Brandon West, Contributor
Waking Times

In order to consciously evolve and master ourselves, our attitude in each moment is what we should focus on as our gauge of personal mastery. We are beings of perception, and the quality of our perception is determined by our attitude. This is the importance of attitude. An individual who has the openness, honesty, and subtlety to perceive the nuances of their attitude in each moment, and the concentration necessary to make corrections as necessary is truly an unlimited person. For it is our attitude which determines the reality we live in and the opportunities and experiences we are available to.

Two individuals can be in the pouring rain while one is having the time of their lives, and the other is soaked, cold, and in essence, miserable. The difference is not in the environment, but in their perception of the environment. And that is where attitude comes in.

The reason why attitude is an excellent focal point of our attention is because our attitude is what gives us direct insight into our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions in each moment. Many of our beliefs operate on the level of our subconscious mind, therefore they are nearly invisible to us. Moreover, our emotional state is not always obvious.

If we are habitually depressed or angry or hopeless, a time will come when this feels normal. And when we maintain these energies for long enough, we won’t realize our emotional state until we have felt its opposite. For example we wont realize how bored or listless we were until we have felt radical enthusiasm and inspiration, or we wont realize how empty we have been until we have felt love. Therefore only by the experience of a new way of being can we see how we were and how we have been.

This new experience of being is literally a shift attitude. A shift in perception and a shift in feeling if you will. If we can pay attention to our attitude, and become aware enough to identify the nuances of our attitudes, then we can discover the limitations of our beliefs, thoughts, and emotional states which may have become so habitual that we may not even notice their detrimental effects and the ways in which they limit us.

Making and Maintaining Attitudinal Shifts

I have found in my life that they key to learning and growth is always consistency. Consistency in our actions, and most importantly in what we focus our attention on. Specifically, our attitude, because it is our attitude which determines our reality, and one of the most efficient way to reprogram our subconscious minds and thus change our lives is to make and maintain attitudinal shifts in each moment.

Our beliefs ultimately determine our attitude and perception of the reality around us, therefore instead of struggling to fish out these deeply ingrained beliefs one by one (and there are multitudes), it is more direct and efficient to change what we perceive by consciously changing our attitude. By doing so we experience literally a different set of energy/information and thus when our subconscious minds are consistently flooding with new perceptual and experiential information, over time new beliefs are formed which are in alignment with the attitudes we have consciously chosen.

We can either consciously shift our attitude in order to change our beliefs, or we can remain unconscious and allow our attitude to be determined subconsciously by our subconscious beliefs. Many of which, possible the majority, are limiting.

By being able to consistently make attitudinal shifts, we will gain the subtlety to be able to do so consciously and in a way where the attitudinal shifts we make are done so in order to align more with source, and align with who we truly are and who we are inspired to become. But even more important than making these attitudinal shifts is the ability to maintain them. And the only way to do so is through consistent and diligent practice (the power of commitment).

One way is to literally practice new attitudes, new perspectives, and new ways of feeling. I am not talking here about artificially creating and adopting attitudes because we have already done that. That is what much of our personality is, and precisely what our ego is. A new way to go about this business of personal transformation is to pay attention in our lives and consciously make the attitudinal shifts necessary so that we can maintain connection to intention (the universe).

Many of our programmed behaviors and beliefs which define our habitual attitude are obstructive and incongruous with who we really are and our highest potential. And when those habitual attitudes set in they distort the flow of the universe and higher consciousness through us. When our personality is incongruous with our true nature, it obstructs our connecting link with spirit when it is engaged and the flow of intention (universal consciousness) through us is hindered.

Once you feel intention, you will know it. Meditation will bring you to this awareness, but even still these attitudinal shifts require subtlety which can only be gained with practice over time. And while it seems a difficult task at first, we have to ask ourselves, isn’t our effort involved completely justifiable if the result is the establishment and maintenance of a conscious connection with the universe, with intention, that grows deeper and more profound over time? Moreover, is it not worth it to train ourselves to live at a level of consciousness where we experience and consistently unleash amazing abilities and potential within us, and truly feel unlimited?

Feeling unlimited is not some vague belief, it is an unquenchable lust for life and excitement that surges from the depths of our being when we consciously feel and sense that we have no limitations. It is not a belief but an experiential fact. And that experience can be achieved through the lens of our attitude.

The importance of attitude is that it is the basis for everything in our lives. Our attitude determines how we react to adversity, our ability to grow and to learn, our ability to overcome challenges, and create bonds with others. And our attitude as it is now is the product of a lifetime of instilled beliefs, programming, and in my opinion, brainwashing.

As sinister as it sounds, it is true, simply because the way we have been taught to perceive reality is so far off from the true nature of reality. And whether it was intentional or the result of ignorance, it really doesn’t matter. The fact is that it happened, and why it happened isn’t all that important to me. What is important however is that we take responsibility for ourselves in this moment so that we can consciously reverse it in order to grow, transform, evolve, and experience these exalted levels of consciousness for ourselves.

Changing Your Attitude

When I talk about attitude what I really mean is how we habitually feel and perceive the world. However, this in turn is determined by our ‘personality’ which in itself is founded on our beliefs as a result of life experiences and our programming. To change our attitude, one way is to change directly how we see the world in our imagination and consciously instill new feelings within ourselves based on these new images (which is a highly effective process for manifestation and transformation which I will cover in-depth in a later article).

The simpler method is to just concentrate on consciously feeling differently where appropriate.

I know this works because I did it for the first time when I was in grade 9. I literally concentrated as much as it was possible for me to concentrate to literally change my attitude and how I habitually felt, and the result was that I changed aspects of my personality. In hindsight I realize that I did this in a direction I would not choose to take today because it led to self-pity. But I have no regrets because I see now that it was an essential learning experience in itself which led down a path of even greater learning experiences (many disguised as misfortune, and suffering).

Changing our attitude is not an event but a continuous process, as everything related to mastery and evolution undoubtedly is. You don’t have to change all at once. Instead just make the most relevant attitudinal shifts to you in your daily life and reinforce them consistently until they become your new attitude. And as you do this you will find yourself naturally moving on to new areas, and new levels of subtlety.

If it is most relevant for you in this moment to get in shape, then create an exercise routine and follow it daily while consciously changing your attitude towards yourself, and even your attitude towards hard work, physical exertion, commitment, and discipline which are all lessons I have personally learned through physical training. Or if you are learning a language or studying a difficult course in school, consciously shift your attitude towards your memory, towards your intelligence and so on.

Notice when you unconsciously adopt the attitude of being overwhelmed, or doubting your intelligence, or perceiving as if your memory is poor when you are learning something new. Or when you adopt the attitude of ‘I Can’t’. Sometimes I notice my attitude first by a face that I feel myself making, and that is a trigger to realizing I am feeling an emotion that doesn’t resonate with my unlimited nature.

In these moments take a second and concentrate with everything you have on feeling differently about what you are facing, whatever it may be. It could be self-doubt, or an uncontrollable nervousness about talking to that girl or boy you are infatuated with.

Remember a time when you felt confident and assume that feeling in your body in this instant. When you change how you feel when confronted with these circumstances you are changing your attitude. And eventually with diligent practice and repetition this new feeling and attitude you have conditioned yourself to feel will be your new response to similar circumstances in the future.

But at very least you will have the ability to change your feelings and attitude consciously which is the height of self-mastery and self-awareness. A superpower that I cannot stress the importance of enough.

The Importance of Attitude

In essence there are a lot of major and truly subtle shifts that we can make regarding our relationship to everything. Our attitude towards financial wealth for example is another important one. Our attitude towards adversity, towards challenges, towards hard work, towards learning from within, towards success, towards self-reliance and independence, towards freedom, towards our dreams, towards people you disagree with, towards people you don’t like, towards parts of yourself you don’t like, and on, and on, and on …

And at is our attitudes towards all things in our lives which determine our reality. This is the importance of attitude. Your attitude towards financial wealth is what determines your financial wealth. Your attitude towards success, or towards love, is what determines your success and determines the love you feel. And it is my conviction that changing our attitude is a practice at the heart not only of personal growth and mastery, but of consciousness evolution. Right alongside self-discipline. For it is our attitude towards reality in general which determines what reality is for us. But if we can consciously shift our attitude over time, we will shift our personality drastically, and we will also change our reality by degrees until we live at a new level of being.

And one day, we will shift our attitude and personality to such a finely tuned degree that we are in complete alignment with the universe. And at that time we will cease to be individuals with an ego (What is Ego?), and we will become individuals expressions of universal consciousness.

This thing that we call our personality is but the culmination of our beliefs and social programming, and in no way is it something sacred which is unique to us except the aspects of our personality that are defined by qualities such as love, kindness, generosity, creativity, and true spiritual power. For those are not qualities of the ego, they are qualities of the universe, our true selves, which is shining through us.

Our uniqueness is found in how we express the divine energies being channeling through us, not in the pettiness and limitations of our ego.

Thus by consistently shifting our attitude we are not battling the ego or living from it either. We are simply opening up new channels for expressing the universe and ourselves, and opening a doorway to new ways of being and to a new experience of reality.

You cannot control what is currently happening to you in your life, but what you can control is your attitude towards what is happening in your life, in every respect. And thus by shifting your attitude, you also shift your perspective and change what you attract into your life. This is the importance of attitude.

What we call our ego is not our individuality, rather it is the aspect of ourselves which stands in contradiction to our true nature: it is the expression of our subconscious programming which opposes our true self. The intention therefore is not to remove the ego, but to align it so well with our infinite nature that our ego and infinite nature become completely congruous.

Then we will always be expressing the truth of who we are, which is invariable divine love, creativity, wisdom, and power. That is the true nature of each and every one of us.

By making and maintaining attitudinal shifts that keep us at levels of higher consciousness, over time these attitudinal shifts become subconscious habits and thus our subconscious mind maintains higher levels of consciousness for us. Instead of fighting with ourselves constantly, in the ongoing battle between our ego and our infinite self, it is much more intelligent (and easier in the long run) to concentrate on aligning them.

Our attitude is the focal point of that alignment.

“You are personally responsible for everything in your life, once you become aware that you are personally responsible for everything in your life.” – Bruce Lipton

About the Author

Brandon West is the creator of Project Global Awakening. A website dedicated to the research of a variety of scientific and spiritual disciplines, and applying that knowledge to help you live an inspired life and change the world. Follow Project Global Awakening on Facebook, and Twitter.

This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.

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