Being wholly aware of your thoughts and changing the negative banter in your mind can bring many benefits to you and your business.

There’s been a lot of buzz lately around the phrase “raising consciousness”. People may think it’s a term for new-age thinkers, yogis or believers of the Mayan end-of-the-world calendar. It’s not.

“Raising consciousness” simply means increasing one’s awareness of thoughts and thought processes, and the effects these have on our interactions with the world (and even our bodies).

Have you ever noticed the incessant banter that goes on inside that mind of yours? Many of us don’t. Most of the time we’re on autopilot, allowing that banter to direct, focus and shape our day-to-day life without having any conscious awareness of it.

This could either be good or bad.

You see, this banter, these thoughts can empower us or disempower us. For example, if you don’t reach a target you might think, “that’s okay, because I’ll be bigger and better next time”. Conversely, someone whose thoughts were not so empowered could throw them into a spiral of, “well, I might as well just give up.”

See the difference?

Why is good to catch these little disempowering critters of thought?

Well, if you don’t, they will likely come true. Just as positive thoughts cause positive actions, the opposite is also true. The beauty is – if we are aware of our negative thoughts, we can actually change them!

That’s right. If you can raise your consciousness of the chatter in your mind, you can make roads to either alter a particular thought or banish it altogether. Awareness is 95 per cent of the journey. The rest is about taking consistent action with your thoughts.

Here are some tips on how to raise your conscious awareness, how to alter it and how this can help your business:

Want more articles like this? Check out the business psychology section.

How to raise your consciousness

When something ‘goes wrong’, make a conscious effort to catch the thoughts or words that go through your mind at the moment it happens.

Write them down.

Now, close your eyes and sit with those thoughts. What are they connected to? What is the wider belief that governs those thoughts? If that thought had a voice, whose would it be? Would it be your own or someone else’s? If it’s your own, how old were you when you first had this thought? What would you say to that old version of you, knowing what you do now?

How to change your thoughts

Very simply, you can thank that disempowering voice/thought/word for sharing. Acknowledge it and say, “yep, thanks for your contribution here!”

Now, what empowering, smash-it-out-of-the-park, fantabulous-feeling statement could you replace it with?

Choose that. Choose that over and over and over again until you are inspired to move towards it and make it real. It may seem uncomfortable and contrived at first, but as with every great skill in life, the key to becoming proficient is practice.

Having a personal success coach can also help with this, or be sure to attend the occasional personal development seminar to be reminded of how it’s done. Not only will the content help, but the people in the room will undoubtedly reflect you in some way and their energy will take you to another level of understanding about yourself and people around you.

The benefits for business

Hopefully by now it’s becoming clear that having this level of self-awareness can only serve to empower you more. It will lead to a more positive outlook and therefore a more positive you. And what does a more positive you do? Drives harder, thinks smarter, has a more profound appreciation of others, which leads to greater success!

Are you aware of the negative banter in your mind? Have you been able to alter it?

Please share in the comments.