Most of us live our lives through lower consciousness, which consists of the 6 senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting, and thinking.

Lower consciousness is driven by the survival instinct of fight or flight. We can certainly survive using this mode of operation; however, lower consciousness also creates stress. It generates negative emotions such as anxiety, depression, anger, hatred, worry, fear, etc. As long as we’re in this mode, these feelings will always show up in the mind.

But there is another mode of operation, which people are not aware of; it’s a state of higher consciousness.

Everyone is familiar with lower consciousness because we use it everyday. However, most people are not familiar with higher consciousness, although we do access it from time to time. Every time, you have an “AHA” or a breakthrough moment, you’re actually accessing higher consciousness. It gives you insight into what you’re observing.

When we’re in higher conscious state, we can clearly see the benefit of each thought and action whereas lower consciousness cannot do because it relies on its own preferences. Lower consciousness will always lean towards the things it likes (pleasurable) and will stay away from the things it doesn’t like (not pleasurable).

For example: An alcoholic person would always prefer an alcoholic beverage than other drinks because the alcohol gives that person pleasure. The alcoholic person lacks the insight because his mind is driven by lower consciousness, which seeks pleasure and avoids pain. But in actual reality, he’s doing more harm to himself by indulging in the pleasure of alcohol.

A recovered alcoholic, who now has the insight on the matter, will not even go near an alcoholic drink because he sees the harm in it. He gained this insight because his mind became objective and stopped relying on his preferences. Although he did like alcohol, he now sees the harm and suffering it brought. He now understands why he started drinking in the first place. It was because he wanted to get away from the stress he was experiencing in life. With insight and wisdom, he now chooses a healthier way to deal with stress.

He was able to gain this insight by abstaining from doing harm through sobriety. He was able to break the habit of drinking by not following his lower consciousness. This allowed him to enter higher conscious state and gained mental clarity.

Of course, we don’t need to be a recovered addict to gain insight into our own lives. We can actually train the mind to access higher consciousness directly through meditation (awareness training).

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