"Awareness is the greatest vehicle for change." ~ Eckhart Tolle
There are two ways to lead a life.
One is a more reactive approach where you fight back when you encounter challenges in your personal or professional life. The other is more proactive, where you take into account the trends within and around you and be ready with your surfboard when a big wave hits!
The only difference between the two is awareness.
Consciousness enables you to make conscious decisions based on an understanding of yourself and the situation, to notice what your choice has created, and then to choose again. That is why consciousness is powerful. By becoming aware, you are taking back control.
Merely observing your thoughts and behavior can inspire positive action.
Big words. How am i so sure?
Only by following my sleep could I gain insights into what supports my sleep and what disturbs it.
When I started tracking down my food, I realized that calories don't matter, but macros do. I then changed how I consumed food.
Journaling allowed me to observe my intellectual chatter and learn from it. It made me realize that most of my anger and frustration is due to lack of sleep, food, or water.
Keeping track of my finances made it easier to make hard calls with my expenses.
I didn't make these changes overnight. It took them days and months to become aware before the changes actually took place.
Consciousness is knowledge. Knowledge gives you strength. Power makes it easier to change.
In the absence of consciousness you react thoughtlessly to your surroundings because all you have is the movement of thought. Your response will then depend on your previous experiences and conditioning.
If you have dealt with stress from eating in the past, you will be reaching for your favorite snack. If your past experience taught you to raise your voice to be heard, it is easy to scream when ignored.
You start to believe that what you are experiencing is reality when you actually experience the narrative that your mind has created in response to what is going on around you. Without awareness, you confuse what is happening in your mind for reality. You are at the mercy of the conditioned mind.
“Consciousness is about restoring your freedom to choose what you want instead of what your past imposes on you.” ~ Deepak Chopra
Most of us do not know why we do what we do, how we present ourselves and how others perceive us. As a result, we get stuck in negative patterns.
Here are some ways you can improve your awareness and improve your life.
Practice self-reflection.
This way you can take a step back and ask yourself questions. Ferris Bueller said, “Life goes pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around every now and then, you might be missing out. "
Ask yourself: Why did I react this way? Why does this make me sad? Why am I so against this point of view? Where did this belief come from?
This way you can create stronger connections. It will strengthen your beliefs and give you the fuel to make your point in a civilian way. It will also alert you to your bad habits and thought patterns.
For example, self-reflection has taught me that when I haven't got enough sleep, I tend to eat unhealthy foods. I also tend to shut myself off from people when I'm angry instead of speaking to them calmly. When I know this about myself, I can recognize these unhealthy habits and choose healthier responses.
Journal.
Journaling is a great self-reflection tool as it helps you understand and challenge your thoughts and beliefs, and it's also an incredible stress reliever. It acts like a brain dump. Think of this as a parking space for your thoughts. Just as your back will feel lighter when you take off your heavy backpack, so will your mind feel lighter and less stressful when you throw your thoughts on a piece of paper.
You can do this once a week, once a day, or even every two weeks. All you need is a journal and a pen to get started. Trust me, no one is so busy that they can't take five minutes in a day to journal.
Take personality and psychometric tests.
While a personality test can give you some insight into why you are doing the things you do, a psychometric test can help you assess your abilities, knowledge, skills, and traits. I'm not a huge fan of these, but there are plenty of free tests available online. You may find that you agree or disagree with the results, but they give you food for thought.
Since they are all based on one questionnaire that you answer, I would recommend using more than one questionnaire to get a fuller understanding of your strengths, weaknesses and behavioral patterns.
Ask for feedback.
This one has a catch. You need to be willing to accept the feedback someone gives you without being offended or getting into an argument. If you can ask them questions to dig deeper, even better!
If you don't feel comfortable with people pointing out your mistakes and shortcomings, you can email them to ask. That way, you will have time to digest what people are writing before you respond and will be less likely to react defensively.
Get out of your comfort zone.
Once you become aware of your limits, the next step is to push them forward and face your fears.
I used to hate speaking to large crowds or making presentations in front of people. Nothing made me sweat faster!
* It wasn't easy, but within a year I stopped sweating!
For you, this can mean putting a boundary on someone after realizing your habit of people taking advantage of you, or applying for a job you were interested in after realizing that you were yourself usually holding back with the fear of not being good enough.
This is how consciousness changes your life: When you not only recognize what you are doing and why, but also consciously decide to do something else.
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Consciousness makes you stronger. With awareness, you can jump back faster after adversity. You are aware of your insecurities and shortcomings. You've been through the cycle enough times to understand what triggers them and how to recover from them.
For example, if I am sad and depressed in my case, I know that I can recover from taking a nap or exercising. It helps me shake off the bad mojo.
Consciousness enables you to put yourself in people's shoes. You can relate to the other person because you know the signs and have experienced them yourself. It becomes very easy to follow in the other person's footsteps instead of judging them. In fact, after a while it will come naturally.
Your mobility increases due to your awareness. You can tear your way in and out of any situation if you want, and adjust and pan in much shorter time when needed. In other words, you can move, think, or act quickly.
The pursuit of self-confidence also leads you to your blind spots. It exposes the unknown and makes it known so that you are at least aware of it, even if you are unable to act on it immediately.
Looking back, I have been blessed to have had many moments of consciousness in which I either discovered things myself or because someone in my trustworthy circle caught them. I am pretty sure that if you look back you will also be able to recognize those moments when your transformation began for the first time because consciousness brought it to light.
The wheels of change begin to move with the first sign of consciousness.
About Tuseet Jha
Tuseet Jha is just an ordinary boy next door who tries to deconstruct and demystify life one by one. He usually writes about happiness, productivity, minimalism and success on his blog. Connect with him on LinkedIn and follow him on Medium and Instagram.
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