#A Step Towards Consciousness

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE

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Hello and welcome to the Malkan Show podcast. I am Meghana Malkan, thank you so much for joining me today for this episode of the podcast.

I know your time is valuable and I am really happy that you are listening to me today.

I have begun this podcast because after being coached by the world’s best, I wanted to share with you guys what success habits, success tools and cues have helped me get onto higher levels of performance at work, have great relationships with my spouse and kids and what really helped me stay focused and motivated all the time.

So, guys let’s dive into the next episode. Today, let's talk about a topic that is really close to my heart and something that I have been reading up on and researching and trying to practice for quite some time and that is our consciousness. So, let's talk about human consciousness. 

When you ask this question what does consciousness mean? Essentially it's been equated with the mind, the human mind. That is without the human bound capacity to think and be self-aware.

So, when you sit to think, therefore I am. Something like this statement would be an apt expression of what I am talking about. A neuroscience studies this level of consciousness in search of what brings together our awareness and something that cohesively shapes our mind. So, consciousness in nature can be an organism’s awareness of its own self and its surroundings.

And this focus on our awareness of both internal as well as external worlds as something experience primarily by the senses is definitely an approach, we can of something called as though consciousness.

Now the drive to experience high levels of consciousness is the greatest hallmark of the human species, says Brendan Bouchard in his book The Charge. So, how do we live at these highest levels of human consciousness and best is how do we transcend them?

We want to establish more control over our thought processes and at the same time, we also want to release ourselves from it’s so that we may experience what you call higher consciousness.

So, let's understand guys what do we mean when we refer to human consciousness. For most of our history, it is meant that something which makes us awake, makes us aware, and makes us able to think or manage our mind.

So, essentially the discussion seems to be revolving around the human mind. Now each of these elements creates fascinating questions about our existence and it may pave the way towards heightened experiences that we all so badly see. So, consciousness is usually associated with being alive or something called an awakened state. Because if we are sleeping we are considered by medical professionals to no longer be conscious or you can simply say unconsciously.

The same goes for someone who is in a coma or blacked out by trauma, or under the influence of too much alcohol or some drug. So, according to this definition when you are not in a state of wakefulness you are not able to understand, not able to feel anything, neither able to anticipate, judge, or under any circumstances be in control of your mental or physical capacities.

So, being awake also means you are aware of what is happening around you and this, guys, is another hallmark of consciousness, being aware.

So if I am being aware of who I am, where I am or what am I doing or more importantly why I am doing it and where I fit within this moment and entire social environment that I am part of then I am thought to be someone who is fully functional and a fully conscious human being.

So, self-awareness in the broadest view is seen as being a trait of only higher animals to the species we belong to. Of course when you say the term conscious or consciousness are almost always associated with us human being able to think and to use our minds.

This ability to provide an organized thought or awareness of ourselves and the context around us distinguishes us from other animals and this guy is something that is fascinated by all the research scientists for ages.

You understand that we humans have this uncanny ability to use our minds for all these cognitive purposes like having attention, like being able to do abstract thinking, to control our impulses, to do multitasking activities, to solve problems, and to monitor and initiate our thoughts and actions which in the scientific term is called as executive control.

But the question is how does this all work? Because when you talk about the unconscious mind is that really any different from overall human consciousness. The question we would like to ask ourselves, whatever discussion we ensue one thing is certain that consciousness is something which seems to be difficult to pin down upon.

While almost all cultures sense it as an actual thing and feel the drive to explore and enhance it, none of us have ever actually apprehended that thing itself. Neuroscientists cannot pry open your brain and say Hey, there, lives your consciousness! It’s not possible.

We know that something inside us enables us to sense the meaning of all that we feel, of all our emotions, and the way we organize our thoughts. Unfortunately, we don’t really know what it is so we can’t point into a brain scan or even amongst professionals, everyone would define it very differently.

What is it that unifies our perception or a person from all the impulses and activities into our body and brain? When we say that, oh I got a thought, a thought has come to my mind what mysterious force is creating that thought and admitting that thought into our minds.

That great unifier and mysterious thought is generally described as consciousness. While it is important to understand, it is also important to nail down this issue of consciousness. That’s really important because if we are more conscious and aware of ourselves and our environment we are simply better tuned to our environment and you can say that important and what matters is being adaptive to our environment.

So, one would assume that someone who feels a heightened sense of consciousness would feel that they are better able to direct those thoughts, his feelings, and behavior. He definitely stands a better chance to find peace in conflict, faith, resilience, and transcendence in the struggle because he can use his own thoughts to find the meaning of the events and experiences of his life.

They are more hap to him and then he’s able to see the order and meaning beyond all the chaos that happening and this gives that person a sense of strength and optimism even in the darkest of times and difficult of situations. Is that not our endeavor?

People can’t seem to focus their minds and emotions and actions or not able to consciously decide to find faith and hope and strength in hard times and that distinguishes between someone who has a high sense of consciousness vs someone who does not.

Of course, this only brings up more questions about how we can do all this, and to what extent can we really do it? It’s a never-ending discussion but one concept about consciousness that definitely everyone agrees to is that it allows us human beings to synthesize, organize, our thoughts, and focus them in the right direction.

And whatever it is that helps you to do that whether it is a keen observing mind, or a little unseen train conductor kind of thing in your brain it’s not that important. What should really excite you is simply the fact that you do have this control and with that control comes both the power and the responsibility to shape the real contents in the mind. Hence, the outcome of life, isn’t that beautiful?

If all this is true then how do we use our conscious ability to control our thoughts and our life. Where do we focus so that we can move the needle towards higher and sustained levels of consciousness and engagement? We all have this fascination that how is it that you are conscious, move this question into something like what should we be conscious of? Because we have the ability to put whatever we desire on the conscious dashboard of our minds. So, we need to decide what are we putting on that monitor and what are we paying attention to.

First things first, I believe that all we should be conscious of is our thoughts.

Being conscious of our thoughts means being aware of all the things going on in your mind and choosing to guide them or rather than letting them unconsciously driving you. And guys this, unfortunately, happens most of the time.

Let me give you an example, what if I ask you, what if you ask this question to yourself several times each day. Something like this, where shall I focus my thoughts now? Note that this is not the same question as what am I currently focusing on and thinking about? Because when you say what are you thinking about it's all that your mind is focused on.

But when you say where shall I focus my thoughts on it’s all about directing your mind. Brendan suggests this beautiful exercise just to be aware of your thoughts consciously. While you are all in for being aware of what you focusing on and thinking at any given moment, awareness is not the same as self-direction. When you consciously choose to self-aware your thoughts that’s when consciousness moves in.

Most of the time, the truth is that you are likely focusing on random things and thoughts which are not important. You're in moment thought is not necessarily that helpful in your quest to reach that level of consciousness or control you want to in your life.

For this moment, for example, you may be randomly thinking of your first pet, while of course, it is helpful to be aware of this random thought, what’s more likely to help you here to get into a higher level of consciousness to ask where shall I focus my thoughts right now.

Once you do this exercise guys, you will be shocked to find out how many times during the day you just get on an autopilot mode. You allow your thinking to be controlled by impulses, by habits, or by external influences and information you take in every moment. So, as soon as you bring in this reminder through this question, where shall I focus my thoughts on right now?

What happens is you will jump back to the control of your consciousness. The result is you become more engaged, more productive, and more thoughtful about deciding the meaning of your experiences than you have ever had in your life, try it out, it’s worth a try!

The second thing I urge you to be conscious about is your emotional and physical energies. How is it that you feel right now? Because of this question, I believe we should ask ourselves several times in a day. The question is not about what do I feel right now, because your feeling at any moment is a collection of a lot of impulses and responses, all that you have to your internal world and to your external world.

But the moment you ask yourself how do I feel right now?

How we feel at any given moment tell us a lot about impulses and our current moment, it doesn’t to much to heighten our levels of consciousness. To be more fully in control of our conscious experiences rather than let random impulses define your feeling, you might as well decide how you should be feeling right now. Not how you feel right now.

How you feel right now will direct your mind to the current situation and allow you to define how you will feel so as to frame and attach meaning to any given situation. The question is not just about your emotional reality. Your feelings are largely determined by your thoughts and your physical vitality.

How do you feel at that point in time? It is easier to feel sad, more frustrated or irritated, or uncertain. When you are physically exhausted, your willpower goes out of the door, and that will guys further lead to bad quality decisions, judgments, and poor actions.

That is why it is so vitally important to manage your lives with all the wellness habits that we learn about. We learn about good sleep, we learn about hydrating your body, or following the right sattvic diet and moving your body every single day.

But the problem is guys, regardless of the upwellings of emotions we feel from our unconscious or fatigue body we always have a choice to determine the hues of our emotional sky. Happiness is a choice and so is feeling energized.

The third thing we could be conscious of is our behavior. Because our actions speak so much of who we are and our actions dictate our results of life as well as how others feel about us. So when our behaviors are off we tend to feel horrible.

If you don’t take the actions you think you should in your personal life, you definitely feel guilty and irritated, and frustrated with your own self. So when you take the wrong action especially concerning other people you feel bad as well.

The mark of higher consciousness is always full integrity with self and deep respect for others. That goes a long way. We can see and monitor how we behave consistently and once we are aware of that and we bring in and how is it affecting our world to the forefront of our mind and have conscious control, things change.

The last thing we could be conscious of is our progress in life. The goal of thought consciousness is to feel a greater sense of control over both our internal and external worlds.

But to what end and how much. We always seek higher levels of thought consciousness not just to master our world at the moment but to also move our world forward. We want to direct all of these outcomes of our life and we want to build a legacy.

If that is true guys, we might as well put out consistent and conscious thoughts into how we are progressing.

How do you do that when you ask yourself these questions. You are really working on being conscious of your progress.

Questions like am I moving forward in life at a speed that I wish to? Am I taking the necessary actions to do so? Or something like am I managing my thoughts, feelings, my behaviors, and my relationships in ways that help me progress, grow, and contribute.

These are the questions that will dictate how conscious you are of your progress and when you ask these questions to yourself every day that will help you move the needle of your consciousness into the direction of progress slowly and gradually, day by day, and situation by situation.

Now, being conscious of so many things may seem a lot to ask for but one thing is certain guys that it helps to think of consciousness as your ultimate observer and the driver of your life.

And if you feel certain that focusing your consciousness on one thing to the other, for instance, focusing from your thoughts to your emotional and physical energies to being conscious of your behavior and lastly to be conscious of your progress. Just imagine asking these questions to yourself every single day.

Where will it move in your life from where you are to where you want to go and that could really be a game-changer.

I wish you all the best and a very conscious life ahead.

May 30th, 2020   #The Malkan Show