Are scarcity and competition the best way to do things, or can we choose a more creative cooperative path?

So much of what we are taught from the beginning of our lives is unconscious. We all learn from watching how others around us deal with emotions, challenges, and opportunities, or lack of.

You have the power to change yourself.

With that power comes great responsibility - not to change for others in a way that they want to see you change, but to change for yourself, to become more of who you are here to be.

I have learned to listen to my body when it is telling me things.

In my younger years, I didn’t listen much at all, and didn’t even know this might be a good thing to do.

I had non stop energy and the ability to run at a very fast speed and Get A Lot Done, and so I didn’t understand or hear my body when it was talking to me. It may have tried to communicate with me quietly and politely at first, I don’t know, because I wasn’t present to hear it. I just kept doing all the things and telling my body ‘this is what we’re doing today’. I was Type A+, I mean, I had it all under control!

Learning to slow down to have more space.

I’ve always been a bit fiery and fast moving, and I'm not the most patient of souls sometimes. These are some of the things I'm working on adjusting for myself. I get stuff done, but it's more fun for me if I remember that what's most important is the spirit I bring along with me. I'd like to be operating more from a place of inner peace and relaxation, in other words, trust.

The days I rush through my morning daily practice, (meditation etc.) because I convince myself that I'm too busy or over scheduled, I feel it.

The arrival of consciousness is often preceded by a period of confusion, destruction, and uncertainty.

Consciousness has even been known to bring sudden upsets and changes along in its wake. Things may not go according to plan. Your old friend, Doubt, shows up and wants a place to stay.

People keep doing irritating things, such as filling the oceans with noxious poisons and taking the whole planet hostage. It’s easy to get mired in the muck, and you begin to wonder if anything can resolve this whole mess.

You may not fully appreciate how much value there is in your focus, in what you pay attention to.

For one thing, the simple act of putting your attention onto something helps to change that thing. Your attention, your focus on a thing shifts the energy of that thing. This is called the observer effect. According to Wikipedia: “In science, the term observer effect means that the act of observing will influence the phenomenon being observed.”

When you focus consciously on something, you have an effect on it. This is because where you put your focus is where you put your energy.

It isn’t happening yesterday, and it’s not tomorrow yet.

What is happening is doing so now, in this moment, in this present time.

Some event may have happened yesterday that is affecting this moment now. As a matter of fact, every event that happened yesterday does affect now. Every choice made, every word said, every thought, is having its effect on you in this moment.

Whatever you chose: from the food you ate to the quality of sleep you had last night, to whether you’ve been able to let go of stress and worries, and so on. You are reading this article now.

If you asked your body right now to give you a status update, what would it say?

Would you hear something along the lines of ‘Happy today, feeling good with pretty toes!’, or perhaps more like ‘Tired sluggish blah want some more coffee or a nap’? If you haven’t given this matter much thought recently, or have the idea that it isn’t up to you, that it’s out of your control, you may want to sit up and take notice of your body.

Your body’s attitude and energy at any given moment has a lot to do with you, and you have enormous power to help and heal your own body.

Trying to control is key here, because that’s all you can really do with most beings and situations, try to have control.

When it comes down to it, you have no control over anything outside of yourself. It’s not your job to control anyone, though you may have agreed to do so. When you are doing this to others, you are also in their space, ie: invading them. When you try to control the actions of another, or the outcome of a situation, you are in danger of losing your own energy, and of forgetting that you have much more of an effect on the situation by staying in your own space.

Many of us have controlled in order to feel safe.

Everything is happening right now in this present moment.

All of the excitement that is available, can be felt right now. Because feeling is a present time activity, right now is the only time you can feel anything. The senses of the body work in present time, because your body is always in present time. The phrases ‘I saw something yesterday’ and ‘I will hear something tomorrow’ describe the past or the future, and neither is happening right now.

When it’s happening now, you have some influence over it, a choice.

The most sought after and precious gifts you can give won’t cost you a dime.

You can’t buy them online or at the mall. What's more, these valuable gifts are available for you to give freely, anytime. You don't need to wait for a special occasion. One size fits all, and no matter who you give these gifts to, they are a good fit. There’s no worries about gift receipts, returns, or guessing whether your gift will be the right one.

And what’s even better – when you give one of these to someone else, you give the same to yourself.

One of the main 'side effects' of becoming conscious is the transformation and changing out of personal habits.

Most of us have an unconscious habit or two that we'd like to change. As we become more aware of how our energy gets sucked into these programmed habits, we more easily shift our energy into doing things differently, and we change.

Daily habits are routines that are part of our lives, with varying degrees of awareness attached to them.