Does matter or thought come first? This is the first question we need to ask ourselves whenever we want to make any positive life change. Many of us try to fix what we see “out there” and then become frustrated with the results. A better way to approach positive change is to work from the level of consciousness, first.
Positive psychology is a relatively new branch of inquiry, but the quest to improve life is as old as human beings are. The science focuses on what makes life worth living, and how we can function better on multiple levels, including the biological, personal, relational, institutional, cultural, and global dimensions of life.
No surprise, each of these elements depends upon our level of conscious awareness – even the biological. How our body, brain, cells, and DNA function are as much related to our consciousness as how we relate to others socially or culturally.
In my latest online course, titled, “The Power of the Elevation of Consciousness,” I discuss the specifics of this phenomenon.
First, you must understand your true nature. You aren’t simply a bag of bones acting as a mother a father, a sister or brother, a sibling, a professional, or even a human. You are much more than a mere physical being. Your true nature is much larger than that. We identify with our physical form completely though – to keep our egos intact.
Ego-Transcendence
To realize our true natures we must first transcend the negative or limited ego.
The ego is not without use. It helps us to identify ourselves as spate individuals from our mother and father, and later, the greater world, but this is an arbitrary separation. More deeply, we are connected to all. When you call yourself a body, you likely rarely think of the billions of individual cells that make up the whole – yet they must work both autonomously and as a cohesive unit for you to live.
Our consciousness works in much the same way. As we realize greater levels of our consciousness beyond the biological levels, we can start to operate in cooperation with Greater Intelligence – as part of the larger organism that we are.
The ego is the part of us that says, “I did that.” Or, “I am that.” Yet, you are not the doer, because YOU don’t exist, at least not in the purely biological way in which you identify yourself.
Any self-reflective practice like yoga, meditation, Thai Qi, Qi gong, etc. can help us to disassociate from the negative, limited ego and realize our truer natures.
This process allows us to release trapped emotions (used by the ego to keep us feeling like helpless victims), and stagnant emotional energy.
Then, we can start to restructure our DNA at the cellular level. This is because the DNA is holographic in nature, and responds to consciousness as it organizes at higher and higher levels. (See this article which discusses entropy and light to understand this process better).
Social, Cultural, and Interpersonal Change
Once we start to break down the conceptual walls created by the ego, positive psychology ensues. This is simply a state of awareness that responds to each moment instead of to false programming which is largely controlling us through our subconscious thoughts.
Once this happens we can start acting out of unconditional love instead of a host of bad habits that cause our relationships to be strained, our beautiful cultures to be easily tarnished by outside influences, and our interpersonal abilities to be stifled.
Imagine getting along with everyone around you. Imagine being able to affect positive change without harming people or animals, or the environment. Imagine being at peace within yourself, bringing forth a well-spring of confidence and joy that overflows into everything you do – work, play, relationships, and even your health.
This is all possible because you have caused the cells in your body to communicate more efficiently. They are not processing emotions like anger, fear, and jealousy because these emotions are no longer held in your physical body. They had to be released in order for your organism to re-organize at a higher level.
This is why every change in consciousness is rewarded with greater levels of health, energy, and emotional joy.
If we want to understand what makes life worth living, all we need to do is elevate the consciousness. This is the basis of all positive psychology.
Our needs will naturally evolve along with that elevation of consciousness. We move from trying to fulfill our basest needs like getting shelter and having enough food or sex, to higher levels of human need like companionship, usefulness to our community, and creative expression.
Eventually, even all these needs fall away, and we become singularly focused on spiritual ascension, as state aligned so completely with Higher Intelligence that our body and mind is at one with the Divine, and all needs are met spontaneously.