Consciousness is Your Friend

I was thinking recently about my aversion to binary thinking, when I realized that most everything in life has a basis in binary qualities. By that I mean, virtually every trait, every experience, every opinion, every belief system, every collection of desires, every hair color, every body shape, can be framed on a continuum between two polar opposites. Extrovert Introvert. Nature-lover City-lover. Heavy Light. Dark Bright. When I’ve done the many personality tests over time, I often land in the middle, a little of this and a little of that. Not too weighted in either direction. That’s made it challenging to know who I truly am and what I truly pleasure. On the other hand, it’s relatively easy to go with floating in the clouds and blooming where I’m planted.How do you choose where to land on these endless paths between one and zero? Especially when there is constant and chronic pressure to perform a certain way, to hide one’s inner truths so as to not make waves, not upset the situation or the boss or the loved one?This is exactly where the muscle of consciousness comes in to play. I propose that virtually anything is doable in life, once you have some perspective on where you are, what you want, and what you are willing to tolerate. It’s hard to this in the spur of the moment! We often have those insights hours, days, or months later: Why didn’t I think of that then? The good news is that it’s very possible to shorten that window of time between  confusion and “Duh!” It’s like when I used to own a fitness, dance, and yoga studio. We had an emergency plan and a first aid kit. This was in Santa Cruz, CA, near an earthquake zone. And with people working out at high intensity seven days a week, the odds of an injury were definitely not zero.So once a month the staff and I reviewed our emergency plans. We re-stocked the first aid kit, which we kept accessible to our clients. They could help themselves to bandaids, Advil, etc. And in the case of an emergency, I wanted everyone to know where and how to help. One of the main reasons behind emergency planning, is the build the muscle, the instinct, and the skills when there is no emergency so you can respond quickly, effectively, and consciously should something happen.We build muscles and instincts not by searching for them in the moment of high stress, but by rehearsing them in the moments of calm beforehand.This holds true when pressured to reply to a negative comment on social media (it sure can feel life-threatening to the limbic brain!) or when evaluating whether to stay in a relationship, change a job or bigger still, a career.How do we navigate the minefield of being a human in the midst of other humans? I think it’s by developing consciousness skills.Consciousness is the tool that lets you navigate your unique and subjective path between the endless polar ideas and protocols that are presented to us (pushed to us, too) every single day.Consciousness is what shortens the time between confusion and “Duh!”Consciousness is the quiet that lets you hear and feel your own thoughts.Consciousness is what separates adult think from kid think.Consciousness is a growth hormone for building maturity.Consciousness is a collection of failed experiences that morphed into learning and awareness, both of self and others.Consciousness is the protective buffer around reactionary thoughts and actions.Consciousness is a red phone to the divine in our universe, open and online 24/7.Consciousness is the tonic that soothes us when so many other things disturb us.Consciousness is your friend.I’d love to hear how you think and feel about consciousness.