What is Consciousness?

As you know, consciousness is the state of being awake or aware. However, in this article, I would like to explore the nature of our changing consciousness. This subject is a driving force within each one of us that seeks to grow, evolve and expand in ways that can be confusing and therefore frightening.  I would like to ease your worry and reassure you; something extraordinary is happening – and you are part of it.   

Conscious to unconscious to Conscious

Everyone shifts into different stages of consciousness. For instance, most people are fully conscious when they are born. They feel a deep and expanded connection with life that is beyond their physical confines, yet their mind hasn’t organized what they know. Eventually, this sense of knowing seems to fade away as they assimilate with the way things are run within their physical reality.

Their mind begins to form its neuro nets or pathways of information according to what they are absorbing from their physical world. When this physical world is not conscious of their expanded reality, they live in an incomplete, therefore unconscious state.

These pathways of understanding within the mind are usually laden with egoic programming.  The ego is who we become within our physical reality when we are not conscious. This ego or exterior personality is formulated with the beliefs and experiences of our lives and is not conscious of the deep and expanded connection we once felt. As we conform to an unconscious world, the ego self rules our lives with its limited knowledge.  

Eventually, after we’ve had enough of our ego’s experience, something deep within ourselves begins to stir. This conscious part of us begins to wake after its long nap. Just as the sun begins to peer through our curtains and blinds every morning after its sojourn through the darkness, our conscious self is also beginning to shine through the cobwebs of our mind and stir deep remembrances within our heart.

As these remembrances begin to ignite our awakening process, our egos sense of consciousness is in question. So now we ask… what is consciousness?

My Experience & Understanding of Consciousness

The course of my inward journey leads me to believe that consciousness is a state of awareness that grows and expands. This expansion occurs when we unite our consciousness, with the wisdom our unconscious path provided.  To be fully conscious is to be fully aware of both the spiritual realms (higher consciousness) of our existence and the hidden, expanded Truth that is at the core of our physical experience. It is the realization that these two worlds, the conscious and unconscious are connected. As we seek to understand this connection, we expand our consciousness and our reality. This is a process of physically becoming our greater Truth. When we intentionally unite these worlds within ourselves, we grow in ways that enhance both our physical and spiritual realities.

The Process

When I was a young child, I was in a state of expansive connection and knowing. I was able to feel and sometimes understand the unseen relationship between and within all aspects of life. I was in a natural state of communication through communion with the spiritual realms. I was continually embraced with unconditional love and complete acceptance within this force, this energy, this spirit that was also within all things and experiences.

However, my physical reality did not support what I experienced. My need to be accepted by my family and peers caused me to distance myself from my expanded consciousness.

Then, as an adult, I craved the connection I once knew. This drove me toward the divine embrace and expanded consciousness I experienced as a child. My inward journey to my conscious Truths began to heal everything that led me away from them. This healing process formed a path that now unites my inner and outer experiences.

Waking Together

Everyone’s experience is unique to their path, yet shares common threads. Therefore, we can help one another, as these threads are weaved within the journey of each seeker.

Abundant Blessings,

Carolyn M. Greenleaf

This article was written for Conscious Community Magazine, based in Chicago IL 

Consciousness Series:

1) What is Consciousness?

2) The Process of Consciousness

3) The Evolving Nature of Consciousness

4) The Changing Cycles of our Lives