Defining consciousness can be pretty elusive. However, I
commonly define consciousness as who we think we are – given all the
experiences, thoughts, and observations we have acquired until now. How else
could we explain our awareness but with a frame of reference, namely, what we
have been exposed to. Consciousness is
the awareness of self byhe mind. It is also the awareness of the world ase know it, and includes the idea of intuition.
All of this is subjective, of course. Meaning, we interpret
what we see through our experiences, thoughts and observations. These are the
lenses through which we decide whether or not to pay attention to something,
whether something is “good” or “bad”, “safe” or “dangerous”. These are tools of
the brain that evolution has given us to keep us alive. We learn quickly to sort and categorize
experiences in order to make sense of them. As we get older, we have more and
more experience, have been exposed to more, and therefore, our consciousness is
expanded.
But what does that mean?
These experiences have also brought a fair amount of baggage
along with them. For example we often make assumptions that because something
happened in the past, it will happen again. This helps if we are in the wild
and assessing a potential predator or threat. However, this instinct-based
skill hinders our ability to see the world in a more positive, beautiful and
unlimited way: the way of spirit.
I believe there are three components to raising
consciousness from a mental level to the level of spirit. In order of
magnitude, they are: awareness, understanding and knowing – and I do not mean just by the brain. The brain is the
tool (the lens and filter) to make sense of it all, to describe it to our
world.
However, there is an inner knowing which is the divine that
defies the brain’s ability to explain.
That is where real knowing
resides…knowing we are the divine
source of all the awareness and understanding. Knowing we are the source all. And when we get there, it’s like lying on the most
comfortable bed, with the finest linens and the most heavenly pillows after a
very long journey. We simply sink into the release and knowing that we are spirit.
In a somewhat mechanistic view of consciousness, I feel we
must find a place for spirit to participate in consciousness-raising, and it is
through these three components that we can do this. The first two, awareness and understanding,
are the building blocks to knowing,
which first comes through higher and more evolved experience, and then from
deep inside our truest selves.
The more we expose ourselves to things that will help us to
grow in awareness, the wider our breadth and reach of information and
understanding to draw on. For example, becoming cognizant that our thoughts
create the way we feel, and the way we feel makes us act a certain way, is a
highly conscious awareness. Applying
that awareness creates an understanding of why we behave in a
particular way.
Therefore, changing the way we think changes the way we
feel, and therefore, our behavior. Our lives can change, simply by
understanding the fact that once we are aware of our thoughts, we can use our
consciousness to reframe them to live in a more successful and
fulfilled way.
As we become more versed in moving our awareness into a less
limited, more spirit based understanding, we move into knowing. At first, knowing comes from being tuned in to (or
conscious of) the first two building blocks.
As we become more adept at these skills, they feel like second nature.
They are acted on without consciously focusing on them. THAT is part of knowing.
Taking it further, we learn that our intuition, our “divine
knowing,” has something to say! When we get quiet and less trapped in the noise
of our minds, for example in meditation, spirit gives us a deeper grasp of
life beyond the mind. The more we tap into spirit, the more we find mastery
over the mind, and therefore, expand our consciousness to include the divine.
Spend 15 minutes a day, repeating and meditating on the following affirmation. Feel free to journal about it, as well, for a higher consciousness understanding. By really contemplating the nature of spirit through awareness, learning and knowing, we begin to see how it permeates our lives in every way, that we are the creator of the thought, the emotion, the action. We are source and substance. And lie down in the comfort of that knowing.
"I elevate my thoughts to become aware of all experience as spirit. I learn I am the source (creator) of substance (thoughts). I know spirit is both the creator of the thought, and the substance that flows from the thought, the action. I know I am spirit."
About Teri Goetz:
Teresa M. Goetz is a Life Coach and Acupuncturist who has spent her career helping women realize their potential, and raise their consciousness', at all stages of life. Her work has paralleled her own personal experiences, and includes specialized work at all women’s major life stages, including pregnancy, child birth, parenthood/mothering, partnership/marriage, divorce, and middle life.
Teri gets enormous satisfaction from watching women grow into who they truly are meant to be. She creates and holds a safe space for her clients so that they may turn life transitions into defining moments to transforms their lives. She helps women achieve clarity and confidence, and then breathe fresh air into their futures.
Teri sits in the Lodge of We the Women, a Sacred Lodge of women shamans, healers and priestesses. She brings her energy work to everything she does. She speaks and writes about women's issues and health, works with clients one-on-one on the phone, and conducts workshops for women.
Her background:
* Certified life coach
* Licensed acupuncturist for 11 years
* Board certified in acupuncture and chinese herbology
* Owner and director of two wellness centers,
(one for pregnancy and one focused on women's health)
* Certified hypnotist
* Certified childbirth educator and doula
* Ardent student of holistic healing, studying and working with a
variety of shamans and yogis
* Writer of personalized visualizations and meditations
* Women's group facilitator
* Speaker on women's issues
-- mother, wife, friend and mentor
