Raising Your Consciousness, The 10 Step Program

I have rather eclectic interests and the Yahoo Groups and discussion forums I belong to reflect that. I didn't write this piece, I picked it up from one of those said forums. I'm reasonably certain it wasn't one of the Second Amendment-pry my gun from my cold dead hand guns/shooting groups that I belong to. I'm thinking it may have been from one of the groups devoted to Paganism/Wicca/Spirituality. In any event, get those consciousnesses (that can't be right) up off the couch and give them a little workout. They're getting soft and flabby sitting in front of the computer reading blogs all day.

Top 10 Ways to Raise Your Consciousness By Ronya Banks

Life can be a GIFT or a NIGHTMARE, depending on where you choose to operate from consciously. Practiced regularly, the following 10 tips will assist you in shining your beautiful unique light so brightly that your resulting raised consciousness will be a GIFT to yourself, humanity, and the Cosmos.

1. Forgive yourself and others. Life is too short to hold on to regrets, grudges, miscommunication, or disappointments. Free yourself by forgiving and letting go of any negative energy you're holding on to about yourself and/or others. There are many ways to do this. One way is to write down anything you're ready to let go of and ceremonially tear it into small pieces and throw it away as you forgive. You may even choose to verbally forgive anyone you've been resenting. Either way, the process of forgiving yourself and others will result in your feeling light and free, and consequently raise your vibration.

2. Practice gratitude and appreciation. Whatever you focus on grows. So, when you focus on every thing in your life you have to feel grateful for and all the wonderful people you appreciate, the universe hands you more to feel grateful about. It's a wonderfully reciprocal consciousness raising process.

3. Live each day as though it were your last. If today was your last known day in this lifetime, with what type of people would you surround yourself? What would you say to the people you care about? What personal gifts would you make sure you imparted to humanity and the earth? Live each day as if it was your last, and you will be living in a state of light, love and unconditional contribution.

4. Meditate/Pray. You open up a direct link between yourself and the spiritual realm when you meditate and/or pray. Meditation and prayer can be used to bring you closer to your creator energy, raise your vibration, bring you peace, clarity, joy, and connection, as well assist you in experiencing a perfectly balanced state between your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies.

5. Suspend judgment. This world is laden with judgment, irresponsibility, and finger pointing. One judges another to feel less guilty about one's own misgivings. Judgment energy is dense, dark, and heavy. On the other hand, unconditional acceptance is light, free, and accepting. Let go of judging and criticizing yourself and others. Everyone is on a different path, and some appear to be further ahead on their path than others. Neither path is better nor worse than another. Raise your consciousness to one of acceptance.

6. View every experience as a GIFT. If you look back at occurrences in your life, you can easily see how even the worst situations you experienced in your life ended up teaching you invaluable lessons and therefore ended up putting you in the perfect place for your continuing development. When you view every experience, the good, the bad, and the ugly as a GIFT, life flows more like a gentle, inspiring breeze.

7. Stay consciously aware of all of your thoughts and feelings. Until you raise the consciousness of the entire human race, it is extremely easy to fall back in to all pervasive negative patterns of complaining and feeling like a victim of society and a victim of your life. To stay out of these patterns, check in with yourself your present thoughts and feelings several times a day. When you catch yourself in the Negative zone, don't feel badly about it and beat yourself up. Simply choose to switch your consciousness to one of gratitude and positive thinking. Remain conscious.

8. Treat your physical body as your temple. Your body is the only vehicle you've been given for this ride called "LIFE." The better you care for your body by eating a healthy, balanced diet, and by implementing a regular exercise routine, and by giving your body the rest it requires, the more you will experience increased energy, vitality, joy, and freedom. Honor, love, appreciate and take extra good care of your body, and you will be raising your energy and your consciousness.

9. View the world through the eyes of a child. Observe a baby or a young child. It won't take you long to notice that young children are constantly totally enthralled by the process of observing and experiencing the wonder and beauty in every single thing, color, texture, and person they meet. They can't get enough! Look at every tree, sunset, cloud, and human being as a child would and you'll be in a constant state of wonder, joy, surprise, acceptance, and enlightenment.

10. Give LOVE, LOVE, LOVE from your heart. It's all about love. Do you remember the feeling of being in love for the first time? Why was it so wonderful? That's because love is the highest vibration. Allow yourself to receive love unconditionally from others. Give love from your heart unconditionally to yourself and others, and you will experience the highest state of consciousness possible.

- About the Submitter: This piece was originally submitted by Ronya Banks, Degrees in both Psychology and Computer Programming, as well as certification in extensive leadership trainings, Life coach, trainer, business owner, entrepreneur, mother, writer, and mentor, who can be reached at rbanks@livinginacti on.com, or visited on the web. Copyright 2000-2003 CoachVille. May be distributed if full attribution is given and copyright notice is included.