The beginning of the year is a great time to change-up and recreate patterns and habits that are’t working any more or that have become unproductive over a long period of time. The first step is to have a good, long, look at what you do everyday that isn’t benefiting you or anyone else.
What needs changing won’t truly become conscious to you until you take time to “Stop and Look”. Once you find something that you do everyday that is of no value to you or anyone else, plan to restart, reset your day by beginning with something that is beneficial.
This doesn’t mean to take a different route to work or to have one cup of coffee instead of two, or even to start exercising. All of that is great, but that is more in the line of your physical life and your body. The most powerful switch we can make is to shift from the default consciousness of the body to the true level which means the new thing we choose to implement will be on the subtle level of thoughts, attitudes, perceptions, and mindsets.
Once you begin, you may find yourself really going for it by initiating an overhaul of worn out/overused perceptions of yourself, others, and even the very meaning of life itself. You may find yourself investigating your own reason d’etre… a fancy, French way of saying taking another look into the purpose of your life. Really? you might be thinking…where will all the energy come from for such a deep transformation? Through the course of these writings, you will begin to “see” where it comes from, in case you don’t already have a good inkling!
In order to switch, to make a change in consciousness, we must bring a new level of awareness to what is actually going on in our consciousness. This often includes the things we do daily that have become so unconscious/automatic, that it is as if they are happening to us, as if we were in a trance state. Sound familiar? This is an opportunity to choose one or two habits which are not bringing benefit into one or two habits that do, i.e. creating one or two beneficial habits. This is a beautiful act of self-creation…reinventing your self and your self image.
Meanwhile, still lurking in the background are questions: where will all this energy for self-transformation come from? How come I have not been able to get a grip on these things before? Why will this time be different?
Quantum Physics has scientifically shown that when we focus on something, anything, the very nature of giving it our attention in some way changes the object positively or negatively. Case in point is Dr. Emoto’s work with the frozen water crystals. He showed the world how intensely water crystals respond to positive statements as well as negative statements by creating either stunningly beautiful patterns or murky, distorted patterns in their crystalline structure. Similarly, we can witness ‘consciousness in action’ in our own lives, by simply noting how when we give positive attention to a plant, a child, or a problematic situation, a change happens over time that produces a desirable result.
In the Hindi language, there is actually a word for this; the words is “drishti” which essentially means vision. To “unpack” that a little more, it means that the way in which we look at someone or something has a definite effect on it, be it a plant, animal, water crystals, or another human being. Change happens through our “drishti”. This is the power of the human soul; our vision is powerfully creative or powerfully destructive! Recognizing this power fully is great motivation for taking the challenging, first step of embracing full responsibility for our thoughts and our vision (drishti) about things in general.
How do we choose to see other humans, the situations we encounter, or even ourselves, especially ourselves? Do we consistently see the best in others or do we tend to focus on the worst? Are we stuck in the limited or have we developed a practice which allows us to enter the unlimited? Do we see another as a soul or only as a composite of facial expressions, muscles, bone structure, hair, and skin? Since the way we “see” actually impacts the well-being of what we are looking at, it is time to recognize and realize the importance of taking a good look at how we see ourselves, our aim in life, our objectives/goals, and our progress. A good place to begin is always with the Self, no matter what is going on externally!
This brings us to the crucial topic of self-image, or rather inner self image. What is the vision (drishti) that we hold within of our self? Often we are not aware of the very thing that is coloring our every thought, move, and feeling. We all know how dangerous a “blind spot”can be when we are driving, parking, or backing up. How much more dangerous it is to have a blind spot when it comes to the way we see ourselves on the inside.
Taking a look at what we do on a daily basis that may not be beneficial actually has its roots in that unknown entity, the inner self-image. What a wonderful opportunity to have an inner journey into the archive of images that you, unwittingly have collected over time and which have been making you tick without your conscious knowledge, much less agreement.
VERY IMPORTANT: please remember on this journey, no one is to blame! The main thing is to begin. It may take many journeys into yourself. Allow yourself the time to dive deep into your inner world. There are many methods to do this; you can explore your own depth through guided meditation, silent contemplation, stream of consciousness writing, or even by noting down you dreams in a journal. You may find a combination of the above works best for you.
WARNING: Consistency of effort is needed. Consistency is very beneficial to the Self.
Once you identify the images you are holding of yourself, you have the opportunity to change and update these images with ones that you consciously choose, based on spiritual knowledge and worthy goals which give direction to the unlimited being that you are. You are giving yourself such an enormous gift if you choose to take this challenge. You are giving yourself the chance to restore your own innocence and self-sovereignty.
Very often the images we are holding subconsciously were not self chosen, but rather picked up as an innocent, trusting child from the culture, our family, our schooling, our friends and enemies, and even TV, movies, and other forms of mass media. It is time to do some inner house cleaning and rummage through the backlog of what has been collected in your life.
Surrender what you would not consciously choose now; i.e. “CANCEL AND DELETE” thoughts that don’t support your new vision, your new drishti for yourself, Move the ego over and out to allow the Soul who you are to guide the ship!
Have a lot of fun with this!
I sincerely hope, you take one step in this direction, for when you take the first step, then the Highest on High irresistibly takes a 1,000 steps towards you for your assistance. Make this into an experiment. You and your consciousness are the “subject”. The outcome of this experiment is unknown; however if you begin making the effort in the direction of benefiting yourself and having compassion and mercy on yourself, it’s a guarantee you will love the results!
ENLIGHTENED ANSWERS 
Reblogged this on Shivalaya.
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