What consciousness has taught me most is that it helps to put what you feel on paper.

I always thought, “Why would you do that?” What difference does it make whether it stays inside me or is written down on paper? And yet, it helps.

What works well is being honest and writing down exactly what you feel.

So don’t turn bad → good, or the other way around.

If I write, “It’s often not nice to be me,” then that is true. It comes from the heart. Or, “I feel helpless and I don’t know why.” Those are real feelings inside me.

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I think “depression” is also an umbrella term for many people who feel something but have difficulty putting it into words. So we simply call it depression. But keep in mind that everyone’s depression is different. That doesn’t mean it isn’t real.

For me, the journey called consciousness was mainly about learning how to feel. Throughout my whole body. In my stomach, in my toes. I found that scary.

Naming unpleasant feelings within yourself is important. Don’t run away from them.

Panic? Name it within yourself. Excitement? Name it.

Do you know that feeling when you don’t yet know how to put it into words?

For me, that feeling is freedom.

The beautiful thing about feelings is that they are also something you can give to others.

A feeling of hope. Or self-confidence.

If I could give you one thing

It would be belief and trust in your whole body. That everything works the way it is supposed to work. That a body is strong. That your mind works the way it is supposed to work.

Building that kind of relationship with your body takes time and energy.

How you look at the world

Consciousness is Mother Nature training you to form your own perspective on life. It does this by rotating different ideas, so that you can look at yourself and the world from different angles.

If you write down all your thoughts, like they are balloons around you, then the common factor is the thing in the middle, which is you. It is how you look at things. Thoughts actually matter.

All big religious figures are essentially selling their perspective on life to you. Buddha did. Jesus did. They were explaining to us how they looked at the world, how they looked at the same things differently.

Which view does the Buddhist sell you?

Live in the present moment. “Chop wood, carry water.”

Which view does Jesus sell you?

Love, trust, higher power.

Which view does the scientist sell you?

Observe, test, understand.

In my opinion, they are all true in a way.

Pure consciousness is unexplainable. The normal world becomes unbelievably beautiful.

The religious view is beautiful too: you look at the world with eyes filled with love.

Science is phenomenal too, obviously.

How you look at something is more of a choice than you think

You can really say:

“I want to look at the world like it’s this and that.”

Or:

“I want to experience as many views of the world as possible.”

You can do that proactively. It’s not predetermined what it is going to be. This is, especially from a scientific perspective, hard to understand: that you make something into a certain way by the way you look at it.

If you're afraid of feelings

See them as a tornado, and imagine you're standing in the middle of it. Pull the feelings toward you, inward.

The Holy Grail means

You constantly refine the way you look at things, as if you are making a wooden table and continuously shaving off pieces. You can therefore let go of certain perspectives on life.

The hard sell is this: you already know how to do it. You just forget. But you already know it. You already know how to feel love. How to feel grief. Feel those emotions within you.

But you forget.

Another important part of consciousness is knowing when to let it go completely and not think about it at all for a while.

Then you don’t stop to think about what is happening. You just do.

That can feel really good.

Why does consciousness exist?

Consciousness teaches you to become “conscious” of things that are happening.

Before that, you don’t notice those things, and afterwards, you do. You become aware of them.

Without consciousness, those things would still happen, but you wouldn’t know that they were happening. And that makes a big difference.

For example:

• Becoming aware that you always suppress your emotions.
• Becoming aware that you often want to say something but don’t.

I always see it as a line that already exists, but only after you become aware that the line exists can you do something with it.

Consciousness is the most incredible journey there is.

But the journey is certainly not without its dangers.

Are you extremely self-aware, for example because you grew up in a difficult environment? Then you may end up in a mode where you do nothing but reflect on your own behavior. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is important to be aware of it.

In a way, consciousness indirectly teaches you what you are doing, or what has happened.

And don’t worry: it is normal to be extremely self-aware for a while. That is not the problem.

I mainly use consciousness to consciously observe what is happening in my body. And not to be afraid of it.

Reflection

Reflection can be scary. It is that moment when you sit down and critically look at how you are doing things.

It is the moment when you really face your fears. Where am I getting stuck? Am I still happy?

Why don’t I feel good?

That last question is the one I use the most. The metric for everything is: “Does it still feel good?” The answer is often yes, until it becomes no.

Working out? Good. Working out every day? Doesn’t feel good. These are the small things you learn from, and then you can change your behavior. Without reflection, that wouldn’t be possible.

What is difficult is when you are too hard on yourself, or when you always run away from your feelings.