The Secret to Self Improvement

If there is one “Secret” to self-improvement and getting the things you want in life, I’d have to boil it down to one thing and one thing only.

Conscious Awareness.

I initially had an interesting time breaking down the definition of “Conscious Awareness” into the basic components. When I first came across the term “conscious awareness”, I accepted it for what it was until I asked myself, “Why ‘Conscious’ and ‘Awareness’?”.

Is there a difference between the two?

In a word, yes. In more than a word, consciousness and awareness are linked, and interdependent. However, what they do imply are two different things.

Consciousness

The way I understand it is that Conscious in the simplest term means “awake”. When we are conscious, we are “awake” and know something is happening around us. You may not know exactly what is happening, but you ARE conscious that something IS happening.

The path to attracting what we desire into our lives and personal enlightenment begins with the state of being conscious. Not conscious in the physical sense of moving around in your body, but being awakened in your mind that there is more to you than just your physical body.

An example that I could use would be someone just waking up from a coma.

Imagine this man (or woman), who’s been in a coma for all his life, and has just woken up. He’s starting to stir, and starts mumbling something that no one really understands. He’s becoming “conscious”, he’s awakening from that coma of which he’s been in for all his life.

Is he aware of what’s happening around him? At this point in time, not really. Is he conscious? Yes. But is he really aware of what’s happening and going on around him? Not really.

The first step to becoming conscious is to realize that you do have control over your mind, and that you are more than just a physical body walking around this planet. You have untapped power and potential that you could harness, if you were only to realize and start developing it.

Awareness

So what’s the difference between being conscious and aware?

From my current understanding, consciousness and awareness are linked, but they imply different things.

To be aware requires that a state of consciousness has to be present first. Without consciousness, awareness isn’t possible.

A person might react to external stimuli, but they may not be aware they are “reacting” towards external stimuli. They have no conscious control over deciding on “how” to respond to an external stimuli, but instead react from previous social and mental programming.

I can understand that this might seem a bit “deep” for some people, while for others, it will already be “obvious”, but that’s because of your exposure and existing awareness of such knowledge.

A good example to help understand the difference between reacting and responding would be driving and having someone cut into your lane in front of you. The typical reaction would be to get angry, say some really unsavory words, sound the car horn in anger, flash your headlights, etc etc. That’s a reaction.

Responding would be being aware of the emotion of anger, yet choosing the actions that follow from the moment of that incident. Instead of losing control and reacting from anger, you could still be angry but choose a different course of action, like shifting your awareness from being angry to that of continuing to drive safely.

You could still toot your horn, flash your headlights, but it would only be because you choose to, not because you were reacting from the emotion of anger.

However, regardless of whatever is said, this is a basic step towards being in control of your life situation. When a person is consciously aware, then a state of being able to “deliberately” create the situations and circumstances to attract what you want in life is possible.

The Big Question

There’s a big question to be answered by you, by me, by all of us.

Are You Consciously Aware?

When I first learnt about conscious awareness, I felt that “Yeah, I am” (And of course, I later learnt that while I knew the concept of being consciously aware, I was only starting to become conscious. Talk about ego. *LoL*). However, as I continued my studies and journey, I realized that I was still “reacting” to certain external stimuli, and not “responding”.

It’s not easy to get to this state, and I’m still discovering certain beliefs and reactions that have been programmed into my subconscious. However, once I’m aware that I’m reacting, I’m then in a position to ‘reprogram’ myself to react differently the next time something similar happens. The thing that next has to be defined is the “how” I want to respond.

And that’s what people who create their reality, and attract what they want in their life do, isn’t it?

It seems as if they are able to say the right thing, take the right action, “be” the right person to attract favorable circumstances into their lives. It’s because they are consciously aware of themselves and what’s happening around them, and inside them. They live life from the inside out, expressing who they are and coming across as real and authentic because that’s who they are being.

Although a key aspect of self-improvement is Conscious Awareness, I’d have to say that gaining conscious awareness is more of the foundation on which personal development and improvement is built. It’s only the beginning to the amazing journey of living an incredible life.

When one becomes consciously aware, you realize that truly anything in life is possible. It becomes a case of expanding your awareness, developing your mind by building the right thoughts through ‘right’ education, and training yourself to follow through on your decisions.

Anything is possible, even creating the situation and circumstances of attracting wealth in all its aspects into your life.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on this.