Consciousness

If the world seems to be telling you that you took a wrong turn, try to admit it honestly and put yourself on a different track. Sometimes we head off down the wrong path in life, often with the best motives. Maybe there was no way of knowing that it was the wrong

path until you embarked upon the journey. No one can be brilliant at everything, and sometimes you must try things to find out whether it feels right and compatible for you.

There is no shame in admitting it once you realise that things are not working out. It is not about quitting, but taking the courage to then look at different directions in your life.

Deep down within all of us is a wellspring of wisdom, which is colloquially referred to as intuition. Listening to your intuition is a slow-learned process and one which some people never master in their lifetime. It starts by recognising that tiny inner voice or feeling that will tell you when you have done something wrong, or you may get a gnawing feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Some may consider the inner voice of intuition as your consciousness; however, it is actually your Life Force trying to bring some balance to your life and directing you in the proverbial right direction.

Taking the opportunity to listen to this inner voice or intuition is an important part of any spiritual journey. However it is imperative to recognise that this is not the voice of your mental mind, but that of your true inner self.

Take up the challenge to stop scrolling through things on your smartphone for a minute after reading this. With the ever increasing use of modern technology, it is becoming increasingly common to find people of all ages continually being on their smartphones, immersed in VR or playing games.

So, take the one minute stop scrolling challenge now.

Turn down the volume of your smartphone, turn off the screen and put it away.

Use the time to focus your mind on the growing silence which fills the growing void or the seeming gap in time which has opened up.

As you breathe, allow the increasing sense of quietness to pervade every corner of your mind. If other thoughts start to encroach on the quietness, strive to push them aside, giving your mind one true minute of focus and calmness.

Do not be afraid of the quietness or silence, notifications, DMs and other interruptions can wait. Your ability to maintain the focus of your mind is a sign of your inner strength.

Build upon this challenge and do it at least once per day, you will be surprised how much of a difference this simple stop scrolling challenge can make you feel. If you have succeeded in the one minute challenge, try pushing yourself for a greater experience by reaching for a quiet time of 5 or more minutes.

If your efforts to alter a challenging circumstance have proven futile despite numerous attempts, perhaps it’s opportune to reconsider your perspective on the situation.

Embracing a new outlook might unveil alternative approaches, or reveal aspects that were previously overlooked, paving the way for a more effective and transformative response to the challenges at hand.

Being fully awake in a metaphysical context entails a heightened awareness of the ongoing processes within your field of consciousness. It involves a mindful recognition of the ebb and flow of thoughts and emotions, empowering you to navigate your mental landscape with clarity and responsiveness.

So instead of unquestioningly succumbing to the whims of your thoughts and emotions, remain vigilant and acknowledge the current state of your mind and emotions before they reach a tipping point, or the proverbial point of no return.

By staying attuned to the nuances of your inner world, you can foster a greater sense of self-awareness and follow through with conscious choices that align with your aspirations.

Witnessing your thoughts can be advantageous in numerous ways. To start with, it can assist you to understand your own thinking patterns, propensities and even your reactions. Likewise, it aids you to become more self-aware, to enhance your emotional intelligence and ability to relate to others. Furthermore, by listening within to your thoughts, you can come to be more mindful of your internal dialogue and how it might be affecting your behaviours, mood, and emotions. If that were not sufficient, then listening to your thoughts can be an effective tool for self-reflection and acquiring insight into your own values, beliefs, and motivations.

One of the most effective methods to listen to your thoughts is as if you were observing them as an onlooker. Acting as that onlooker to your thoughts, you can more effectively be witness to your thoughts as they surface within your mind, aiding you to establish improved self-awareness and control over your thinking patterns. When you observe your thoughts in this way, you have the opportunity to notice patterns of negative or unhelpful thinking, such as worry, concern, overthinking or even self-criticism. By becoming aware of these patterns of thinking, you can start to challenge them when they appear, as opposed to reacting at a later stage to the fully developed thought-form.

Witnessing your thoughts as an onlooker has tremendous potential, because you can develop a sense of detachment from them. You can progressively learn to recognise that you can more easily change your thoughts when you are an observer of your mind. This can help you to let go of unhelpful thoughts and emotions, and cultivate a sense of clarity and inner tranquillity. Ultimately listening to your thoughts in this way can help you to live a more mindfully and purposefully existence, and to develop a more positive and fulfilling life for yourself.

Mindfulness is a helpful practice that can contribute to overall happiness, but it may not always be the answer you need or are looking for. Mindfulness, the hugely popular zeitgeist theory seems to have morphed into the concept that to be happy we must live fully in the present moment. Taken to the extreme this can lead to total focus on whatever you are doing or experiencing “Right This Second”. Some see Mindfulness as a revolution. It is sweeping through many aspects of people’s lives, from mindful parenting, mindful business dealings, mindful eating, and even mindful chores to mindful walking, promising all types of revolutionary changes in people’s lives.

Happiness is a complex and multifaceted concept that is influenced by many factors. While mindfulness can be a helpful tool for cultivating happiness, it is not a standalone solution to all of life’s challenges and is actually beneficial for many other reasons. Other factors in life should be an important source of joy and happiness. So, while mindfulness can be a useful practice for cultivating happiness, it is not a panacea or a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone.

Mindfulness simply involves focusing your attention on your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations as they arise in the present moment. Mindfulness does not magically create happiness or a better life, it is just a tool which can be used for intentionally paying attention to the present moment and not just with focus, but also with curiosity, openness, and non-judgment. It is often the later aspects which are overlooked in the rush to embrace mindfulness, or follow the latest mindfulness guru or influencer. Mindfulness should be taken as one aspect of many meditative practices which can be used for focus and the reality is that some people do really have problems with the proverbial “Raisin of Mindfulness”. It is important to explore a range of different practices and techniques to find one that works for you to cultivate lasting happiness and improve your mental well-being.

Remember that while Mindfulness is a great tool, it is like a hammer, you cannot do every job with a hammer, and sometimes you need to use a different tool.

Increasingly all of our lives are being affected by the cult of social media and celebrity. You can become your own influencer, an influencer of your life, for life.

While you may see the snippets of other people’s lives around you, do not allow those illusions of the perfect body, dream lifestyles, fantasy homes or other seemingly enviable aspects to dominate your thinking. Steadily more and more of us are becoming unhappy, disillusioned or even worse, as we compare our lives to the world of others.

Take the opportunity to look at your own life; realise and recognise all that you have achieved. In this way, you become your own influencer, a unique influencer. It can start with a very simple concept such as “I am enough”, or “I have achieved”. Establishing this self-influencer mindset will give you a newfound sense of happiness and contentment, allowing you to continue to influence your life for the better. Make the effort to create a mantra, which you repeat every morning or even throughout the day until it sinks in and your mind accepts it. As you allow this positive aspect to build within your life, you will begin to discover that many things are your own source of happiness. You will quickly realise that “I am enough, I have enough, I have always been enough and I always will be enough” can be very powerful tools as an influencer of your own life and destiny.

We all live in a complicated and ever-changing world. Every day we are immersed in a sea of thoughts and emotions which can influence us. Life Force Cognition can become an essential tool in helping you to effectively change your state of mind and lead to improved mental health.

As you apply the techniques of Life Force Cognition, you have the opportunity for the mind to become calm and quell some of your emotions. You can more effectively shift your thinking and switch off from the world whenever needed. As you become more adapt at Life Force Cognition, the energies of your Life Force can rejuvenate and revitalise all parts of you.

Many of us are not aware of how active our minds are throughout the day generating a huge number of thoughts. If you stop for a moment, as you try to quieten your mind, you may soon discover the myriad of thoughts which abound within your mind. It is not uncommon that the harder you try to find a proverbial quiet corner, the more thoughts you are likely to discover. This clearly proves that your mind is forever busy often generating thoughts which do not fully register in your consciousness. The challenge is that with so many thoughts rampaging through your mental mind and subconscious mind, is that you could be reacting to thoughts without even realising they were present in the first place.

We can all do ourselves a proverbial favour by spending some time learning to listen to or observe the thoughts which flow through our minds, whether they be conscious or subconscious thoughts. As you become more skilful at listening or observing your thoughts, you can begin to identify any critical, malicious or negative thoughts or ideas before they take hold within you. Catching such thoughts early on means that you can more easily change them to something of a more positive nature.

There are many different methods you can utilise to observe your thoughts, from the use of simple mindfulness, through various forms of meditation, to advanced studies in Cognition. The key to all of these methods to be successful is that you should observe your thinking as if you were looking from the outside. The best analogy is that as the observer of your mind, consider that you are witnessing a film or a play unfolding. As you witness these thoughts, do your best to remain the observer. Do not allow your emotions to drag you into the narrative, otherwise, you will start living out the thoughts rather than being the observer.

Learning to pause for a moment is an effective way to control your reactions in a world which seems filled with conflict and triggers. Pausing for a moment is very important for your happiness and wellness.

Have you stopped to consider that you may be continually rushing through life, not pausing to notice all the wonder that exists around you? So even if you are not pausing as a means to control your reactions to what you are experiencing in life, try to pause now to savour the moment, whatever that may be.

Simple learning to pause for a moment can be a very powerful tool which not only allows you to moderate your thinking, it also allows you to connect and savour the moments in life.

Energy is the catalyst and creative force of the universe and life within it, which brings into existence atoms, particles, worlds, stars and galaxies. The human form is made of the very same substance and controlled by the same energies; yet is endowed with a mind to think, examine, reason and learn. However, few of us genuinely understand how our mind functions, let alone realise that what is generally regarded as the human mind is a construct of many different aspects. Broadly speaking, the human mind can be categorised into four main areas. First and foremost is what the majority of people consider the mind, it is your intellect or what is referred to as Buddhi in some old languages such as Sanskrit. Various other aspects of the human mind include your personality (Ahankara), your mental form or body (Manas) and the Spark of Life (Chitta) which connects to the basis of creation within you.

What is perceived as the human mind, is typically that of the brain. This is the component of intellect, the domain of thoughts and thinking, however, this is just a small part of the bigger picture. Our minds are undeniably a lot more than our intellect, as they consist of multiple interrelated parts which function as a whole. The complete intelligence of us as humans is distributed throughout our being. The knowledge and understanding of how to access or use these other components of our intelligence is rarely understood.

We unconsciously use some of these other dimensions of our mind all the time, yet few people are aware of the complex interactions and how our minds function. Consider that you do not know how to conduct your mind, your energies, your emotions or your body, and any effort to understand this could be beneficial for you to fully engage in life.

Your thoughts are energy, but they are just the beginning, as your thoughts interact with the various other facets of your minds. Through obtaining an understanding that you are far more than the intellect of your brain, you can begin to comprehend that there is a great deal more to making life happen. Take the time to pause and think with active intellect is an excellent starting point in life, and can lead you to the greatest discovery of the human minds.

To comprehend who is “Brand You”, you need to first and foremost understand the construct of the personality which adheres to every part of your being, like a really sticky material. Your personality is pervasive to who you think and believe you are. It has the three primary facets of how you perceive yourself to be, how you believe others see you and the actual layers of the thought of others about you.

Your personality is both influenced and affected by numerous other aspects. These include, yet are not confined to conditional thinking, thoughts, emotions and feelings of others; causality or karma (especially of friends and family); astronomical astrological programming; and much deeper elements of your Life Force. Your personality is bi-directional, indicating that it has two distinct sides. This is similar to a stained glass window, which might appear rather drab from one side, whereas when viewed from the opposite side, it can take on an entirely different light.

The concept of “Brand You” is your perception of how the world discerns you, and is in effect the external expression of your personality. Increasingly this facet of your personality is not composed from direct human interactions, but is established and reinforced via your interactions in social media, and the illusionary worlds of computer games and virtual worlds such as the Metaverse. Consider for a moment how you would feel after you make a post on social media or appeared in the news. Think about how your personality can be affected by all of your friends or followers whether they like or comment on your posting; or you receive either no reactions or conversely your post, article or video goes viral. All these reactions on social media generate the energies of thought and emotions which are directed towards you and your personality.

The aforementioned aspects of personality and “Brand You” can become amplified to where the brand becomes much larger than the individual, particularly for celebrities and influencers. This “Brand You” can entirely engulf the personality and dominate that person’s existence in this world. So carefully consider how you project “Brand You” into the world, as all facets of the personality so expressed can bring about numerous lifetimes of accumulated karma

Often in life, we become side-tracked by matters that annoy, upset or perturb us, which can lead to overthinking. When you start to overthink something, your mind can become overloaded and overwhelmed as associated thoughts and conditioned reactions are replayed over and over in your mind. The original thoughts have triggered conditioned thoughts, emotions, feelings and reactions. These aspects of overthinking can pull you down the path to additional worry, concern and sometimes stress.

At such time, if you were to stop or pause to carefully examine your life, you may discover that some of these matters are totally out of your control. You may realise there are some situations in life which you could not change in a proverbial million years. While we may recognise this in hindsight, many of us still attempt to change these apparently immutable aspects, which can lead to more anguish and upset emotions.

Rather than dwelling on what is beyond your control, you can choose to take a different path. Instead redirect your thinking to focus your intent on the things which you can change. As you begin to shift your focus, you will feel more in control of your life. Those aspects which you cannot control will usually lose some of their significance, or may completely fade away.

When attempting to meditate, do you have problems clearing your mind of thoughts? Often those thoughts keep on coming back, and you seem destined for failure no matter how hard you try. The good news is that this is a very common challenge encountered by anyone starting meditation. It is not a sign of failure that you are having difficulties making your mind clear, quiet or supposedly blank. Even those who have practised meditation for many years may at times have problems. The most important thing is to keep persevering, and if necessary try different approaches or techniques, until you find one which works for you.

While quietening your mind is an important goal for any meditation, realise that each of us will achieve different degrees of success. For some people attaining the ultimate goal of full quietness of mind may not be possible, but that does not mean you cannot meditate.

The first and foremost thing to realise is that your very efforts to clear or quieten the mind can often be the cause. Your mind becomes filled with the distractions of the very same ideas you are making an effort to clear. If this is the case or you have a very rowdy mind, then you should shift your efforts to achieving a small area of calmness.

The second obstacle most people face is that they try to erase or eliminate their thoughts. The ability to quell or eliminate thoughts is very difficult to achieve for most of us. So the best approach for success is instead to push your thoughts aside or to the background, thereby diminishing their presence. With time and effort, you can build the skills to be observant of your thoughts, acknowledge them if necessary and push them aside. Then as you push more of these thoughts away, you can establish a small beachhead of quietness in your mind. Be happy with this achievement, as it is an important milestone. As you practice more, you will find that you can expand the quietness outwards, pushing your thoughts farther aside and into the background.

A very useful technique which can be utilised to help with meditation or even mindfulness is called Ekagrata, which simply means focused thought. Applying Ekagrata enables you to focus on one thing, such as your breath, repeating a mantra, or mindfully shifting your attention to a specific thought. As a master of your mind, you are not thinking of everything at the same time, you are being purposeful and focusing on one thing at a time. If stray thoughts enter your mind, you acknowledge them and push them aside to achieve that focus of mind which is Ekagrata. Become the master of your mind with Ekagrata, so that you may learn to clear your mind.