Ways To Alter Consciousness

Life is very complicated in this day and age, is it not? And so the concept of ‘ways to alter consciousness’ becomes even more complex.

I don’t know how it is for you, but for me I am a single mom, fighting for full custody of my children. I have an ex-husband who is very sick

 www.secondhandaddiction.blogspot.com  by his own hand, which complicates matters. I have three jobs and I spend my free time looking for the job that I can love, and that makes enough money. I also shop for food, pay bills, do the laundry, work to stay healthy of body, mind, and spirit, and I feel guilty throughout that I cannot devote more time to my kids.

I’m guessing that many of you can relate.

Now it is good common sense to realize that if you want to move forward you must maintain a healthy positive outlook. They call this the new Law of Attraction, but by my standards it is not so very new. We all know that negative breeds more negative, and fear breeds more fear. But you can combat all of this negative with the positive. And so Judy Garland recorded a song in the 1940s called “Sunny Side of the Street.” And we have known for a long time that self-pity and negative thoughts will never get you anything positive.

Still in my life it is often hard to find time to do the things that will help me to stay positive. If I could I would pray and meditate and listen to hypnotherapy CDs and attend healing retreats all day, every day. I love that stuff. And it definitely puts me in an altered state of mind. But time is of the essence, and I am human enough, so I struggle with being authentically positive at times.

Now the whole conversation here is about ways to alter consciousness, or the way I think and feel at any given moment. So I thought to myself recently, what could I do throughout my day to keep myself positive? Of course affirmations came to mind, since they are very handy and can be said aloud or to yourself. So I sat down and wrote up a personalized set of affirmations to say during my day, and I put them in my car, near my bed, and in my work bag in order to have them handy at any time. Now I spent a lot of time thinking of what affirmations I needed right now- but you can also get excellent affirmations at Barnes and Noble by the renowned guru of affirmations, Louise Hay.

So the other day I was at work, and not feeling particularly bright, in the shine-your-light sort of sense. So I pulled out those affirmations and began to say them to myself. As time went by, I also began to talk about them to my coworkers. Pretty soon I was also talking about them to my customers. And pretty soon everyone I spoke with was feeling good and positive, me included! I never felt the need as I sometimes do to discuss or ‘clear out’ the negative that I had been feeling before. Saying those affirmations was just enough to pull me out of my funk.

And I am struck as I tell this story by the power of positive thought, that can spread like a flood, and douse the flames of the ever-raging negative around us. So don’t forget to actively put those positive thoughts in your head- whether you believe them or not at the moment. And you can do this by using affirmations and positive self-talk.

These days it is especially important to spread the positive in the area of money and the economy. In this way, as President Obama says, “yes we can” change our world.

When we talk about the concept of ways to alter consciousness, what do we actually mean?

Do we mean improving our memory? Is it increasing our IQ or improving our sleep? Are we discussing becoming psychic or clairvoyant, or reaching a deeper meditation state? Or do we simply want to be able to stop yelling at our children? Now as I see it, altering consciousness is all of this and much, much more. It is shifting the very way we think, see the world, live our lives, and exist on this planet.

I know this sounds very new-age and far-out. That's because it is.

When we speak of ways to alter consciousness a lot of people think of things like Echart Tolle's book A NEW EARTH, or the movie THE SECRET. Some people think of yoga mediation, and Buddhism. Others think of a life-altering course called The Landmark Forum. Still others reach deep into their various religions and spiritual leanings to come up with quotes such as "Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you" and "There but for the grace of God go I."

And as we think further about altering consciousness there may come a realization...This is not so new age as we thought.

The human race has wanted to alter its consciousness for thousands of years. We have even had some brilliant ideas of what direction to alter it to- living on this earth in peace and harmony, for instance- or having tolerance for others, good judgment, and an abundance of love- or helping people instead of harming them. In short we have had the wonderful idea that all beings should live their lives in joy and happiness, with their needs met and a high level of satisfaction in life. They should do this-and humans have believed this almost without exception.

Honestly, altering consciousness is not such a new idea. So what is suddenly so all- fired important about it? Why does the idea of altering consciousness hit the media like an atom bomb and spread like wildfire? Here is my profound belief. Suddenly the whole idea of a new world order has become a possibility. We as a human race are actually ready to begin to try this idea out. We don't say it's probable. We don't say it's assured... but we do say- like the frenzied Gene Wilder in the movie Young Frankenstein- "THIS COULD WORK." And such a thought has never occurred in the minds of so many masses of people, until now.

And if we don't kill ourselves off first, we might just actualize this possibility.

Well I'm an optimist. I'm looking to beat the clock on this issue. So in future articles I will help you explore various ways to alter consciousness, both for yourself and for the world at large. Some of the ways I will offer you are as old as Methusula. They may take practice, but they definitely work. Others, like brain entrainment, are new and purported to work quickly and with ease. So stay tuned as we explore a whole new look at some very old ideas. Namaste and peace to you and yours .