Have you ever had a moment when you felt more connected to your environment and the people around you, allowing you to perceive things that you usually would not?

Have you ever been able to realize that you were dreaming within a dream (lucid dream)?

Did you have a moment of love and compassion where you could feel what another person or animal was going through, almost as if you were them? Do you remember a moment when you feel unconditional love for humanity and a genuine wish to be of help?

These experiences give us a vision of a profound way of being and perceiving reality beyond our ego. It is an alternative center of gravity that each one of us carries within. When we learn to connect with it, we can achieve a more conscious, balanced, and spiritual way of life within our reach.

Although I was born with spiritual awareness, it took me many years of inner work to get rid of the received programs and beliefs that kept me restless.

Studying with Tibetan lamas in Nepal and India was the gate to put what I had known at the theoretical level into practice. Gradually, I started to feel at peace with myself and the world as it is.

I was capable of remaining compassionate without being dragged by emotional responses. The integration of a higher perspective allowed me to live more harmoniously. Thus, I decided to share and teach what proved to be useful for me.

Here are some of those keys:

1. Experiencing awareness through mindfulness

To enjoy these harmonious states more and make them permanent at some point, we must be focused on the present moment. It is what allows us to increase our discernment and awareness. Like turning on a light in a dark room or focusing on a camera lens, suddenly, it is as if the world around us comes clearly into view.

It is not easy to maintain a steadfast focus on the present in whatever we are doing. More often than not, we get lost in daydreams and fantasies that have nothing to do with reality. The mind appears to have a life of its own, creating thoughts, judgments, images, and stories non-stop.

2. Taking control of your life

You may have heard this before, but it is still something to bear in mind. It all starts with the ability to self-observe ourselves and witness our thoughts, sensations, emotions, and behaviors. If we identify with them, we will react automatically, no longer in charge.

We want to expand our capabilities; we want a better life; we yearn for greater inner peace… But without being able to control our minds at will and being truly honest with ourselves, all these goals will always remain out of reach.

The ultimate objective must be to count on an expanded consciousness thanks to greater spiritual development. To perceive ourselves as eternal beings, we must realize that we are more than our intellect, body, knowledge, or economic or personal situation.

We are immortal beings living a series of earthly experiences that allow us to learn and develop deeply.

3. Beyond body and mind

It may seem common sense, but we do not often apply it. By simply paying attention, we can experience awareness. We can observe how there is something within us beyond thoughts and feelings and even beyond the mind. We begin to experience it in meditation, when the mind ceases its incessant chatter, in the silence of the mountains, and at peak experiences.

Then we perceive an essence in us that remains calm, witnessing all our adventures. From the depths of our souls, we keep connected with the Universe and others.

It is who we really are, the luminous part of us, that remains in harmony. Regardless of our adventures and misadventures, other people’s opinions, and even rejections, challenges, and difficulties, that luminous essence remains in us throughout the incarnation and after the transition.

That is consciousness. That is our true identity. That is the source of true joy, peace, and happiness that we seek so much without success outside.

That is why it is so worthy of focusing on developing our conscience through developing our minds, hearts, and virtues. Because everything we long for and cannot fulfill is in our consciousness.

To do so, we must shine a light on the ego’s destructiveness. We must shed all the negative feelings that tie us to the ground. We have to eliminate so much accumulated materialistic indoctrination. We must dissolve our egoic state of consciousness that only breeds suffering.

All this is vital to find the inner key that opens the door of Grace.

*Author: Mónica Esgueva

Source: Mystic Minds