns, there is new scenery, there are different faces, and new consciousness-expanding experiences happen. Traveling to many different parts of the world is one of the things that I hope to one day do in order to experience life on a bigger scale.

Traveling has so much potential to alter your consciousness, it’s literally insane. Here is just one of many crazy examples: You could flock the country and go to France, learn French, meet the love of your life, have kids in Paris, start a successful French business and have a huge influence over the country of France. You really never know what traveling can bring to the surface of your life or inspire you to do. There are so many new opportunities that arise when traveling that you may have been previously unaware of. Traveling also presents the opportunity to relate to many different, diverse social groups, ethnic groups, religious groups, etc. It also allows you to gain the opportunity of experiencing different ways of life and experience different living-conditions.

There so much potential for boosting your level of consciousness that I personally highly recommend traveling whenever you get the chance. Staying in the same environment for too long gets yourself into the habit of not wanting to change. Not wanting to change leads to stagnation… So if you happen to be a person who enjoys traveling and participating in new life-experiences, you will also become a more conscious person in the process!

5. Be empathetic; feel others emotions

Being empathetic is a great way to spread love and compassion in the world. Spreading love and compassion are great ways to help you become a more conscious person. Advanced empathetic abilities can be cultivated when accessing the lower brainwave states: both the theta and delta brainwaves. Delta brainwaves have been strongly linked to literally feeling the emotions of others. Sometimes feeling emotional baggage of others actually can become distressing, but it can usually be used to your conscious advantage: especially in relationships.
Making a conscious effort to become a more empathetic person means trying to understand and relate to others and their emotions in as an effective method as possible. Helping others work through difficult emotions and being around for the emotional support of others will help you quickly boost your awareness level. Developing a High-Performance Mind, will also help you learn to tap into empathetic states of mind when you need to access them, and shift out of them so you don’t pack on too much emotional baggage at all times. Too much empathy forces you to focus your attention away from your own emotions and more on feeling the emotions of others.

I think that being empathetic involves being compassionate to others and a natural wanting to help others improve their quality of life. Good friends are often empathetic towards each others needs. They often develop strong emotional bonds through spending time together and having experiences together. These emotional bonds and ability to read each others emotions aids in the process of learning to become more empathetic. Whether you are currently overly empathetic or your empathy is lacking, knowing when to be empathetic around others will work wonders for your state of consciousness.

6. Set goals; work to achieve them

Setting goals to advance in life is a great way to improve the quality of your life and consciousness. Setting positive goals and working to accomplish them is one of the single most effective ways to advance consciously, without even having the intention to advance consciously. For example: you may set the goal to exercise everyday for one month to improve your health. By setting and completing a goal like this, your main focus is improving your health, however, you are indirectly improving your consciousness too.

If you aren’t currently setting goals in life, make a list of everything that you hope to accomplish. For now, choose one item that’s most important to you off of your list. Then devise a plan to work towards its achievement. You may even want to form a mastermind group – as was mentioned as #10 in the Raising Your Consciousness: Part 8 article. Mastermind groups act as a group of positive individuals to motivate you to achieve your goal and help you with the process. I highly recommend that you build one if you haven’t.

Your first goal could be working to raise your consciousness to a certain level. After all, raising your consciousness to a higher level will make it much easier for you to accomplish your goals! Personally, raising my level of consciousness has become such a daily routine, that I am able to work towards a completely separate goal at the same time. When setting goals, use the S-M-A-R-T process: S – specific; M – measurable; A – attainable; R – realistic; T – timely. Setting S.M.A.R.T. goals significantly helps you to set highly-effective goals that you will be able to easily accomplish. Know that setting goals is a great way to implement healthy habits and become more conscious.

7. Try brainwave entrainment

Though brainwave entrainment seems like a new-agey, experimental technique, it is a great tool for advancing consciously that actually works. Not only does brainwave entrainment work well, it is an extremely effective way to develop a powerful brain and advanced state of consciousness. By practicing brainwave entrainment, your brain becomes more flexible in the process of shifting to various brainwave states.

Brainwave entrainment is different than neurofeedback due to the fact that: brainwave entrainment will not teach you to consciously access (or shift to) various brainwave states. What it will do, though, is make your brain more flexible throughout the day when faced with various tasks. Here’s a great example of a person who is an avid practicer of brainwave entrainment. Example: Let’s name the person for the example Troy. Let’s say that Troy has practiced all basic frequencies of brainwave entrainment over the period of one year. Troy’s brain has become much more flexible than average throughout the day. When talking to a stranger or working on his blog, his brain may tap into a state of high-beta brainwaves that he had previously entrained.

He does not consciously access the high-beta brainwave state, but his brain automatically jumps (or shifts) to the beta-brainwave connection that was established through entrainment. His brain automatically is able to tap specific brainwave states that are optimal for certain tasks. Let’s then say that shortly after a long day at work, Troy goes to lay down and relax. Because of his entrainment, Troy’s brain is able to automatically shift to the alpha brainwave much more quickly than average – he will relax with ease because his brain knows the alpha frequency. Moving on… Let’s say that Troy is ready to go to bed. Right before falling asleep, Troy’s brain will have the flexibility to tap into the alpha-theta range that he had previously entrained. This will allow him to fall asleep with ease. As Troy sleeps, his brain may even shift to the lowest theta-delta range that he had previously entrained. Each task throughout your day has optimal brainwave patterns for the given task. Beta brainwaves are great for conversation and focus, while alpha are great for winding down. Since Troy has practiced brainwave entrainment, his brain naturally sorts out all of the entrained brainwaves and chooses one that is optimal for each of his tasks.

An average person without brainwave entrainment may have difficulty in the process of shifting to other brainwave states. He or she may have difficulty tapping into high-beta brainwaves for conversation or reading. He or she may also have difficulty winding down to relax – or even falling asleep at night. He or she may have difficulty accessing the lower brainwave states required to fall asleep quickly or be highly-creative. This is why brainwave entrainment can have such a huge conscious impact on making life easier and the expansion of consciousness easier. You give the featured brainwave software featured in my recommended products section a test-run if you are interested. In my opinion, brainwave entrainment is very powerful method of personal transformation that is wise to use. It also has been proven to boosting brain power by allowing you to develop more neural connections. Give brainwave entrainment a test-run and evaluate how effective it is at helping you advance consciously.

8. Try self-hypnosis; as powerful as meditation

What many people do not realize is that the act of self-hypnosis is very helpful for achieving states of complete, controlled relaxation. During self-hypnosis you develop full, complete control of the beliefs that are implanted in your subconscious mind. Self-hypnosis relaxes your body and takes you into a state of highly-focused, deep relaxation. There are many great tapes and samples that you can get online. I’ve downloaded around 10 great full self-hypnosis sessions online.

Self-hypnosis is not an automatic belief-changer though. Like anything, it takes many sessions and conscious implantation of new beliefs for it to be effective at changing beliefs. It also depends on your current level of consciousness and understanding of self-hypnosis. If you decide that you want to give self-hypnosis a shot, do some research on it so that you will know what to expect and so that you are able to debunk any myths or unrealistic expectations.
What I’ve found to be cool is the fact that during self-hypnosis, brainwaves shift to patterns of high-synchronization that have been observed in deep meditation. I don’t think that either self-hypnosis or meditation is more effective than one another. What I do think though, is that some people will show a definite preference to meditate over self-hypnosis and others may prefer to practice self-hypnosis over meditation. No matter whether you enjoy self-hypnosis or meditation more, they are both exercises that will allow you to elevate your consciousness. Give self-hypnosis a shot if you haven’t already – it is a perfectly safe, exercise that will benefit your consciousness greatly.

9. Develop your chakras

What is a chakra?

Wikipedia’s definition: “chakras are thought to vitalise the physical body and to be associated with interactions of a physical, emotional and mental nature. They are considered loci of life energy, or prana, (also called shakti, or chi), which is thought to flow among them along pathways called nadis. The function of the chakras is to spin and draw in this Universal Life Force Energy to keep the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health of the body in balance.”

My definition of chakras: key energy centers located in our body.

I am by no means a guru on the topic of chakras and am still in the learning process. So, if you are further interested in developing and cleansing your chakras I recommend reading literature on the topic or doing research on the internet to see what you find. I found this website discussing them to be very interesting. It seems to be a fairly reliable source to learn more about the topic, so here’s a link to ChakraEnergy.com. At this website, you can learn about the basic functions of each of your chakras and can even take a test to see how active your chakras are.

Learning to clear and cleanse your chakras could prove to be one of the single best investments that you’ve ever made for yourself. Chakras hold the key allowing you to tap into your higher-self and connect with energy from the Universe. Like Wikipedia, I also believe that working with your chakras can allow you to keep an optimal: spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical balance. Working directly with your chakras will help you become a more conscious person, making you more aware of your body’s energy centers and how they can affect your entire life.

A sidenote: chakra is pronounced “shock-ruh.”

10. Build Kundalini energy

What is Kundalini?

Wikipedia’s definition: “‘coiled’ energy. In Indian yoga, a “corporeal energy”- an unconscious, instinctive or libidinal force or Shakti, envisioned either as a goddess or else as a sleeping serpent coiled at the base of the spine, hence a number of English renderings of the term such as ‘serpent power’. Kundalini is considered a part of the subtle body along with chakras (energy centres) and nadis (channels). The overall conception has many points in common with Chinese theories of acupuncture.”

My definition of Kundalini: a (usually latent) energy force that is coiled at the base of our spine. We’ve all felt Kundalini from time to time during extremely emotional moments, when a certain song plays, or when we have a powerful experience. What does Kundalini feel like? Kundalini the energy that makes our spine tingle. We get goosebumps throughout our body and our entire spine tingles with emotional energy. Kundalini is a large amount of energy that can poke it’s head at random times. It can also be fully released and harnessed. The jolts that most of us feel are only minute amounts of Kundalini.

There are exercises and training that a person can go through which allow them to tap and harness their full Kundalini energy. The release of full Kundalini energy, also known as a Kundalini awakening, is a powerful experience that makes a person highly conscious of themselves, their surroundings, the universe, and fills a person with tons of energy. Kundalini is not the same thing as developing an awakened mind brainwave pattern, however, it can be a side-effect in selective cases. Sometimes through intense meditation, Kundalini energy gets accidentally released too.

Kundalini is a completely healthy, natural and powerful method to advance consciously. It is not recommended to go into a Kundalini experience blindly, though. Do some research on Kundalini and consider working with a guru or person who has been through the entire process if you hope to release yours. This way, you will know what to expect and you won’t break into an accidental Kundalini awakening where you don’t know how to harness or deal with the energy. Breaking into a Kundalini awakening on accident could really throw you’re consciousness for an emotional loop filled with confusion and stress. Successfully harnessing your Kundalini energy through an awakening process, will naturally make you a highly conscious human being!

One last reminder: awakening your Kundalini energy should be done properly, under supervision or communication with a highly conscious individual who has already been through the process OR who has been trained in the process!

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1. Clear emotional blocks

Nearly everyone has some form of subconscious emotional blocks that they’ve suppressed for most of their lives. Emotional blocks can develop in childhood and can be forgotten by the time a person reaches adulthood. Emotional blocks can really take full control over your life if you don’t properly deal with them. Usually, diseases like anxiety, depression, and trauma are all the result of strong built-up emotional blocks. Emotional blocks can be defined as “emotions that haven’t been fully released by your subconscious mind.” This is why, often times when meditating, we recall past experiences and are able to deal with past negative experiences in a healthy manner.

In reaction to negative experiences, our brain wants to naturally block out the pain instead of dealing with it directly. Often times the resulting emotion is anxiety or depression. If you keep letting your pent-up negative emotional energy build, before expressing it, it can potentially become very dangerous to yourself and others. It is important to clear these emotional blocks. Luckily there happen to be many great ways to do so! Before you think about clearing emotional blocks, you must mentally prepare yourself and agree that you are ready to do so. It can be a very powerful (intense) emotional experience that may catch us off guard.

Often times we are operating in a mental state that isn’t currently aware of any personal emotional blocks. To shift our awareness to a deeper level, we must access the deeper brainwave states – increasing the production of alpha and theta brainwaves. In the alpha and theta brainwave states, past memories and emotions become easy to recall and are able to be released. If you think that you’ve let emotional blockages build up for awhile now, they may be fairly severe. Emotional blockages often manifest as extreme forms of stress, anxiety, unfocused thinking, and depression.

Ways that emotional blocks can be successfully dealt with are: through meditation, by working with a trained therapist, through E.M.D.R., neurofeedback, brainwave entrainment, and sometimes just through deep relaxation in supplement to talk therapy. It is important to allow your trapped, negative memories to resurface and your emotional blocks to clear. When emotional blocks are cleared, you will have a much easier time expressing who you truly are and how you feel. Your consciousness will feel elevated, and you will have free-flowing emotions through your entire body.

It is not advised to try to deal with very powerful emotional blocks or repressed traumatic memories by yourself. Consult a trained, certified therapist or psychologist to help you work through your past powerful emotion. Recognize that when you are able to work through your past emotional blocks, you will allow yourself to reach a higher state of consciousness and functioning. Looking to clear your emotional blocks will ultimately benefit all areas of your life, allow you to tap into deeper levels of awareness, and will aid in the process of intention-manifestation.

2. Clear out subconscious “cobwebs”

What exactly are subconscious “cobwebs?” I refer to subconscious cobwebs as any unfulfilling: beliefs and emotions that have been carried around in your subconscious mind for too long. Many times, our subconscious mind is carrying around extra negative emotional baggage and limiting beliefs that need to be released or replaced. In my opinion, the best and easiest way to clear subconscious “cobwebs” is through meditation.

In order for you to clear out your subconscious “cobwebs” and replace them with a clean, focused, and organized subconscious mind, I recommend that you try a few relaxation exercises such as: meditation, self-hypnosis, and internal reflection. Meditation is an obvious exercise of choice: it gives you freedom to develop inner focus inside your subconscious mind. As you begin a meditation routine, you may begin to notice that you begin to remember past events that were unfulfilling or past emotions that were painful. During this process, it is important to accept your negative experiences and think of yourself as being fully healed from each experience when your meditation time is up.

Here is a personal example: I go into deep meditation. Next, I tap into my slower alpha and theta brainwaves and thus into my subconscious mind. While I have access to my subconscious, I may ask it to send me a past memory, belief, or “cobweb” that I’ve been reluctant to deal with. Then, it may send me a picture or live footage of a real event that happened in my life that really hurt me emotionally. I then, sort-of, re-live the event in my mind, and fully accept its validity. As I come out of my meditation, I consciously implant the belief that re-living this event has fully healed and revitalized my subconscious mind.

Eventually, you will reach a state beyond present and past and be mentally 100% focused in “the now” or present moment. But from all of the literature that I’ve found, this can only be achieved through practicing meditation for an extended period of time. So if you want to clear out your subconscious “cobwebs” and take full control of your subconscious mind and the rest of your life, consider trying meditation to connect with your deeper self. It will raise your level of consciousness by allowing you to bring unsatisfying beliefs and memories to the surface.

3. Turn off the T.V. already

Depending on your current level of consciousness, watching T.V. may actually be a good thing. For those individuals operating at an extremely low level of functioning, watching T.V. gives them hope, satisfaction, and a boost in consciousness. With that said, to permanently elevate your consciousness, it is recommended to refrain from watching T.V. If you think about the act of watching T.V., it doesn’t reflect your life’s purpose nor allow you to be fully productive. The time that you currently spend watching T.V. could be put to better use by allowing you to accomplish a personal goal, allowing you to exercise your body, allowing you to boost your brain power, etc.

There are many reasons that you should not watch T.V. One of them is: you will be able to raise your consciousness much more quickly if you refrain from watching T.V. All of the negative views and conditioning that a person derives from watching T.V. can be a negative influence on your life. When you are operating at a higher-level of functioning and are watching people talk on T.V. at a lower level of functioning, it certainly will not help you raise your consciousness by watching T.V. If you feel that it’s necessary to cancel cable or shut of your T.V. for a week to give it a test run, by all means: try it! Turning off the tube will not only make you become a more conscious person, it will allow you to be much more productive. All T.V. serves as is an escape from higher levels of consciousness.

4. Read a good book; knowledge is power

Whether you enjoy reading fiction or non-fiction books (or both), reading books is a phenomenal way to help you boost your conscious brain power. Reading books provides you with knowledge, creativity, and allows you to fully expand your intellect. Don’t limit yourself to reading books either: blogs are fine (especially 4 Mind 4 Life), magazines are fine, newspapers are usually fine, etc. Reading a good book allows your consciousness to be taken on a journey through a world of information, or through a world of complete fantasy.

To get yourself on the right track of becoming a more conscious person, there are many great books that you can read that will help guide your consciousness in the right direction. One such book, that I’ve previously recommended is: The High-Performance Mind by Anna Wise. This book teaches you how to consciously control your mental brainwave state, go into deep meditation, and how to advance consciously by targeting selective brainwave patterns. Go to Amazon.com and search the books section for: consciousness (I gave you the perfect link)… Most of these books are aiming to increase your knowledge and provide you with methods to help you become a more conscious person.

Reading books will also help you become a smarter person, with a mind that is full of new thoughts and ideas. The more credible information that you are able to read, the more information and knowledge your consciousness has to play with. After all, knowledge allows you to cultivate power and become more aware of what was previously unknown. I know you’ve probably heard this before, but: turn off your T.V. and start reading instead! Reading is a great alternative to T.V. watching.

5. Expand your creativity

There are many ways for us to expand our creativity and abilities to creatively think. Developing ways to creatively think not only boosts brain power, it boosts your consciousness. The use of brainstorming, creative visualization, Zen koans, and meditation have all been known to increase creative thinking skills. Creativity is an important trait to develop when dealing with your reality. Having creativity allows your mind to easily solve even the most difficult of problems. Creativity is a great tool that can make your life much easier.

When you become more conscious, your creative abilities become stronger. Work to think of creative solutions to problems in your life. Some great ways to increase creativity are: brainstorming – making lists / webs, listening to music, draw a picture, or practice visualization. No matter how creative you are at this moment, you can always strive to enhance it for conscious benefit. The ability to be creative and think-outside-the-box usually occurs in the lower frequency brainwave states of alpha and theta. Accessing these states through creativity allows you to bypass the conscious-thought process of your left-hemisphere’s beta brainwaves and think of a creative solution to any given problem.

Becoming more creative is a side-effect that comes with being more conscious. As your overall brain power and cognitive functioning increases, you will develop much stronger levels of creativity. Being creative and practicing conscious creative thinking is a great exercise that allows you to raise your level of awareness. If your creative-side is currently lacking, think of ways to step-it-up a notch!

6. Develop strong people-skills

Developing strong people-skills will allow you to become more conscious in many different ways. Having strong people skills allows you to be comfortable expressing who you really are in any given social situation. Without developing strong people skills, you may be stuck in a state of fear around others in social settings. You may be completely uncomfortable with expressing your true beliefs, values, and discussing your lifestyle in front of others. Developing strong people-skills takes courage and being a highly-conscious person.

Communication to express your feelings, thoughts, and beliefs is necessary for others to know who you truly are. Being socially connected with others allows you to express your emotions in a healthy manner and also helps you be more empathetic and tuned in to loving others. There are currently many ways for a person to develop his or her people skills. In my opinion, the best way for you to develop your people skills to the maximum level is to force yourself to be around others constantly.

Though you may not thoroughly enjoy being around everyone at all times, you can learn to consciously accept others for who they are and how they act. Developing people skills allows you to successfully convey your point of view and share your purpose with others. You can spread love through social interaction and learn to communicate to help you get what you want out in life. Cultivating a strong set of people-skills will allow you to become a more conscious individual and will allow you to share your love with others.

7. Allow yourself to be inspired; who are you inspired by?

Allowing yourself to be inspired helps you to take passionate action. In order for us to be inspired, we usually need to have some sort of emotional connection. Maybe you are deeply inspired by a song that you recently heard on the radio, maybe you are inspired by Barack Obama, maybe you are inspired by Hilary Clinton, maybe you find Pablo Picasso’s artwork inspiring. Everyone is different and everyone is inspired by different things here on Earth.

The key to successfully using inspiration to help you advance consciously is to find out what single thing inspires you more than anything. Chances are that what inspires you most, is in some way connected with your purpose here on Earth. And, as mentioned earlier in the Raising Your Consciousness: 10X10 Series, knowing and living your purpose is a great way to advance consciously. To find out who or what you are most inspired by, make a list. Begin by brainstorming and writing down every single thing that you find inspiring. After 10 minutes or so of brainstorming, reflect on your list and the items that you think really stand-out from the rest.

After you’ve found the activities or people that are most inspiring in your life, take some sort of action to implement their inspiration in your life. The implementation process may involve listening to that artist’s music, buying a Picasso painting to put up in your room, writing a song of your own, etc. When you take action based off of true inspiration, you allow yourself to consciously connect with your higher-self and get on the right path towards discovering your true purpose. Inspiration can really work magic in your life if you let it. Taking actions based on positive inspiration will guide your consciousness to a higher level with very little effort.

8. Be courteous towards others

Being courteous to others is a great way to share love, positivity, and a great way to set a good example for others. Each time that you set an example, you have some influence onto others. Being kind and respectful to others is an awesome way to spread positivity and motivate others to become more conscious individuals. Each time that you practice a healthy habit or put kind actions on display for others to see, they will be much more inclined to follow suit. Each person has the power to influence others and our consciousness as a whole.

When one person acts negatively for others to see, witnesses of this action may then think it’s appropriate to act negatively in their lives. When one person acts positively for others to see, witnesses of this action may start to become more positive and set a better example for others. Being courteous means being polite, sharing your knowledge, helping others in need, and respecting others’ belief systems. Practice being courteous to everyone that you meet. Being courteous involves being compassionate. When you are able to be courteous to everyone that you meet, you are raising your awareness through compassion.

9. Attend a spiritual retreat / gathering

There are many spiritual retreats and spiritual opportunities that can quickly boost your state of consciousness. Meditation retreats and gatherings with your religious group are two of many ways to raise your consciousness. The act of going to church is yet another form of attending a spiritual gathering. While you’re at church, you may feel extremely welcome, connected with others, and be surrounded by many friendly, positive people. You may also learn something about yourself and your life.

The people that come to spiritual events and gatherings often are working to raise their level of consciousness in life (you will have something positive in common). Going to an event like a Holosync retreat may also be a great way to connect with a fun, positive group of individuals that could prove to be lifelong friends. You will never truly know and understand the possibilities of conscious transformation until you actually attend a gathering or retreat. In my opinion, attending a great meditation retreat may be one of the single most effective and quickest ways to advance consciously and transform your life. You’ll learn a lot about yourself, others, and meet a lot of great people.

10. Form a mastermind group

Forming a mastermind group is a great way to help you become more conscious and complete your goals. To participate in a mastermind group, you must first gather up some trustworthy friends. If you gather up non-trustworthy friends or people with negative influence, it won’t work well. Be sure to ask positive individuals to join your group. Next, schedule times that your entire group will meet to discuss personal challenges, goals, accomplishments, etc. Your group’s schedule can be to meet every 2 weeks, 3 weeks, month, every week, etc. You need to make the best decision. As you meet with your group of friends, make it known that you all will be as encouraging, helpful, empathetic, and positive towards each other and their goals. You serve as motivation for your friends in your mastermind group, and they serve as positive motivation for you.

Next, discuss one goal that you hope to work towards or accomplish before the next meeting. Develop a plan with your group and allow every person to share as much positive energy with each other as possible. Realize that when you work with other people, it is much easier to make your dreams come true. You aren’t a loner on your quest and feel strong because you happen to have full support from a positive group of individuals. As you meet, you help each other develop plans to accomplish their goals and serve as motivation for each other to carry through.

If you have similar goals, you can network with another person too. For example: Let’s say that both my friend Seth and Josh wanted to start a blog. They could each work with each other to help with ideas, put each other on their blogrolls, and do research together. Or they could even work separately and give each other phone-calls if they are stuck on a part of blog development or would like an opinion about the looks of their blog. Basically, if you and another person in your mastermind group have the same type of idea, your life just got a whole lot easier because you can work together with that person!

Mastermind groups are wonderful ways to advance consciously. They are a form of conscious, positive support that allows you to accomplish your goals with ease. Social support (i.e. a positive group of friends) is always great to have when working to become more conscious. Heck, your first project at your mastermind group could be to raise your consciousness to a level that allows you to consciously create happiness. Do whatever you want with your group, have fun, be positive, and realize that you are raising your consciousness in the process!

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1. Practice a religion

Practicing a religion is a phenomenal way to become a more conscious person. I personally don’t follow one religion, because I’ve adopted beliefs from many different religions to best serve my life. However, I used to go to church, and be affiliated with the Lutheran religion. Before I was able to raise my consciousness to a higher level, I wasn’t really aware of the fact that you don’t need to follow a religion to find peace, bring happiness to your life, or fix your problems in life.

With all that said, many individuals functioning at a lower level of consciousness actually feel better by following a specific religion and it’s practices. As you raise your level of awareness, you will find that there is really no best religion or Utopian religion that is optimal. You will also find out that religions can be a great way to spread peace and love within your life and the lives of your family, friends, neighbors, etc.

Think of various religious practices like climbing a mountain with many different people that each have different starting points surrounding the base of the mountain. Everyone at the base of the mountain starts at a different point and different place from around the mountain because we are all different. No matter which religious path you choose, you begin to climb closer to the peak of the mountain. Depending on your stage of conscious advancement, you will be at a different place vertically on the mountain towards your peak.

When everyone advances in their religion and consciousness, they will begin to come closer to one another because they will get closer to the peak. When everyone has reach an enlightened state of awareness and spirituality, they meet with one another at the top of the mountain; spreading peace and sharing love. That’s why leaders like the Dalai Lama and the Pope are able to come together and work to create good in this world. Both men coming from completely different backgrounds are aiming to spread peace and love in the world.

Practicing religion doesn’t necessarily make you a more conscious human being. What will make you a more conscious human being is learning to practice your religion in a highly-conscious manner: sharing the peace and love within your religion in the lives of others. Also, incorporating various practices from your religion to better yourself and make yourself a more positive, loving person will help your consciousness. You’ve got to be the judge as to what religion or spiritual practices work best for you. I like to incorporate many different beliefs into my life to fit my personal conscious needs.

Therefore, I meditate, share love, pray, etc. Some of my actions could be analyzed and associated with various religions (i.e. meditation = Buddhism, prayer = Christianity, etc). However, I don’t even think of my beliefs or practices in a religious context. I think of them as personal spiritual practices that will aid in my conscious progression. I think it is more personally fulfilling to think of it that way.

Whatever you choose to do is completely up to you. Maybe you want to experiment with another religion, maybe you want to pick several spiritual practices and apply practices from all of them to your life. Maybe you only want to meditate or only want to pray. I don’t know what works for you. What matters most in conscious advancement is getting a feel for what practices actually make you become more consciously aware. You need to personally determine what works best for you. One of the best ways to do this is via experimenting with many different religions.

2. Respect the beliefs of others; do not force them to change

At no time is it loving or respectful to criticize the beliefs of others. No matter how consciously advanced another person is or isn’t, it is important to respect their thoughts and actions. Many times I see people that are working hard on their own conscious advancement try to lure others into their personal journey. Often it seems like a good idea to help individuals in your life that are struggling to advance consciously, but it’s not healthy to force them to join the journey.

When you try to force others to adopt your lifestyle, beliefs, and force them to become a more conscious human-being, you are indirectly expressing negative emotion towards the person and getting your ego heavily involved. Forcing others to change is not truly accepting them for who they are. If you feel like you should force others to join the consciousness expansion journey: It is important to realize that everyone will have their time to advance consciously and will reach the peak of the mountain in their consciousness eventually. Some people may advance consciously in their first lifetime, others may take several lifetimes, while others may take 1,000 billion light-years… (well maybe not that long), but you get the idea.

If another person wants to work with you to raise their level of consciousness, that is an entirely different story. By all means, help the other person out if he or she wants to become a more conscious individual. You can refer them to my Raising Your Consciousness: 10X10 Series to give them a starting point. You can also work with them directly by meditating together, practicing healthy habits together, forming a mastermind group, etc. In my opinion, it is awesome if you ever have the opportunity to help another person advance consciously because it gives you satisfaction and the other person satisfaction; a true win-win situation. In turn, you will naturally become more conscious through the act of helping another person consciously advance.

3. Ask questions about your life – and life in general

Attempting to learn more about life each day is a great way to increase your overall knowledge base and a great way to become a more conscious person. Nobody “knows-it-all” in life, that’s why asking questions about life and about certain situations in life, will really help you out on your journey. The idea here is to learn as much as possible so you can make your lifestyle more conscious, your choices more conscious, your actions more conscious, and yourself a more knowledgeable, empathetic person. Try to ask individuals that are more consciously advanced than you, questions about life. If you ask questions to people in lower states of functioning, they will probably guide you in the wrong direction.

If you don’t know who to ask questions to, start with knowledgeable people that you know. Ask your parents what they think, ask your friends questions, work with a therapist (ask him or her questions), ask people online what they think, ask me questions in my contact form if you want. Realize that asking the same question to different individuals will usually bring you completely different responses. Not all responses will be highly-conscious ones: you will learn to distinguish more conscious responses from less conscious ones as you keep asking questions.

If you don’t feel like asking others questions, a great way to learn more about life is to ask yourself internal questions. Often times we don’t realize that within ourselves, we hold the answer to every question about our life. To get a deeper look at yourself and discover more about who you really are, meditation is the most popular exercise of choice. There are many benefits that have been associated with meditation and I am an advocate for the practice of meditation. It is a very healthy habit that you should consider adding to your lifestyle if you haven’t already!

4. Understand that everything and everyone changes

Whether you realize it or not, everything and everyone is in a constant state of change. Change is undeniable and is happening to yourself and others as you are reading this. There is no way to prevent change, but there is a way to consciously control your change. First off, we must realize that everything and everyone is constantly changing. Some people are spiraling down to a lower state of consciousness, while others are raising their level of consciousness. Others are moving very slowly in one direction or the other. New animals are born every minute, old animals are dying every minute. You are getting physically older as you are reading this. I think you get the idea: everything is changing. We must all accept the fact that change is happening right now. We must also know that we have the conscious power to influence that change.

Things that lead to negative change on Earth include: killing others, destroying the Earth, greed, hate, negativity, lack of compassion (i.e. littering), stealing, etc. For every person that contributes negatively to our human experience here on Earth, is slowing the conscious growth of humanity as a whole. It is important for us to recognize these negative changes and attempt to stop or reverse them as soon as possible. Be the person to be compassionate, be the person to pick up the litter, be the person who pays for everything that you own. This will allow you to control your personal change for the better.

Creating a positive change on this Earth is easy, but it requires us to raise our level of consciousness. Every time that you pick up litter, bring peace instead of anger, buy instead of steal, you are raising your level of consciousness and setting a positive example for others to follow. The way to drown out our negativity is to be highly-conscious by raising your consciousness. Be the change that you want to see on this Earth and please: make it a positive, conscious one.

5. Realize that you are not alone; others are in the process of becoming more conscious

On your journey towards becoming a more conscious human being, it is important to realize that you are never alone in the process. Someone, somewhere is going through the same thing. You are not the only person that feels raising your consciousness is important. If that were the case, I wouldn’t have even published this series on 4 Mind 4 Life dot com. There are likely many individuals that are more consciously advanced than you are: which is a good thing. Look to these individuals for guidance along the way. We can always look to more conscious individuals for personal guidance and advice in life. A great way to realize that you are not the only person working to raise your consciousness is to attend a meditation retreat, ask a friend (or spouse) to join you in your quest to becoming more conscious, chat with others online in forums about it, etc.

There are people in lower states of awareness who are journeying to higher states of consciousness who may feel that their journey is a solo-path: that they should be alone when working on their process. I recommend being as vocal and as sharing with others as possible about your wanting to raise your awareness. Telling others about your intentions is a very powerful way to influence others to join you in the process. Telling others also serves as a huge motivator for you to carry through with your actions. If you currently feel that you are alone in your process or cannot seem to express yourself vocally, I recommend seeing a therapist or talking with a friend as soon as possible.

Expressing yourself and allowing others to see your positive actions is the only way that you will accept yourself on the path to become a more conscious person. For example: if you are trying to become a vegetarian in order to consciously advance, don’t try to hide it from your family and friends; try to show it! Tell them why you are a vegetarian and explain your entire view on life; they can accept it or reject it if they want. What’s most important here is that you are being conscious of your path and accepting of others’ reactions to it. When the seas of life become overwhelming and you feel as if you are in the process of raising your consciousness alone, take some time to realize that you aren’t; there are many people that would love to help you with your conscious progress.

6. Push your personal limits; be the best that you can be

Pushing your personal limits to become the best person that you can be is something that everyone should strive for. Deep down everyone wants to live their life to the fullest; few people actually tap their full potential. Pushing your personal limits is something that you can do in every area of your life: relationships, exercise, consciousness, spirituality, finances, etc. There are always ways to improve in any given area of your life. Pushing your personal limits in the areas that you feel most soulfully-connected with are the areas that you should probably put the most work into in order to feel the greatest sense of fulfillment.

Since everyone was blessed with a unique set of traits, talents, etc., everyone will not be equally good in any given area of life. When pushing your personal limits, it is important to devise your own limits, not strive to be better than anybody else’s limits. Settling to be as good as someone else is not settling for your best. What can you do to push your personal limits? When you start worrying about pushing your limits to compete with another person, negative emotions will naturally surface.

Try your best to improve your life to fit your needs, not to compete with someone else! Practicing personal development is a great way to push your personal limits and to become the best human being that you can possibly become. Give it a try sometime if you haven’t already. I can personally testify to the fact that it’s addicting and has made my difficult life become incredibly easy for me to live.

7. Invest in yourself; invest in your purpose

When you make money, do you invest it in stocks? Have you ever thought of investing it in yourself? Besides money, we can also invest time in none other than: ourselves. In my opinion, investing time in yourself is one of the most effective ways to become more conscious. I am in no way saying that you need to invest time in yourself by yourself (alone); what I am saying is that you should connect with the activities that you intrinsically enjoy most and pursue them; invest in your purpose if you know it.

Once you have discovered your life’s purpose, investing in yourself turns into a very fulfilling process. Investing time in yourself through the act of: boosting your brain power, practicing personal development, raising your consciousness, expanding your knowledge-base, etc. are great ways to invest in yourself that provide lifelong fulfillment. As you keep investing more (and more) time and money in yourself, you begin to share your life’s purpose with others.

This is when you begin to make a true conscious, quantum leap and meaningful impact in the lives of others. Many advanced healers, psychics, gurus, etc. are all at this purpose-driven, level of consciousness. They understand that sharing their purpose with others is the core part of their life. You too can discover your purpose and become a more conscious human being by constantly investing in yourself.

8. Be open to exploring consciousness

There are many ways to be open to exploring your consciousness. Several methods to explore your consciousness include: brainwave entrainment, meditation, raising your consciousness, trying new activities, exploring spirituality, exploring different social groups, changing your environment (i.e. traveling), neurofeedback, etc. There are many healthy ways to explore consciousness and learn more about who you really are. It is important to distinguish healthy ways to change your consciousness from unhealthy ones.

Unhealthy ways to explore consciousness include: taking illicit drugs, abusing prescription drugs, drinking alcohol, etc. People that try to make the argument that taking illicit drugs is a way to explore consciousness are definitely correct. They are most definitely a way to explore consciousness. With that said, they are by no means a healthy nor conscious way to explore consciousness… In fact, during and after use, most individuals drop to a lower state of conscious functioning or may even be completely unconscious of the experience: they may not remember a thing that happened. During exploring consciousness in an unhealthy way, there is a high risk of danger and permanent brain damage. In some cases, drugs have the ability to cause (induce) schizophrenia or psychosis.

Stick to choosing healthy ways to explore consciousness. If you don’t know of any healthy ways to expand your consciousness, start with the ones that I’ve listed. Many of the methods included within the Raising Your Consciousness: 10X10 Series also happen to be great ways to explore your consciousness. The exploration of consciousness itself leads to a person becoming more conscious. Realize that any way to explore consciousness in a healthy manner is highly recommended. Exploring consciousness allows you to find out more about yourself and how you feel when experiencing a wide-variety of states of awareness.

9. Develop a deep relationship with another person

Developing deep, trustworthy relationships with other people are not only great ways to help you become more conscious, they are a great way to share love and joy with others. If you haven’t already, try to develop a deep, personal relationship with at least one person. It could be a good friend, spouse, boyfriend / girlfriend, it could be a good therapist, it could be anyone that you feel is on-the-same-page as you in life, or at the same level of consciousness. It is important to find the right person before “spilling your guts” though. You want to avoid developing a deep relationship with the wrong candidate for the job.

If you just so happen to tell very personal things to another individual that you aren’t very close with, you may come across as being strange or even too deep for the other person to handle. Be sure to take time to cultivate the relationship for awhile before making it deeper. What makes relationships become deeper and trustworthy is the factor of time. If your relationships can stand the test of time, then it is probably perfectly fine to share your deepest secrets with another person. Having another person to discuss your personal inner-thoughts, turmoil, joy, and all other emotions will actually make you a stronger, more empathetic person.

10. Call upon your spirit guides

Everyone has spirit guides – whether they believe it or not. Before we are born, we are assigned spirit guides to do just what their name implies: guide our spirit. They can often provide us with valuable advice and some forms of psychic connection that most of us never knew were possible. One way to personally connect with them is through meditation. Though I am not at the level of consciousness where I am able to personally connect with them through meditation, I personally know other individuals that are able to connect with them at anytime.

I have connected with my spirit guides when I got what is called a Huna-reading by one of my most trusted friends. She is a highly-conscious spiritual teacher, advanced meditator, and an individual that makes a positive difference in the lives of others on a daily basis. One day when talking with her, she asked me if I would like to try a Huna-reading with her. I said, “sure” and agreed to trying the whole experience. Before the reading, she had me make a list of any questions that I wanted to ask my spirit guides. So of course, I had listed questions like: “What job will I have in 10 years?” -”Do I have a soul-mate?” – Who is my soul-mate?” – “What color is my aura?” “Should I listen to binaural beats?” “What is my life’s purpose?” – etc.

Eventually, the Huna-reading took place. During the process, my friend went into a light trance and was able to allow me to connect with my spirit guides; she served as the medium. While entering the trance, I had to put my hands on-top of her hands in order for her to connect with my energy. As we connected hands, I felt a surge of energy and deep relaxation surround my body. My rapid thoughts quieted and I became fairly still and happy. Eventually, I was able to ask my spirit guides a bunch of questions and they had answers. They didn’t provide me with everything that I asked for, but they gave me a lot of information that I didn’t think was possible.

During the experience, I felt as if my body was overcome by deep relaxation – even though I was fully awake with my eyes wide open. I got fairly unexpected answers such as: “you will be doing educational research as your job” – “yes, you have a soul-mate, it is a black dog” (which kind of disturbed me…) – then I found out “people can have more than 1 soul-mate” – “your aura is blue, your Chakra colors are purple at the crown,” “we like when you listen to the binaural beats (brainwave entrainment),” “you will discover your own life’s purpose,” etc. (I don’t remember them all). Then, at the end of the reading, my friend described imagery that she was receiving from my spirit guides to tell me: so that they could prove to me that the experience was real and that they really do exist.

What came to her mind was a brand new pair of blue shoes. For awhile after the reading, I didn’t know what to think of the experience. I certainly didn’t have a brand new pair of blue shoes, but I decided to take the whole thing with an open-mind and neither deny or accept the truth of the experience. A couple months later, I just so happened to get a new pair of blue and white shoes. A couple days after getting the shoes, I reflected on the blue-shoe imagery from my Huna reading. Sure enough, I did have a new pair of blue shoes, so it must have some validity.

What is also unique about the process is the fact that my friend isn’t able to remember any of the information discussed about anyone’s personal Huna experience. Her mind is cleared of everything that happens during the reading in less than 20 minutes after the process. She explained to me that her only purpose when doing the reading is to serve as a medium, or as a means of connecting to my guides. She also explained that through enough personal meditation and spiritual seeking, I too would be able to connect with my spirit guides. Though I haven’t been too interested in connecting with them, I think it would definitely be a worthwhile experience.

The job of spirit guides are to help guide your spirit in the right direction and they really want to connect with you to help you raise your consciousness. So consider learning ways to connect with them on a personal level, or finding an advanced spiritual seeker / psychic that knows about spirit guides and how to connect with them. It seems as though Erin Pavlina has gotten great reviews discussing her ability to help you connect with your guides. Though it is somewhat expensive, it could prove to be just the advice that you needed to take your personal growth and consciousness to the next level!

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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. 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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1. Meditation

Meditation is an extremely powerful activity that can be used to manipulate and create your own reality. I believe that meditation is the single most powerful way to learn how to take control of your life and to consciously sculpt your own reality. Meditation has a large list of benefits and is one of the best activities for boosting your mental focus.

Experienced meditators are able to shift their brainwaves upon command to a desirable brainwave state (i.e. gamma, beta, alpha, theta, delta). With practice, you’ll learn how take full control of your state of consciousness. The act of meditation allows individuals to cope with, and better accept their emotions. In a more advanced practice, meditation allows individuals to replace states of mental pain with those of pleasure. In the most experienced meditators, a state of awareness that allows the individual to block out physical pain can be achieved!

If you aren’t already practicing meditation and have an interest to consciously create your reality, I highly recommend that you set aside some time each day and get yourself started!

2. Brainwave entrainment

Brainwave entrainment is extremely powerful technology that can easily be used to create your reality. Not only can brainwave entrainment deepen meditation practices, enhance brain function, and improve brain flexibility, it can also shift your brainwaves to a synchronized, optimal state of functioning.

Another cool feature of brainwave entrainment is that you can use the technology to manipulate your own consciousness and emotions. Like I’ve mentioned in all of my brainwave articles, each brainwave has it’s benefits and downfalls. As you read over my articles of brainwaves: gamma, beta, alpha, theta, delta – you’ll a sense of what brainwave state you are currently operating in and whether you would benefit from a brainwave change.
If you choose to experiment with various brainwave patterns and frequencies, you’ll naturally get a better sense of understanding of yourself by learning how you feel and act in various states of consciousness. In my personal experience with brainwave entrainment, I have found it to be worthwhile and mind-expanding. If you are interested, check out my recommended products and give their free trials a shot before you buy. For starters, I recommend trying “Neuro-Programmer 2 Professional” or “Mind Stereo.” Mind Stereo will allow you to listen to your favorite music while practicing brainwave entrainment and Neuro-Programmer 2 Professional is great for customizing sessions and exporting them to an mp3 player or I-Pod.

3. Neurofeedback

Possibly one of the best things you can do to enhance your brain and brainwave flexibility is neurofeedback. Enhanced brainwave flexibility is a key characteristic of creating reality. Neurofeedback largely aids in the process. Helping your brain consciously learn to travel through the outgoing, externally focused beta range, through the deeply powerful, and creative level of the theta brainwave range can work wonders. Neurofeedback will allow you to consciously shift through the various brainwave states.

Though most of the benefits of neurofeedback are the exact same as those associated with meditation, neurofeedback may be much easier and quicker than meditation. In my opinion, it is a great alternative option! The only problem associated with doing neurofeedback (unless you do it yourself), is that it can get quite costly (at least several hundred dollars for one session). Not to mention, some people take 30 + sessions to obtain permanent results. You do the math (30 sessions * $300 = $9,000).

However, for some, the value of a good neurofeedback program definitely outweighs the measly several hundred dollars spent. If you don’t want to pay for neurofeedback, you’ve got alternative options: buy your own unit and teach yourself how to do neurofeedback or teach yourself a good meditation practice. Though many people may not be familiar with neurofeedback, it really is a great way to help improve your brain’s brainwave flexibility.

4. Eating healthy

Eating healthy will not only help you cut body fat and lose weight, it will boost your brain power and aid in the creation of your reality. What types of foods are you ingesting? I don’t believe that foods are totally at fault for mental problems, but they can definitely contribute to the formation of a healthy brain or an unhealthy one.

Some foods naturally enhance blood flow to the brain and give the brain vital nutrients that allow it to successfully carry out it’s executive operations. Eating unhealthy foods could be creating (or at least aiding) in the creation of a negative, unfocused state of reality. If you are currently confused about what types of foods will help you boost your brain power, check out my article: 5 Supercharged Brain Foods. Foods play a powerful role in giving your brain the power and energy to create your own healthy reality.

5. Physical exercise

Though reality is created by our brain’s thoughts, getting involved in a daily physical exercise routine can really help create a relaxed mind, lower stress levels, and boost calming brainwave patterns. Not only does physical exercise boost your brain power and keep you energized, it aids in the prevention of bodily disease.

The brainwave patterns that result from exercise and the psychological benefits that have been associated with having a daily exercise routine can all be powerful influences on our realities. In my opinion, exercise is one of the single most effective ways to naturally boost brain power, strengthen the body, and improve your reality.

6. Affirmations, incantations, and positive self-talk

What kind of self-talk do you constantly use with yourself? Do you praise yourself and always give yourself the benefit of the doubt? Or are you ridiculously hard on yourself or set too high of expectations for yourself?

By using affirmations, incantations, or positive self-talk instead of conditioned negative mental talk is extremely powerful in the shaping of your reality. Positive self-talk and affirmations involve repeating positive, praising ideas to yourself (about yourself) over-and-over until your mind is filled with only positivity or more positivity than negativity.

I have personally experienced great success with affirmations and really enjoy doing them loudly in my car. Though it may be difficult at first to replace all the past negative self-talk that has accumulated in your subconscious throughout your life, you can do it with a little bit of discipline and dedication. At first, you may get frustrated and begin to think that affirmations aren’t working, but keep up the work for a week, then a month, then a year. Make it a daily habit and I truly think that you’ll reap the benefits. Taking time each day for positive self talk has been scientifically studied and associated with beneficial brain changes. Be loud, be strong, and look yourself in the mirror while doing positive talk and affirmations: have fun with them!

7. Self-hypnosis

Self-hypnosis is awesome for implanting powerful beliefs into your mind and shifting your level of consciousness. I have personally experienced the benefits of self-hypnosis. The problem is that most people interested in self-hypnosis believe that either: a) it’s a magical cure OR b) it’s scary and could up your mind. Both “a” and “b” could not be further from the truth.

The activity of self-hypnosis will not “cure you” of a problem, but it will definitely aid in the creation of your reality and will definitely reduce the pain of a certain problem and improve your abilities to cope. On the other side of the spectrum, there are a lot of uneducated people that think self-hypnosis is some sort of scary brain manipulation technique that could potentially ruin their life! During self-hypnosis (and regular hypnosis), you have full control of what suggestions you choose to accept an act on.

All self-hypnosis will do is get your consciousness to a very relaxed, yet extremely focused state of mind: making conscious change easier than it was before. Like meditation, self-hypnosis has many of the same benefits and is nothing to be afraid of!

8. Brainwashing

In reality, we are constantly brainwashing ourselves or allowing others to have direct influence over our personal brainwashing process. The repetition of similar thoughts day-in and day-out is a form of brainwashing. When brainwashing is taken to an extreme, it can have profound and powerful results.

Unfortunately, there are many negative connotations associated with the act of “brainwashing.” With that said, brainwashing can be used in a positive manner to implant positive thoughts and beliefs. Brainwashing can actually enhance a person’s quality of life. The United States ARMY training program is an expert at brainwashing (mostly younger males) to develop discipline and mental strength. You too can create your own brainwashing program that helps you to create whatever you want within your life (i.e. love, peace, abundance, money, etc.).

9. Hypnotherapy

Like self-hypnosis, hypnotherapy (with a licensed hypnotherapist) can be very beneficial. Though factors like susceptibility to suggestion can play a role in determining how effective the hypnosis practice is, hypnotherapy is very healthy and completely safe. In no way, shape, or form will a licensed or unlicensed hypnotherapist be able to gain control over your mind or be able to implant any unwanted beliefs into your mind.

Throughout the entire process, the hypnotherapist will relax your mind and help you learn to enter an extremely relaxed state of focused awareness. Hypnotherapy can be beneficial for many areas of life including: thought-process, performance, relationships, and learning to consciously tap into our lower brainwave frequencies.

Though some hypnotherapists may be somewhat costly, you may have fun trying something new and judging how effective the experience was for you. Some people claim that licensed professionals are way better than doing self-hypnosis sessions, while others feel that both are equally as effective. They both involve the same concept and I feel that they both yield similar results if done correctly. So if you are wary about seeing a hypnotherapist, try some self-hypnosis sessions first!

Either way,hypnotherapy can definitely be effective at allowing you to take better control over your reality!

10. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (N.L.P.)

Though I haven’t personally used Neuro-Linguistic Programming, I do believe that if practiced correctly, it will work positively to help you to create and manipulate your reality. Neuro-Linguistic Programming focuses on the communication aspect of your thoughts in relation to external things. N.L.P. can be used for a wide variety of behavior changes.

An example of using N.L.P. to create success within your reality: To make your reality more successful, you’d examine how “successful people” communicate (verbally, body language, eye movements, etc. Next, you mold your current characteristics to incorporate those of the successful person.

By modeling their behavior, N.L.P. argues that you can literally “duplicate” their patterns of thinking and thought communication that made the successful individuals successful. The brain can learn healthy patterns and behaviors that bring about positive physical and emotional effects. Do I think Neuro-Linguistic Programming will be the sole shaper of your reality? No way. What N.L.P. will do is act as yet another tool to aid you in the process of creating your reality.

11. Find a supportive life coach

Finding a supportive mentor or life coach can make a world of difference when dealing with certain problems. Though there is never any single activity, person, or thing that will create your entire reality, hiring a life coach can have a huge impact on your ability to deal with certain problems. A life coach can serve as a great line of support to talk to and as a person who will help you learn more about yourself by helping you overcome life’s obstacles.

Though life coaching can be great, it may not be worth it to hire a life coach if he or she isn’t helpful or seems to be more conflicting than harmonizing. Do some research and find someone that has a good reputation or look for a life coach that offers a free trial period of a month or two and that offers a free refund. You don’t want to lose money by paying for a service that you found unhelpful.

Since everyone isn’t perfect in all areas of life, it may be helpful to focus on one area of your reality that you’d like to improve and find a life coach or mentor that can help you with that specific area. For example: if you want to learn how to create financial abundance within your life, it will be extremely helpful to learn from a life coach or mentor that has previously made a fortune.

With that said, life coaches can be great to have because their main goal is to help you with your life. Think of them as a refreshing outside perspective with life experience and insight in certain areas that you may be lacking. You can always use their wisdom for a crutch when you need it. After a few months spent with a good life coach, you’ll naturally acquire their wisdom and have a permanent crutch that consists of information that they taught you.

Life coaches can be great teachers that can help you cope better with certain aspects of reality or create rapid personal change!

12. Social conditioning: be around like-minded individuals

The book Rich Dad, Poor Dad teaches that the six people in which you spend the most time with are the individuals that you’ll most likely emulate. Do the six people that you spend your time with have like-minded interests and goals? If they don’t, they may be completely wasting your time. I understand that it is awesome to try new things and expand your reality, but if you’ve been spending your time with six people who do drugs, drink alcohol, and watch T.V. all the time, you will most likely pick up their same bad habits.

Why even waste time with anyone with terrible habits? It is important to not let social conditioning interfere with your personal ability to create reality. Though six people may be spending time doing illicit drugs and drinking alcohol, it doesn’t mean you need to spend time with them! Find six other people and exercise, play golf, and set some goals or whatever interests you! If you are not spending time with people that do not reflect your interests or life purpose, think of it as a time-killer and reality killer.

13. Use prayer

Prayer has been used for ages as a way to communicate with God and the spiritual side of reality. Though not all people agree that every prayer’s wishes are granted, most people pray because they feel that God or a divine source of energy is listening. Prayer in itself is a very powerful way to create changes in reality.

I pray because I think that my prayers are answered, it feels good to me, and because I believe in God. Depending on the type of prayer used and what is said, powerful emotional changes can result. Some people may be using prayer as a crutch to help them make it through a rough time in their lives. Using prayer to make it through a difficult time or situation may make them feel somewhat relieved and at peace. Other people may be using prayer to give thanks and may feel extreme amounts of joy and happiness after prayer and giving thanks. While others may use prayer as a time to reflect, talk, or ask God for something in their life.

Your emotions and level of change in your reality will largely depend on many prayer factors such as: how connected you feel, how you use prayer, how long you pray, and your state of conscious awareness. Whether you enjoy prayer or don’t pray, most would agree that prayer is a great way to help create and influence reality!

14. Emotional healing

Not everyone is perfect and in this fast-paced world, many people have unintentionally damaged their emotions. People in states of Post-traumatic stress, with high amounts of fear (hypochondria), anger problems, A.D.D., and other mental problems can really throw your emotions out of balance. If emotions get thrown out of line for an extended period of time, some areas of the brain and body are usually temporarily underactive, overactive, or damaged.

It is important to recognize when your emotions are thrown out of line. Too much stress depletes levels of the alpha and theta brainwaves and literally has potential to “shut down” certain areas of the brain, while making other areas hyperactive. The emotional healing process can take anywhere from around a month to over a year. If you realize that you just don’t “feel right,” ask yourself if you are stressed, unfocused, angry, etc.

To start a healthy emotional healing process, it really helps to have someone close to talk to or to see a therapist. In my experience, meditation has helped greatly, along with listening to lower brainwave frequencies. The theta brainwave range serves as a natural “reset button” for the brain when it’s being overworked or overstressed. Through the entire process of emotional healing, it is important to realize that you may recall some painful memories, and that your entire state of awareness will shift and your reality will change. You must be prepared to accept whatever emotions arise and the repressed memories that may come your way.

Most emotional healing will take place in the theta brainwave range, so doing theta brainwave entrainment will definitely speed up the healing process. However, you must realize that immediately after listening to theta everyday for awhile, your brain will not automatically reset itself. You’ve got to give the theta brainwaves a break for a couple weeks and let your brain naturally return to it’s own rhythms. After listening to brainwaves, I’d stop listening to them for awhile and your brain will shift back to it’s natural rhythms and literally “heal itself.”

By healing your emotional body, you free up the ability to use your emotions to help you make decisions in the creation process of your reality!

15. Utilize your power of “free-will”

Every person has the ability to make their own decisions. You have the power to make a choice to “do whatever you want, whenever you want.” It’s very unfortunate to see other people not expressing their power of free-will and scraping by life by conforming to the social norms and social standards.

What everyone should be striving for is the ability to express themselves and share their unique gifts with the world. When creating your own reality, it is extremely important to learn how to utilize your power of free will. Using your power of free will to make healthy or unhealthy decisions will have a direct reflection upon your reality.

Here are a couple of examples of how free-will can be utilized when eating:

1. “My meal was excellent, but I am using my free will to make the decision to stop eating and save some food for later. I’d rather stay at a healthy weight.” – Kayla
2. “My meal was excellent and even though my gut was full halfway through the meal, I made a conscious decision to stuff the rest down. I have my own free will, nobody but myself can stop me!” – Jim

Kayla and Jim were both able to use their power of free-will to make a decision to either stop eating when they felt full (Kayla) or keep eating even though they felt full (Jim). Free-will can be used as a healthy skill for creating reality (Kayla) or it can be used in a more unhealthy manner (Jim).

The power of free-will is somewhat of a complex concept. You can use the power of free-will to identify, recognize, and use your “power of free-will.” Or you may not care about it and may use your power of free-will to avoid using your “power of free-will.” Every decision that you make, you have full power and full control over your life and situation… Even though it may not seem like it at times. Just knowing you have the power of free-will actually gives you a deeper sense of control. Use this power to your advantage when creating your reality!

16. Make conscious decisions

Making conscious decisions is a great way to create your own reality. Making conscious decisions means knowing and understanding why you are making a certain decision. Conscious decisions put you into the driver’s seat of your life and allow you to take full control over the creation process of your reality. Unlike unconscious decisions, making conscious decisions leave you satisfied, express your individuality, and are influenced solely by you.

Unconscious decisions are decisions that are made in a state of fear, anger, desperation, or that have some “uncontrollable” outside influence. If you have ever made a poor decision when under “peer-pressure,” you know what it feels like to make an unconscious decision. If you have ever damaged property, others’ feelings, or yourself when overcome with anger, you know what it feels like to make an unconscious decisions.

Unconscious decisions are ones that you’ll want to stay away from, as they create reality for you without your conscious influence. Always make an effort to “think” and make conscious decisions that reflect your values and life-purpose if you want to successfully create a positive reality!

17. Implant positive thoughts

The act of implanting thoughts can be successfully done by consciously replacing any negative thoughts with more positive ones. A great exercise to do is to write down a list of positive thoughts to incorporate into your thought process instead of any negative thoughts that may arise.

When or if any negative thoughts do arise, replace them with the thoughts written down on your list. If you don’t want to replace negative thoughts, just take the time to consciously integrate positive thoughts into your thought-process. Technically, you can incorporate whatever type of thoughts you want into your state of reality.

You could incorporate funny thoughts if you want to laugh more, relaxing thoughts if you want to feel calm, or exciting thoughts if you’d like to feel more energized!

18. Understand your emotions

Understanding your emotions can be extremely helpful when looking to grow or create your own reality. One way that is commonly used to understand your emotions is meditation. Some people are in a state of depression, while others may feel extremely happy. Both happiness and sadness are great emotions to experience and can teach us more about ourselves.

Emotions are a natural part of being human. Everyone gets both good and bad emotions: some are just better at dealing with emotions than others. People who throw a fit of rage and do damage to others or bury their emotions within, lack emotional control and understanding. Everyone can benefit from learning to deal with, understand, and manage their emotions better. After all, emotions are a very powerful ingredient in the process of creating reality!

19. Evaluate your beliefs

What do you currently believe? Do you carry around beliefs that are self-defeating instead of empowering? Beliefs can play a huge role in the creation of your own reality. Most of us were conditioned with certain beliefs that our parents, teachers, friends, and environment displayed to us. Chances are good that most of us have been influenced with many positive beliefs, but may have never taken the time to weed-out our unhealthy, self-defeating beliefs!

Not being able to identify our negative beliefs is a fairly big problem when most of us are trying to create a positive reality! Do yourself a favor and evaluate your beliefs that may have consciously or unconsciously entered your life. Are you constantly telling yourself: “I’m not good enough?” or “I’m worthless compared to (insert name here)?” Ask yourself why you believe these negative beliefs. Chances are good that you may not even know, they may have been integrated into your thought-process through repetition.

After evaluating your negative beliefs, you’ll realize that many of them sound extremely silly and aren’t what you truly wanted to believe. Negative beliefs hinder the process of change and creation of reality because they “get you stuck” – sometimes too stuck to get out of alone! Identify and replace your negative, limiting beliefs with more empowering and positive ones.

20. Learn from your past

Everyone has something to learn from their past experiences. Past experiences and knowledge gained from them can be successfully utilized to create a better life and easier future. Overcoming a problem in your life is a learning process. As you overcome problems and learn from experiences, your knowledge base increases.

An example would be my struggle with an attention-deficit. Though I personally struggled with A.D.D., I also learned how to overcome my mental handicap though a healthy daily routine. If my A.D.D. ever returned after I stopped my daily routine for awhile, I would know exactly what can be done to successfully deal with this problem.

Everyone should be interested in learning from their past: after all, your past experiences, and knowledge gained from them, play a huge part in shaping your future!

21. Consider taking supplements

There are many great supplements you can take that may have an impact in the process of creating your own reality. I personally am a huge advocate of fish oil because it had a positive influence on my reality.

If your brain is deficient in vitamins, you are feeling depressed, or not mentally sharp, there are definitely some effective supplements on the market for you to take. All I am currently taking right now is a daily dose of fish oil and a daily vitamin supplement. The combination of both seems to be optimal for my overall mental and physical health.

A heads up: Just because a supplement has “all natural ingredients” or is completely “all natural,” does not necessarily mean that the supplement is effective! There are some all-natural supplements that are completely ineffective (a placebo), yet people recommend them. It is important to do a little bit of personal research before splurging on a supplement because it is all-natural and “sounds healthy!”

Be smart if you are going to take supplements and realize that finding a good one can do some good for your reality and boost your brain power!

22. Pharmaceutical medicine

Taking pharmaceutical medicine can have a huge impact on you reality and state of consciousness. Certain medications can make you feel extremely tired, while others may actually hype you up! Everyone reacts differently to pharmaceutical drugs: some may feel positive changes, while others may die from the consumption.

More people die each year from adverse reactions to prescription drugs than illicit drugs. If you don’t have any need to be on prescription drugs and are on them, I recommend getting off them! Prescription drugs can interfere with your conscious control over your reality and state of consciousness. Many psychiatric medications actually make creating your own reality extremely difficult because they have direct influence on certain brain areas and neurotransmitters. Medications that have an effect on the brain and it’s functioning are very powerful and should be avoided by those that do not have a true psychiatric problem.

On the other hand, those who do need psychiatric medication and attention will benefit from taking their medication. Creating their reality will be much easier if people with serious diagnoses like: clinical depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc. stay on their medication. Same goes with any type of medication: if you truly need it, taking it is probably doing a lot more help than harm! Choosing to take or not take pharmaceutical medication will have an impact on your reality. Whether it’s a beneficial to your reality largely depends on if you truly needed to be on the medication in the first place!

23. Do purposeful activities

Do activities that align with your soul, interests, and purpose. Why waste time creating a reality that does not resonate with who you are? It makes perfect sense to chose to participate in activities that you enjoy, and those that leave you with feelings of happiness and fulfillment.

No need to allow others to influence your decisions and activities that you choose to pursue! Do activities that force you to lose yourself in the moment and become overcome with a sense of timelessness. You’ll know what activities “feel right” and really touch your soul. If you frequently engage in activities that give your life a deep sense of purpose, you are probably already doing a great job at creating your own reality!

24. Adopt-a-reality

Sometimes when we allow ourselves to be overcome with certain negative emotions like fear, anger, or hate, it may be very difficult and tough to cope with our reality – let alone create it! It is extremely difficult for anyone to be a creator of reality when they find it difficult to cope with life. This is where I like to utilize the concept of “adopting a reality.”

Though it may seem difficult to do, try to leave your state of consciousness by adopting someone else’s. You may choose to adopt your mentor’s state of awareness, your therapist’s, your mother’s, your father’s, your best friend’s, or anyone’s! Adopting a state of consciousness can be very beneficial in the process of creating your reality because it helps you recognize how others’ thoughts and actions may benefit your own life.

Give another person’s reality or thought-process a test-run for awhile and see how you like it and if there is anything you can learn! When it feels like you are consciously stuck, it may help a lot to “adopt-a-reality!”

25. The law of attraction

The “law of attraction” is a fairly new-agey term that seems to be loved and highly touted by “new-age” supporters and denied by others. I personally believe that the concept of the law of attraction works and have experienced results in my own life.

Whether you believe the concept of the law of attraction works or doesn’t, I don’t have a problem. When the concept of the law of attraction is explained in a non “new-agey” way and not given the title “law of attraction,” most people agree that it works. To simply sum up the law of attraction: ask for something, focus on what you want and how to get it (visualize & put in effort), keep working, let time pass, and what you asked for will come into your life.

Don’t be afraid to try something new by experimenting with the law of attraction. Most uneducated people on the topic think that all a person needs to do for the law of attraction to work is meditate and visualize what they want. Anyone with some common sense will know that by only meditating and visualizing, you will probably not get anywhere. With that said, understanding the “law of attraction” and utilizing it’s concept successfully will definitely allow you to cultivate reality!

26. Being open-minded (trying new things)

Nobody with a closed mind wants to make changes. It is extremely important to learn how to always be open minded to certain areas of life. Change occurs when you try something new! If you read this list, but never try anything on this list, you’ll never be able to make a valid opinion as to how effective these 26 ways to create your own reality were in your life!

Years ago, I struggled with keeping an open mind and trying new things. I now choose to always be open-minded and by trying new activities, talking to new people, etc. If your mind is closed in certain areas it may be due to social or family influences and conditioning.

Try something new, keep trying new things, and watch yourself change and grow! In my personal experience, simply being open-minded has opened-up new areas of life in which I would have never experienced. Though making a commitment to be open-minded may be difficult at first, it can easily be overcome. Once you realize all that you were missing out on by keeping your mind closed, you’ll never want to go back.

Being open-minded is the biggest key in the process of creating your own reality!

Have fun with this list and feel free to share (in the comments section) any positive personal changes that you may experience when trying suggestions on this list!

Best wishes,

4 Mind 4 Life

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