How to Shift into Higher Consciousness

Daily Insight from the Story of the Little Prince

When it comes to becoming present in our life, I find so many people want some kind of "magical" event to happen that will catapult them into a new state of being.

The reality is that for few does the ability to be present throughout their day happen as an instantaneous change.

Most of us have been so not present for many, many years that a change in our brain patterns has to occur before we are able to relax into the presence that's actually our most natural state.

Becoming conscious in the whole of life, truly aware in every aspect of our life, isn’t a quick fix. It isn’t an instant remedy for all our difficulties.

The fifth chapter of the story of the Little Prince focuses our attention on the need for consistency if we are to garden our life fruitfully.

What kind of consistency is required?

We aren't talking about a lot of “efforting” to become present.

On the contrary, trying to be conscious tends to have a reverse effect. You don’t become conscious by trying to force yourself not to think, for example.

When we try to be aware, we end up becoming increasingly preoccupied with our mind, which is a counterfeit of consciousness.

There’s a lot of teaching these days that we have to "change our thoughts," when what actually happens as we become more conscious is that thinking drops away altogether and is replaced by pure awareness.

So many of us are focused on our intentions, which have to do with the mental aspect of life.

We are focused on thought—trying to think more productive thoughts, more conscious thoughts, more present thoughts, higher thoughts—instead of becoming increasingly aware.

In the East, the term mindfulness is often used along with awareness. Depending on how we use the word, it can either serve us well or hinder us.

If we are talking about a mind that’s full of thought, even if it's a new and improved version of thought, this is the opposite of shifting into higher consciousness. But if we are talking about simply becoming aware, then mindfulness is a good term to use. We start noticing everything, instead of going through our days largely unaware.

Uprooting baobabs each day on his planet is a form of mindfulness for the Little Prince. It isn’t difficult work, he tells us. But it does require consistency.

The kind of consistency demanded is catching ourselves each time we shift out of relaxing into our essential being.

This isn’t an effortful endeavor, but a question of paying attention—of observing ourselves.

If we are centered and still, we quite naturally start to notice what’s going on in our life. We notice when something triggers an emotional reaction in us. We notice when we are slipping into “putting on a show” for others, coming from our ego instead of from our authentic being.

The daily task that needs to be done with consistency is just this: being the watcher. In this relaxed state, we find ourselves becoming increasingly aware.

It isn’t miracles or heroic efforts that are required to shift into awareness, just quiet observing. But it has to be consistent.

Whenever we find ourselves veering from our inherently present state, again dropping into unconsciousness, if we simply sit with what we are observing we will experience a shift back into consciousness. It’s just that simple.

As the Little Prince points out, a “bad plant” that sprouts—a detour into ego, or an emotional reaction—needs to be pulled up “the very first instant that one recognizes it.”

To just observe ourselves, and to sit with whatever arises that’s not true to us, is what it means to pull up the baobabs in our life. The expansion of our consciousness into every area of our life is, quite simply, a matter of consistent observation.