Are you struggling to get through life? Are you finding it difficult to get up in the morning and start the day ‘as if it were on purpose’?
So many things are offered these days to help you change your life, achieve new goals, find new connections, gain new insights. But there is one new insight, one change, one profound shift in your consciousness that you will need to go through first, for any of these other goals, connections, and insights to have a true and lasting effect… and it is easier than it sounds.
Why is this shift so important?
If you have not gone through this one shift yet, you are trapped within the limitations of your own conscious and subconscious mind, and all your efforts will be in vain! Some have gone through this shift without understanding it, often caused by a devastating event in their lives. An event that shook or shattered their world in such a way that it opened their consciousness up to a whole new level of awareness, but that is not the only way.
You could wait for such an event to shake or shatter your world, or you could choose to go through it in a way that is not only far more gentle, but also gives you the opportunity to decide the pace of your own change. I have gone through more than one of those shattering events and though it helped me learn about and understand the shift, there is no need for you to reinvent the wheel on this.
The re-examination of common sense
How can the shift help you with your trouble and struggles? That, of course, can only be experienced and giving you hints before could actually give you the wrong impression, because before experiencing the shift yourself, you see everything through the (distorted) filter of your mind and anything concerning a state that you have not yet experienced, will not simply be accepted by your mind.
Awakening is the re-examination of our common sense…
At first it may seem scary, but soon we will get used to it.
― Alan Watts
Your unfree mind may react in different ways when you hear about this shift in consciousness, like with criticism, sarcasm, disinterest, doubt, discomfort, and anger even. That is actually a good sign because it means you are close to the edge of ego and it feels threatened by that proximity. A more promising reaction, however, would be if you got curious and felt inclined to investigate more.
Self-inflicted suffering
The shift helps you to take control over your life and live with more joy and far less internal struggle. It takes you to a higher viewpoint while living your life more awake than ever before. Mind and ego will not disappear, but until now you have never been able to use these particular mechanisms efficiently and freely because they have been using you. For most modern humans the mind and ego create far more suffering than the world outside.
“We suffer not from the events in our lives, but from our judgment about them.”
― Epictus
The shift is only a breath away
You can learn how to go through the shift. Eckhart Tolle excels in showing several ways to take the first steps and experience this shift yourself. In my book “You can be the Guru!” I help you understand the shift by taking you through a process that starts within your familiar thinking mind and then take you towards experiencing the shift yourself.
In reality, the shift is only a breath away, but not for the mind. The mind is, to a certain level, capable of understanding the shift, but it does need to open up to it and let go of certain preconceived ideas. Letting go is not the egoic mind’s strong suit so it’s pretty common to encounter some sort of inner resistance. Once you have experienced ‘being in the now’, as Eckhart Tolle calls it, a universe of possibilities opens itself up for you, but it depends on you if they actually come to be.
“A person hears only what they understand”
— J.W. von Goethe
Those possibilities are also available to people who have gone through the earlier mentioned ‘devastating life events’, but as time goes by many of them gradually lose that state. This is mainly due to the fact that they never fully understood what they went through, but also because they have not actively chosen to strengthen the state after they ‘accidentally’ fell into it.
The captain of your soul
Your egoic mind its still actively trying to steer you in what it believes to be good and safe for you, and its roots go deep into you subconscious mind. Therefore it is necessary to also ‘clean house’ once you have experienced your true Self, and although everybody is not the same and every human has its own life-path to walk, in “You can be the Guru!” I also provide indications on how to keep on evolving after the initial shift.
Know that you can become the captain of your soul, but that right now a semi-external force is at the steering wheel, and it’s causing you to go through a lot of unnecessary suffering. It has you addicted to a kind of thinking that you do not control and you will follow its beliefs even when you think you make a ‘conscious’ decision.
“Can’t stop thinking. It’s like can’t stop drinking […] Thinking is pseudo sense of self.”
— Eckhart Tolle
“Our beliefs shape our reality.”
― Tony Robbins
Peace of mind
You may have read books or articles, seen videos, etcetera, about how to ‘find peace’. In our modern society stress is one of the main causes of disease, so it’s not surprising that so many people have started this search for peace of mind, but knowing that we are stuck in the mind this search is completely useless. You cannot find peace of mind by searching with your mind, because it will activate the mind instead of rendering it quiet.
“‘Peace’ means returning to one’s original nature. This original nature is the eternal law. To know the nature’s law is to be enlightened.”
— Tao Te Ching
For peace of mind, again the internal shift of consciousness is essential because it takes the energy away from the egoic mind for you to use for your real consciousness, which is NOT your mind.
It changes everything
That is what it says in the title. But how do you know it is true if you haven’t experienced it yourself yet? That’s the thing… you can’t. There is no way of knowing for sure that what I write here is true, but as Alan Watts tells us “Awakening is the re-examination of our common sense…”, and that you can do even before you live through the shift.
Throughout this article, I have added various quotes and I could add many more if I wanted to. The reason I did that is to show you that what is said in this article is, in fact, common knowledge for many teachers, gurus and coaches and it has been for a long time. Why do they all say the same? Could it be because they all lived a similar experience?
You too can learn this and it has never been made easier for you than in these times in which so many teachers post articles, videos and publish books about this subject, so you have a simple choice to make: Will I keep following the road that has brought me more suffering than I wish to endure, or do I try the path that is advocated by so many renowned teachers and gurus for so long and promises a more joyful life experience? After reading this article that choice is yours now, despite your mind’s illusions…
‘You can make every experience in your life either an interesting experience or a curse. It’s up to you.”— Sadhguru
