Live Consciously

To create lasting change, there must be an irrevocable shift in perspective.

Nothing else in my experience has created and sustained more lasting change in my life.

But how do you arrive at this new state? This new perspective?

It almost like reaching an event horizon, a point of no return. In self development, its an awakening. And after this awakening, its like seeing the world with new eyes. You see things in a way you haven’t seen them before.

I recently went through one of these event horizons in my life and it has changed me and how I view my life forever.

It was acknowledging personal responsibility for everything in my universe.

It started when I was reading Steve Pavlina’s blog about the Law of Attraction. The article focused on how all the energy you put out into the universe comes back at you, manifesting into the life that you are creating. It emphasizes that no one else is responsible for your life and your universe, and that we are the sole creators of our own reality.

Its almost like an energetic boomerang, except that this boomerang is what the universe throws back at us. This boomerang is the result of our thoughts, feelings, energies, and vibrations, the collection of energy we throw out. I’ve read about this Law of Attraction a lot, but for some reason it didn’t sink in no matter what I’ve tried.

Steve’s article really set this (new) principle into motion. When I realized that I was responsible for everything that was occurring in my life, I really want to change. I didn’t want all the scary things that were happening in the world, or the negative things that were happening in my life. I wanted to have all the beauty and nice things that were coming to me. That I knew were just around the corner.

But in all honesty, I wasn’t ready for total responsibility. I wanted to have some time off from all this responsibility stuff. I wasn’t ready to commit yet.

Then, a few days later, something drastic changed.

It came to me as I was walking home. I realized that while I may not want to be responsible for my life, I’m still accountable.

The universe still holds me accountable for all my energy that I throw out to it, and it responds to it whether I put out positive or negative energy.

Realizing that, wow, I’m totally accountable, I’m 100% accountable for everything in my life, was the major shift I needed. Even if I want to escape responsibility, or hide, or deny the fact of this Law of Attraction, the universe still holds me accountable.

That’s what hit home.

I started to take total inventory of my thoughts and feelings, seeing where I was at in my life on many levels. And honestly I didn’t like what I saw.

I started to check into my thoughts and realized that I have so many negative thoughts floating around! Unresolved feelings about my past that were influencing my present.

I like to consider myself a reasonably aware guy, but all these negative thought patterns where still there, lurking in the background.

And then there were problems at work and…

You can see how they start to add up.

I couldn’t continue on this path of unconsciousness anymore.

I had what I would call a spiritual breakdown.

It was like a panic at a psychic level, realizing that I am accountable for everything that is manifesting in my life, and that I couldn’t escape it. All my problems, my job, my relationships, my life, all come from me and how I’m projecting my energy.

Great, I thought. I was kind of slumped for a few days. Its not fun realizing that you’re the sole cause of all your problems in your life. Its not fun, but I’m glad I had that realization.

It was that realization that created the irrevocable shift in my perspective. Now, I can’t go back to thinking I had in the past. I can’t go back to unconsciously having negative thoughts. I can’t go back to blaming anyone other than myself. I had to take total responsibility for everything.

I was at a place where I couldn’t hide or make excuses or run or use any other methods of avoiding my present life. I was almost like I just let it go. I had to drop a whole lot of thinking I had stored up in my subconsciousness because I couldn’t allow it to stay there anymore.

After my initial slump, ironically, having a new perspective became more empowering than I thought it would be. I started to feel more in tune, more aware and more conscious. I felt that all the good in my life happened because I intended it to. I stopped validating the bad that happens, I couldn’t excuse any of the bad thoughts or energies that I send out, because what could I possibly gain from them? They only affected me, and I didn’t want that anymore.

You are accountable for your energies on a universal level. It does not discriminate. It only responds. Once you realize this, you are one step closer to attaining personal freedom.

Its shifts like these that lead to lasting change, because from your new place, you cannot possibly go back to thinking the way you did before.

Once you have these major changes, you can feel confident in yourself that you’re heading in the right direction, because you know you can’t go back.

What is more empowering than knowing you’re on the right track?

Namaste

Fear has become a guiding force in our modern life. There isn’t a day that goes by without some terrible thing happening on television or being reported in the newspaper. Or hearing about some killer on the loose or something gone wrong at the office. Fear is all around us, and can easily take hold in our life.

But what can you do about it? How can you take hold of the fear in your life and begin to conquer the things which you fear? Here are some steps that have worked well for me.

1) Write it out. Writing brings light to your fear. Try automatically stream of consciousness writing to get a feel for what you are afraid of. This will bring your fear into your consciousness, and from there you can take inventory on what that fear is doing there in the first place!

2) Talk to your fear. Talk to it. Sure give it a piece of your mind. Ask how real it it. Ask where does it come from. Ask if it has any way of proving to you that if you do or don’t do something that what you fear will come to pass. Ask it to prove itself. See how valid that fear really is.

3) Do Qi Gong. Or yoga, tai chi, martial arts. These physical forms help people over come their fears. They allow you to release these pent up fears and become more self aware. They allow you to achieve physical and mental feats that you may not have been able to before you started.

4) Meditate. A particular meditation called mindfullness, is useful for this type of work. It simply calls for allowing your mind to think about whatever it wants to at the moment. By not directing your mind, it brings to the surface repressed fears and allows your consciousness to understand and process that fear.

5) Dream. Dreams are an excellent way to become aware of our fears. As a mechanism for stripping emotional energy from our memory, it is one way our mind deals with the imbalances. Keep a dream log book and see what your subconscious is trying to tell you.

6) Talk with Friends. Discussing your fears with emotionally aware people may help bring a different perspective on your situation. Your friends or loved ones may have insight to your particular issue and also may bring support when you need it.

7) Read. Read books and articles that bring more awareness into your life. With increased awareness you become more alert to your emotional and mental blind spots. Reading will increase your knowledge and also increase your ability to deal with your fear head on.

Become Involved. It is easy to bemoan the current state of affairs but then provide no action to resolve it. Take the first step in any direction. Take immediate action. Find some small way to overcome a small problem and you will feel increased empowerment. Then you will find the courage to tackle the bigger problems in your life.

9) Tend to Your Health. By keeping your mind, body, and soul healthy you are doing yourself a favor. Illness easily breaks the spirit and allows for all kinds of fears to set in. Exercise, keep healthy and you will feel better able to face what life may throw at you.

10) Connect with the Source. Whether this be God or the spirit, or your own inner guidance, this is a sure fire way to conquer your fears. You will receive guidance and assurance to help you weather any situation you maybe going through. Find some time each day to connect with your higher power.

With these steps may you be on your way to a less fearful and more fulfilling life.

Namaste

Alot can be said about intuition. Most people swear by their intuition say it is never wrong and has always guided them in times of trouble. But how do you connect with your intuition? How do you know when its genuine guidance as opposed to other messages? Or how do you know when you’re following guidance that is good for you?

I like to take a holistic approach to get a clearer picture. Here are some ways to do just that:

1) Become Aware of your Feelings. How do you feel? Really, at this moment? How aware are you of your own feelings? About your feelings about your dog, family, job, etcetera? Our feelings tell us alot about how we view our lives and living in this world. While our feelings are not the be all and end all of everything we experience, they give strong clues to what’s going on in our lives.

2) Learn When the Universe is Pinging You. This is fun. Usually when I’m not paying attention to anything in particular, I might get a strong impression from someone in my life or perhaps a future event or feeling. These happen sometimes out of the blue but often when someone is giving you focus. Next time try this activity. When you get a strong thought out of the blue about someone, call them or write them. See if they say something to the effect like “Hey, I was just thinking about you!” Try it on friends who are more aware, have them ping you and see if you can feel when they do.

3) Listen to the Good Voices in Your Head. This may sound a bit strange, but if you have voices in your head, or noise, do you know what it is saying? And if you are aware of the noise, what does it try to direct you to do? Often times we are directed, unconsciously, by the preprogrammed voices in our heads that dictate us to do its bidding. Here is an easy way to tell good guidance from bad guidance. Guidance guides! It does not demand or force or tell you what to do. It gently lovingly gives you input. So forget about the other ‘guidance’. Follow the guidance that gently guides you.

4) Understand Your Impulses. Do you ever get these hunches that when you’ve followed them through have lead you to unexpectedly to where you needed to be? Ever find that you were in some place just at the right time? Well, that’s your guidance giving you a heads up. Those impulses are fun ways to explore our inner worlds and where they lead us.

5) Read Books on Spirituality. This might seem really easy, and it is. Reading different books on spirituality presents new concepts that you might now have considered before. And this can lead to new awareness and perhaps a new perspective.

6) Use a Tarot Deck. I love using a Tarot deck, but probably not for the reasons your think. I view the Tarot as a graphical way to communicate with your subconscious. Its fun and easy to do. It also allows you to communicate with your subconscious mind while accessing information kinesthetically. Its great when you want another angle on a situation.

7) Study Remote Viewing. Remote viewing is a technique that allows you access information that is unavailable to the regular five senses. Its a way of tapping into the vast network called the collective consciousness. The process and technique has developed into a sophisticated system that is regularly used by the Army. Here’s a good place to start reading about it.

Explore Psipog.net Its like going to psychic 101. A great place to start with lots of good guides and explore fun ways to explore your natural abilities.

Good luck, and live consciously!

Namaste