Independence: The Second Level of Consciousness

Have you ever had a feeling that life was passing you by? Or that you felt that you had a greater purpose than what you were currently doing? Do you ever wonder what happened to those big dreams you said you were going to accomplish? These feelings are caused by the lack of control you have in your life. The happenings of daily life create positive habits as well as negative habits. The easiest and most enjoyable path for short term happiness is that of comfort, acceptance and security. This path is the path of dependency. Dependency creates short term security, comfort, and acceptance. At the same time, this same path also creates long term unhappiness, helplessness and a never ending quest to try and achieve fulfillment in your life.

The fact that you have kept reading onto part two of this thread is a sign that you have began to develop awareness that there is something more to your life than what you have experienced so far. This does not mean you have not lived a great life up to this point, it just means you are beginning to awaken from the unconscious state most people live their entire lives in.

The questions we ask and the internal dialogue we have within ourselves decides what level of consciousness you currently are in, Dependence or Independence.

For example, a dependent person would ask questions such as:

What the hell is wrong with him?

I want to quit, but I ‘m not ready yet.

Why do bad things always happen to me?

When am I going to get my next raise? I wonder how much it will be.

Why is my boss such a jerk?

I don’t understand why people are so mean to me.

Nice guys finish last.

I’m upset that my job never offered me any training. Now I have no skills.

When your self talk resembles the statements above, you are relinquishing control of your life to someone or something else. In essence you are putting the responsibility for your situation on an external factor that is out of your control. It is not a surprise that when you ask yourself these types of questions you become emotionally charged in response to them. The feeling of helplessness is destructive to your self worth. It continually eats away at your self worth and before you know it, you will no longer have the strength to free yourself from it and you accept your situation as unchangeable. The majority of people in our society are willing to sacrifice this control in exchange for financial security or the approval of their peer group.

As stated earlier, the difference between someone in the dependent level and someone in the independent level is how they perceive the world. Below are some of the things that an independent person would say to themselves.

What can I do to get paid more?

How can I prepare myself for a better opportunity?

That guy must be having a bad day. (In response to rudeness or hostility)

How can I make sure next time this does not happen to me?

What can I do to get this project done in time?

I can’t control it; therefore I’m not going to worry about it.

This kind of dialogue is proactive and accepts the situation as it is. It does not allow the person to place themselves as a victim. This allows them to maintain control of their emotions and take responsibility for what has happened. There is no blaming of others for what happened. The ability to accept the situation is the fundamental key to freeing yourself of dependence. Not letting things bother you to the extent that it diminishes your self worth is how successful people end up rising above the norm.

Independence is when you can fully accept responsibility for your situation. Your decisions are no longer influenced by what others think of you or what has happened to you in the past. Your confidence comes from within and you no longer feel the ups and downs of daily life. Your interactions with others are no longer filled with anxiety, selfishness, hope, desire, or any ulterior motives to get to your end. You see that people begin to treat you differently, but at the same time you begin to treat others differently. Your inner calm and confidence directs your life and makes all negative experiences blend into the rest of the daily chatter thus reducing them to insignificance. You are now in control of your life and your emotions. You no longer depend on those external forces such as wealth, job situation, peer acceptance, material possessions or past events to dictate what your future will hold. You begin each day with excitement knowing you are in the driver’s seat and the world around you is under your full control.

Once you have achieved this level, you are in control of your mind, your body and your spirit. You no longer feel that your life is passing you by. The constant urgency that you felt to make more money and obtain greater levels of wealth and success are no longer there. You now realize that your internal happiness is the ultimate goal in your life and that everything happens for a reason.

The day will come when you feel at peace with yourself and the universe around you. You will see the world from the outside looking in. You finally see what it means to be independent…. Then you will begin to smile from the inside out.