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10 Ways to Shift Your Consciousness

In moments of stress, anxiety and other intense harmful mind states that we experience within our lives,

it can be difficult to keep our focus on positive personal development. The thought of becoming anenlightened sage radiating seemingly-perpetual positive energy can seem far off… an unattainable goalgiven life’s everyday problems. True as it may seem to be, this is a mental mechanism that blocks ourability to see things for what they are, namely that, “Your Self is already inherently liberated. It is the

ideas that have been imposed on that Self which must be set free,” as Gangaji once mused.

We’re going to take a look at 10 ways in which you can help shift your consciousness to a higher level of

well-being. These tools, methods and mind states will help you become consciously evolved and on yourway towards the expansion of your awareness.

Compassion

By being compassionate, we embrace the sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress, together with adesire to alleviate it. By experiencing compassion, we also experience the awareness of theinterdependence of all things. Compassion is an active choice to want for others the alleviation of theirsuffering. Compassionate action is a willingness to go beyond our own self-interests for the good of

others. We let go of our own needs to attend to the needs

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of others so that we can meet our own deepest need: to

feel connected to something…to feel a part of a largershared humanity.

Boundary Dissolution

By experiencing boundary dissolution, we experience adeconstruction and dissolving of boundaries that havebeen created by human cultures and societies and which

have existed as long as the self-centered ego hasinfluenced humanity. The purpose of boundarydissolution is to do away with these falsehoods thatseparate humanity instead of uniting it. When you

dissolve the boundaries that divide and separate you from others, you will have the ability to transform

your world into one of serenity, tranquility and peace. Oneness will not be just a philosophical conceptbut a reality that will be experienced by the totality of the human race.

Appreciation

When you appreciate someone, you are tuned into their positive qualities and express your empathy and

gratitude for them. Appreciation results in positive vibration offered to all and further inspiration andexpansion into a greater you. It’s a simple way to refresh ourselves, to open up heart-felt connections to

ourselves and to others. Appreciation is both a fully-focused delight about whatever it is that feels good

and a recognition of your own ability to intend and allow its manifestation.

Appreciate a deep relaxing breath of air or maybe the pleasurable radiant warmth of the sun. The

simple things you might take for granted are all worthy of appreciation. As you do this, try to focuscompletely on the good this experience or item offers you, and acknowledge that you and only you have

created it, no matter how it came to you. No matter your condition or circumstances, there will always besomething that you can find to appreciate. If it seems that your life is lacking in happiness, just look for

a single thing each day and honor your part in manifesting it, then think of any and every aspect of that

item or condition that is a positive force in your life.

Inner Peace

Having inner peace means that we are mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and

understanding to keep ourselves strong in the face of difficult and stressful life experiences. In somecultures inner peace is considered a state of consciousness that can be cultivated by taking up things

like meditation, Tai Chi or yoga. Many spiritual practices refer to this kind of peace as being an

experience of knowing your own self. The solution to finding inner peace requires us to look at theproblem from a new perspective. We cannot change the nature of the world or its problems, but we can

add a new dimension to life that will give us peace.

We may not be able to eliminate all the problems of the world, but through meditation we can attain

peace and happiness. We can make our family life more peaceful, loving and caring. We can helpchange the society in which we live. We can be a source of peace to all those around us. By leading a life

in which we are caring and loving to others, we will develop into ideal human beings. By gaining inner

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peace, we can also achieve outer peace. Some people mistakenly think that the path of meditation is one

of escapism. They feel that it requires you to sit in a cave or on a mountain top like a

hermit. Meditation doesn’t lead to escapism, instead it makes us more alive.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the moment-to-moment experience of peace and understanding that occurs whensomeone who feels injured has their suffering reduced, as they transform their grievance against the

person or group that initiated the experience that led to that suffering. Forgiveness involves a sense of

felt unity with one who has hurt us and can be regressive or progressive. By embracing the feeling offorgiveness as something that can help us, we accept it as an aspect of acceptance, love, peace, and

truth, instead of experiencing hatred, emotionalism, negativity, falsehood…all of which are aspects ofresentment.

Forgiveness brings utter peace of mind. Resentment brings inner turmoil and suffering. Forgivenessmeans choosing to see the absolute perfection and beauty in everything. Everything and everyone is

currently operating at its own level of awareness and/or evolution. Everyone and everything is what it is

right now because that’s what it needs to learn or un-learn. People are what they are and make mistakesbecause they really don’t know otherwise or they don’t want to know otherwise. If they really knew

otherwise, they would already be otherwise.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a state of mind where you pay attention in a certain way. Mindfulness practice expands

your field of awareness, allowing for improved oversight of somatic and effective experiencing, thanksto which you can experience an enhanced capacity for self-regulation of our arousal, affect and

behavior. Mindfulness is incredibly helpful to us for several reasons. For starters, it reflects only what ispresently happening and in exactly the way it is happening. There are no biases.

Mindfulness is also the ability of the mind to observe without criticism. With this ability, you see thingswithout condemnation or judgment. Nothing surprises you…you just take a balanced interest in things

exactly as they are in their natural states. You don’t decide and you don’t judge…you just observe.

Mindfulness registers experiences, but it does not compare them. It does not label them or categorize

them. It just observes everything as if it were occurring for the first time. Mindfulness sees things asthey really are. Once mindfulness becomes part of your everyday life, you develop the capacity totolerate and accept painful experience, and you cultivate inner resources that help stabilize affect and

reduce impulsiveness. For help with increasing your mindfulness, you should practice a meditationtechnique called vipassana, which was introduced around 2,500 years ago and has been specificallyfocused on experiencing a state of uninterrupted mindfulness.

Selflessness

When we are selfless, we shift our focus onto the needs of others, rather than keeping it on ourselves. It

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is the practice of being unselfish and minimizing the gratification of the ego’s wants and desires. In order

to make the life-redefining shift from selfishness to selflessness, go and focus on the well-being of

others. This can be done in countless ways. You can clean up your life and surrender a fully healed body,heart, mind and soul to others when entering a relationship. You can also be ready to share any amountof time needed by others whenever they need. Be happy with your life and with whatever you are

offered by others. Whenever you are sure to give your very best possible, you are receiving exactlywhatever you need for your greatest possible spiritual benefit.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia is a yearning for a return to some past period or seemingly-irrecoverable condition. It is thereliving of a past time, which is usually seen in a more positive light than the reality of that experience

may have been. Studies have found that people who have a heightened level of nostalgia have higherself-esteem and are less prone to depression. Thinking of good memories for just 15 or 20 minutes a daycan make you more cheerful than you were the week before, and happier than if you think of your

current life. Nostalgia is a very potent mood booster, so if you seem to be in a bit of a funk, think aboutgood memories of times past and you will experience higher self-esteem and feel more positively aboutfriendships and close relationships.

Post-Materialism

As the Czech poet-president Vaclav Havel once said, “If the world is to change for the better, it must

have a change in human consciousness.” Albert Einstein mused in a similar vein when he said that doingthe same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the very definition of insanity. Theworld’s problems are grand and are many. The only way these problems can be solved is by a

fundamental and profound shift in human consciousness. Making the shift to post-materialism requiresus to take a few steps first.

We need to face the implications of population and consumption growth for pollution, climate change andenvironmental destruction. We need to realize that materialist values make for less happy lives. We

need to identify and promote things in life that matter more than economic growth. We need tounderstand and experience the nature of the oneness and interconnectedness of all things and people.

Wonder

Wonder is the experience of those who reach a sense or state of so-called perfection in the ordering of

the world. Experiences of wonder can lead us to a sense of transcendence and realization of higherstates of being. From a mystical perspective, wonder relates to affirmation as wonder openings revealthe infinite and the source of all that is, which operate as gateways to uniting experiences. Energetically,

wonder is an expression of Eros, a life force that propels one into the present moment and into life andthat magnifies attentional capacities.

Buddhism muses that distinctions limited to relative or empirical reality are artificial and result inperpetuating the anguish, the pain and the frustration that some speak of because we become alienated

from experience. Religious practice and customs propagate and create alterations in perception.Ultimately, through such alterations, we are able to experience the transparency of relative existenceand of subject-object separations that exist in reality. In other words, wonder leads us tasting a unified

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and infinite existence.

Source: “10 Ways to Shift Your Consciousness”, from shift.is

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