Expanding consciousness is a transformative journey of personal growth and spirituality. All journeys are different and have their ups and downs with a few common denominators that are universal. One of which is that you come become more self-aware as what happened to Alec Ashby who in this episode of Raising Consciousness shares his journey of Tourette’s syndrome, mental health challenges, and how his path into personal development began with a profound awakening during a college spring break, which lead him to question his identity and embark on a journey of self-discovery. The exploration of psychology, spiritual teachings, and universal principles became the foundation for Alec’s transformation.
I’ve found simplifying consciousness is not an easy task. How do you put the wordless into words let alone understanding and then put into practice expanding one’s consciousness? If we start from the foundation that consciousness is a heightened state of awareness, as shared by Alec and ranges from simple mindfulness practices to deeper spiritual realisations then expanding consciousness becomes easy.
Once we become consciously aware of our actions, behaviours, thoughts, feelings, and everything in between which mindfulness practices can help with we begin to take back control of our personal power because so often our actions, behaviours, thoughts, and feelings are subconsciously programmed within us through repetition. The same can be said for our beliefs. Therefore, the first step in expanding consciousness starts with detoxing one’s life. This is about taking a bird’s eye view of one’s life and being honest about what is/isn’t working as well as questioning your own beliefs and detaching from subconscious programs.
Reflection is a great practice that can help you to get to the route of the matter. If you look at any great leader throughout history reflection and journaling have been at the forefront or at least part of their daily routine. I believe that this is because, through journaling and reflection, you’ll able to think consciously, not get caught up in the outside world, and most importantly realise what matters in life.
Realising what matters, and returning to the truth is part of the consciousness journey. It’s returning to values such as kindness as well as what it means to be human and our infinite nature/true essence. Returning to the truth, which is different from your truth, or what you believe to be true, as the truth is universal, timeless, and limitless and is centred around love, awe, and enlightenment and transcends fear, ego, and greed.
Once we expand our consciousness we realise that it’s not just a personal journey but a crucial step towards addressing global issues and fostering a more selfless world. The impact of living from an animalistic, survival-based mindset has created and/or contributed to all human suffering from wars breaking out to global challenges like poverty. The shift from a fear-based mindset to a more selfless mindset where we remember our true essence is the antidote for this.
Expanding consciousness isn’t about blindly adopting beliefs and due to the close collation between consciousness and spirituality and spirituality and religion, it has been known for religious figures to use this to their advantage. I have nothing against religion pre-se and remember hearing once that it can be used as a gateway to spirituality. But, you can be spiritual and not religious by going straight to the heart of the matter. Religion often comes with too many “rules” and biases whereas spirituality is based on the universal concept of love, awe, and truth the same as consciousness.
This journey is about being able to make empowered decisions and the ultimate goal of expanding consciousness is not just personal success but a more peaceful, impactful, and selfless existence that leads to contributing to a more compassionate and interconnected world.
Links, mentions, and sponsors of this episode:
Connect with Alec Ashby: LinkedIn
