Three Levels Of Consciousness

Life can be challenging, and sometimes we try to dip below or rise above our thoughts. In this episode, Glenn discusses how we fluctuate between the three levels of consciousness. He takes a look at how to recognize when we are shutting our brain off too much or trying too hard to overthink a situation.

Transcript

Welcome to Life,

Lessons and Laughter with your host Glenn Ambrose.

Hey everybody,

Welcome to the podcast.

So today we are talking about the three levels of consciousness.

I'm excited.

Ooh.

Ah.

Ooh.

Alright,

What are the three levels of consciousness,

Buddy?

They are the level of thinking.

I should be right in front of my brain.

Level of thinking.

That's where we normally are.

Functioning.

Always thinking,

The wheel's always turning,

Caught up in that wheel of thinking.

Been there.

And there's another common place that everybody goes and that's dropping below the level of thinking.

This is watching TV.

This is drugs,

Illegal and legal drugs.

Okay.

Alcohol.

Anything we use in an addictive manner like shopping,

Eating,

Sex,

In an addictive way.

Right.

Of course,

Not all those things are bad,

But we do have to shop,

Eat and have sex if at all possible.

But.

Yeah,

No.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

But,

Like,

If we do in an addictive way,

If we do it as an escape from the level of thinking,

Then that's when it's dropping.

When you're doing it mindlessly and you're not in control of it.

Right.

And it serves as an escape.

So a respite from that constant thinking that we're in.

And then the last level is rising above the level of thinking,

Which is where we're supposed to be.

Because when we drop below the level of thinking,

It's not natural for us to be less than ourselves.

You know,

To need to dumb ourselves down from our normal,

From a state that we're capable of is just not normal.

We're not supposed to be less than ourselves.

So therefore there's negative repercussions because of that.

We're doing something that's unnatural,

You know,

To induce a vacation from our brain in an unhealthy way.

So there are repercussions and some of them are obvious.

You know,

Some people,

An addiction is one of those repercussions where it's obvious.

It's like,

You know,

You're addicted to the behavior.

You're not in control of what you're doing.

And you know,

It's not that we can never watch TV.

I mean,

You know,

Whatever.

It doesn't make us a bad person and unconscious if we actually watch something.

You know,

Sometimes it's okay to get some entertainment.

But again,

If that's our escape,

If it's like,

You know,

Think of it.

If you go to work all day and your mind's constantly going and you're just caught up in that level of thinking and then you get out of work and you're running errands and you're doing this and you're doing that.

So you're caught up in the level of thinking and then you go and you have a couple of drinks or you sit there and watch TV and then you go to bed like that.

That's your entire life and you're never conscious ever like you,

You know,

You're never in control.

You're never in the present moment.

You're never in control of what you're doing.

You're never,

And this is how people wake up,

You know,

After 20 years of a job that they don't like or a marriage that is falling apart and they're not even aware it's falling apart or you know,

That you wake up to the person next to you and you're like,

Who are you?

I don't even know you anymore.

You know,

There's,

We miss,

Life is what happens when you're busy doing other things and when you're constantly busy,

You know,

In the game of incessant chatter in your brain and then you fall into moments of unconsciousness just to escape that every once in a while where you're not really aware of your life or what's going on around you.

You know,

That's not,

It's not really a healthy existence.

This is not what I would call the upper echelon of living.

So there's like two things with that,

Right?

It's like,

Number one,

You have the moments of like,

You have this thing that's causing unhappiness,

Right?

So like you have a like a nine to five job that you hate,

Right?

So you're unhappy there and then instead of doing anything about that unhappiness or instead of,

You know,

Filling in your time with something that makes you happy,

You,

And not that an escape can't make you happy,

But it's the,

What you're saying,

Like when you're doing it at a subconscious level,

When you're zoning out,

When you have those drinks to unwind or you're like,

I'm just going to go play video games till three o'clock in the morning or I'm going to hit the drive through and get like,

You know,

Like when you're not being conscious about it and you're doing it to stop the pain of the thing that you don't like,

Then there's never a time for consciousness and moving forward.

Right.

And that's the tricky part.

You know,

Like you made,

You made a good point right there.

You said that it's not that it can't be fun,

You know,

Like,

But that's the problem is people mistake a respite from suffering as joy.

Like they actually think that,

Like if you ask somebody,

You know,

That that's sitting there playing mindless video games for three hours,

Do you enjoy playing video games?

They're going to be like,

Oh my God,

Yes,

I love playing video games.

Right.

Yep.

But that's,

You're not really enjoying playing video games that much.

I mean,

Don't get me wrong.

There are a few people that really enjoy playing video games is,

You know,

And,

And,

And I don't mean to put down video games.

There's I,

I'm not a big video game guy,

So to me it seems like a good example,

But there are,

I want to be fair.

I mean,

There are some people who really like playing video games and if you can do it mindfully,

And perhaps even make a living out of it and,

And,

Or it's your hobby and you're really cool,

You know,

I'm not talking about that.

Yeah.

I'm talking about people that do it just to escape and they're to drop below the level of thinking and they're not even aware of it.

It's just the relief that they get from being in the incessant thinking.

They mistake that relief for happiness.

Right.

And that's really,

Really sad.

That's really,

Really,

Really,

Really sad.

That's one of the most sad things I've ever become aware of.

Seriously.

No,

I completely agree.

You know,

It's like the fact that we suffer so much in humanity that our existence sucks so bad that just to not be suffering,

We mistake that for happiness.

Not to be consciously suffering.

Yep.

We're still suffering.

We just dumb ourselves down enough to not feel it and we go,

Oh yeah,

That I love that.

And that's actually,

That's exactly so about,

So about your point about video games,

Like it's not the thing that's bad.

It's the,

It's what your,

It's how you're using it.

That's sad.

Like it's the,

It's the issue.

And you know,

I do this,

So I'm not judging anyone.

I do it to some degree too.

Right.

There's a level to which we all go there.

And it's like,

There's a thing where if it's the thing that's fulfilling you,

Like you said,

Like if video games are your hobby,

Your passion,

Your job,

You know,

All of that stuff,

If that's the thing that's fulfilling you,

That's great.

Or if you spend every day doing fulfilling work and you know,

Like if you're happy in your job,

You're happy in your life,

You're happy with your family,

And this is a hobby that you're doing and,

Or,

Or you,

And you get some enjoyment out of it and you love,

You love all of that stuff and then you want to zone out and watch Game of Thrones or a football game,

Awesome.

Right.

Perfect.

Absolutely.

Great.

You know,

But if you're like,

I've had a really rough day,

I'm going to have three glasses of wine and watch the entirety of The Office again,

Which like,

I mean,

I've seen that show 9,

000 times.

The like,

Then you,

You got to look at like what you're doing.

Right.

And this is,

That's what you need to do is you need to slow down and really look and,

And because at first glance,

What,

You know,

What our ego wants to do is defend our behavior.

I mean,

That's,

You know,

Rule one.

So as soon as you say this,

You know,

Our first instinct is our mind,

Our mind is taking in the information going,

Hey,

Our,

Our escape is being threatened.

It's being challenged by Glenn defended.

So you know,

The first instinct is to go,

No,

I really liked that.

So you have to get beyond that and be able to be honest with yourself.

You know,

The,

This is the,

You know,

If you want a happier life,

There's three things.

If you want to change,

There's three things necessary.

Open-mindedness,

Honesty and willingness.

Well,

Now's the time for honesty.

You need to slow down,

Stop defending and really get honest.

And if you really look at what you're doing,

I mean,

Like I said,

I do it.

So I did it last night.

Like I did,

There was,

I was sitting there,

But I did it consciously.

You know,

There was,

I had,

I don't know,

Let's say like four hours or something last night.

And I was like,

Okay,

I technically don't have anything to do that needs to be done in the next four hours.

How do I want to spend that?

It's like,

Because I mean,

I'll work sometimes when I'm not,

You know,

In not normal hours.

I mean that's part of having your own business.

So like,

No,

I don't want to do that.

No,

I don't want to do that.

No,

I've,

I've kind of had a lot going on recently.

I was moving all weekend.

I'm a little bit tired,

A little bit groggy.

Not sure why.

I think I just want to relax and watch a couple movies.

It's like,

Well,

That's dumbing down.

Yes.

I would like to dumb down for a little while tonight.

Okay.

And I did,

You know,

But at least it's making a conscious decision to do it.

The danger is when you're doing it consistently,

Constantly,

Unconsciously,

And there's no consciousness in your life.

There's no space for consciousness in your life.

You just oscillate in between,

You know,

The level of thinking and dumbing yourself down.

The level of thinking and dumbing yourself down.

If you just oscillate between those two,

There's going to be very little positive movement in your life because you're not living on purpose.

You're not living consciously.

You're not looking around and going,

Geez,

Are there things in life that I would like to change?

What would that look like?

How can I accomplish it?

Maybe I should put some energy towards it.

Because like there's no,

You're just meandering aimlessly,

You know,

And it's not that you need to live consciously,

You know,

14 hours a day and then sleep and then live consciously 14 hours a day and then sleep.

That's the other thing our ego does,

You know,

To defend itself.

It's go,

Well,

What am I supposed to do?

Like just,

You know,

Be some Zen Buddhist walking around,

Meditating all day and just being present.

Nothing will ever get done.

I have a job to go to,

You know,

I like my hobbies.

It's like,

No,

You don't need to stop doing any of that stuff.

It's just starting to bring in moments of consciousness.

And sometimes they're literally moments.

Like Eckhart Tolle talks about using one conscious breath,

One conscious breath.

That's it.

I'm just,

I'm going to breathe in and breathe out.

That's it.

That's enough.

You know,

Then you can,

If you do that sporadically through your day or I like doing like 4,

7,

8 breaths,

Breathe in for four seconds,

Hold for seven seconds,

Release for eight.

Do,

You know,

Do that a couple of times throughout the day.

It's just to stop.

That wheel is incessantly spinning.

And if you just,

When you do those things,

Just stops it because you're rising above the level of thinking and it just stops that incessant thinking.

Then it's,

See it's momentum.

If that wheel spins,

Basically like it's,

It's basically spinning even when you drop below the level of thinking because it's still spinning.

You just aren't paying attention to it.

You're being distracted from the fact that it's still spinning.

When you rise above it,

You actually stop it.

So it slows the momentum.

If it spins for 14 years,

That builds up a lot of momentum,

You know,

But if you,

If you stop it five times a day,

Even for a second,

That has very impressive effects.

It slows your thinking down.

It puts you in control of your mind.

You can be in situations where something overtakes you for a minute and you get shocked and you go,

Oh my God,

Oh,

Wait a minute.

All right,

Just slow down for a minute.

How should I handle this?

And you can handle situations better because you can actually stop your brain when you tell it to,

You know,

As opposed to it just constantly running.

Um,

I,

This is a,

I'm just going to tell the story.

This has been,

I don't know when this podcast is going to go out,

But it's the end of January right now,

Getting to the end of January and January has been a ridiculously difficult month for me.

Ridiculously difficult.

Just to give the broad strokes of it.

Both of my parents have been in the hospital at the same time,

Different,

Different places.

They didn't know that the other one was in the,

They're together and everything,

But like it's bad,

Like very bad.

Like one of my parents was on life support and the other one didn't know what was going on.

Like that's the,

And it's starting to look up now,

But it's,

So when I say it's been a hell of a month,

Like it's been bad.

Right Glenn?

Yeah,

It's been full man.

You've had your plate is overflowing.

And so for the first bit of it,

Right.

When like you're in that shock and you didn't know what to end.

Like I'm completely overwhelmed by this,

You know,

I wanted to dumb down.

That's what I wanted to do.

I wanted to go below the level of thinking because that is what makes sense.

Like you're miserable.

Your life is falling apart.

Things are bad.

Escape.

Escape,

Dumb this down.

I started rewatching The Office.

Like I said,

I wanted to just play video games and not do anything for a bit.

I wanted to zone out and not think about stuff,

Not think about anything.

And the level of anxiety that that caused to dumb down because your brain,

Like you said,

Is still going on those things,

Even though you're dumbing down,

Even though you're trying to zone out and not pay attention to stuff.

Like I,

Ally,

My best friend,

Ally,

She was like,

Let's watch a movie and we're watching a movie and it's really nice.

It's a funny movie.

It was long shot with Seth Rogan.

Like it's funny movie and halfway through the movie,

Like every time there's a quiet spot,

I'm like,

Oh God,

Everything's going terrible right now.

You know what I mean?

All of the,

Because you don't actually get the break that you're seeking.

You don't recover there.

You can't recover below the level of thinking.

It's just,

You dumb it down and ignore it.

But like you said,

It's still going.

So there's no recovery period.

So at some point,

Very quickly,

I decided that this would be a better time and a better opportunity when there was nothing that I could control the situations that I was in,

That it would be a better use of my time to try to do constructive thinking about work and about business and about business building and talking to people and doing all of the things that I could control in this positive way that could make me happy in a different direction.

And it was,

You know,

Using that cognitive function that I had instead of zoning out and trying to avoid my problems.

I was going to address the situations that I was in,

But when I wasn't addressing the situations I was in,

I was going to try to do something positive for myself instead.

And I can't tell you how much that has saved me in the last two,

Three weeks.

Like the.

.

.

So the,

You know,

To be specific,

Like the taking the positive action is good.

It's a better use of your time and it can make you feel a little bit better.

But I did use it as an escape though.

Right.

So,

You know,

I mean,

Because it's workaholics.

So,

You know,

We have just because our intentions are good,

We have to be careful.

But I think,

You know,

Like the piece that,

See,

What I'm talking about with the rising above the level of thinking came when you stopped for a minute and said,

I'm not going to dumb myself down and escape.

I'm going to try to like,

At the moment you were going,

What should I try to do?

Put my energy towards positive things,

Things I can benefit from that can help my life.

When you were that,

When that thought process was going on,

That was you above the level of thinking.

That was you stopping,

Looking at your life saying,

What's going to be healthy for me at this particular moment.

That's rising above the level of thinking.

And then you consciously chose to put some energy towards,

You know,

Something that was going to benefit you.

And because you did it,

Because you came to that conclusion from a level that was above thinking,

Which is where all our creativity flows.

I think that's important to point out because it's like,

Well,

If you're not thinking,

How did you come up with that?

When we rise above the level of thinking,

That's our space of creativity.

That's where all true creativity come from.

That's where inspirational thought comes from,

Inspirational ideas,

Healthy ideas that are good for us.

That's where they come in.

So that's where you came from that information.

And then you directed your energy in a conscious way towards something positive.

See,

I think that's very interesting because the part that I was going to say was,

I didn't think that I got above.

I thought I just went back to the level of thinking.

No.

No,

You went to the right because it's and that's why you chose something.

That's why you chose something that worked.

Because if you would have just if you just would have stayed in the level of thinking,

You would have obsessively worked in an unhealthy way.

You would have been like,

What's a better way for me to,

I'm wasting time playing video games and watching the office.

Okay,

Work.

Work's good.

Obsess about work.

Okay,

Work.

And you would have dove into work and it wouldn't have been healthy.

It would have been as unhealthy as watching fricking video games because it would have been unconscious and it would have been busy and it would have been going 90 miles an hour just as another tool to distract you.

I actually,

No,

I actually feel in a really strange,

It's strange to say this because of how bad things have been.

I actually feel more balanced right now.

This is what happens when you rise above the level of thinking.

Because I'm going like,

I'm going to work and I'm going to focus on family stuff when I can focus on family stuff and when I need to and as much as I need to but I'm also going to try to work and then I'm also going to relax and dumb down every once in a while because this is a lot of stuff.

There's a lot of stress.

You know.

You can unplug sometimes just uselessly.

Yeah.

But it's been a really nice balance of everything.

And that's because you've been doing spiritual work.

While being scared out of my mind for sure.

Yeah,

But this is what happens when you live spiritually.

Like every one of my clients,

Every single one of my clients has moments of where they're talking to me and stuff like this comes up and they just handle situations better.

Like in recovery they say you handle situations that used to baffle you.

That's the wording that they use.

And the reason they use that is because the whole program of recovery is based on a change of perspective which is what spirituality is.

It's just a change of perspective.

So what happens is when you're looking at things,

When you stop functioning from a different perspective,

From a healthier perspective,

From more of a spiritual way of living,

What happens is you start handling situations that used to baffle you because you just fall into conscious thought.

You start.

See,

This is why,

You know,

I say this to my clients.

I say it all the time and sometimes it sounds counterintuitive but I tell people you don't need a life coach.

You don't need me.

You don't need anybody else.

Nobody does.

Nobody needs a life coach.

So because what happens is we're stumbling towards who we're supposed to be anyway.

So if you open and you try,

Eventually you're going to find yourself.

You can awaken spiritually.

If you just try,

You will land.

I mean I did it.

I didn't have somebody.

I mean I had people guiding me like right in the beginning and then nobody for a long period.

But I mean I went through long periods where I didn't have help and I got there.

It's just what a life coach does is it speeds it up.

You don't meander and try to figure all this stuff out and what can take you six years you can learn in six months.

I know it.

I've experienced it as a life coach and I've experienced with somebody life coaching me.

So there are huge benefits.

But what's cool is when we're putting effort towards our self-growth,

We are leaning in the right direction.

This type of thing starts happening more and more often.

We start taking healthy action and we start doing healthy things for us without even fully understanding it.

You didn't fully understand that you were rising above the level of thinking when you weren't like,

Oh I'm going to rise above the level of thinking.

And then I'm going to figure out what to do and then it'll be perfect and then I'll take positive action and be balanced.

You didn't go through that but you did it anyway.

And that's because you're leaning in the direction of personal growth.

Well,

It's nice to talk about that and see.

So we kind of break down that thought process and hopefully it helps somebody.

Hopefully somebody that's listening to this,

Because I'm sure that someone listening to this will have gone through or is going through a hard time as well.

If they're on the planet,

They're probably going through a hard time or will.

And so to hear you talk about the way to try to deal with that stuff is very nice.

So I think that it's good and it's beneficial for more than just me right now and it's very helpful for me at this moment.

And when we understand it,

We can duplicate it.

So now that you understand it,

You can duplicate it and you can do it more often.

So it's about this is why meditation is so important,

Just to have a daily practice.

I was telling somebody a story the other day where I was getting a small inpatient surgery years ago and I meditated regularly and they kept taking my blood pressure at multiple points and they're like,

Are you okay?

And I'm like,

Yeah.

And they take my blood pressure and they're like,

You're really like,

Okay.

I'm like,

Yeah.

You know,

Like,

Yeah,

But your blood pressure hasn't moved a digit.

Like you are exactly as calm.

You were calm when you walked in here and you're just as calm now.

I'm like,

Well,

Yeah,

I meditate.

You know,

I mean,

That's one of the things.

And then during the procedure,

Since I was awake,

It was an inpatient.

All of a sudden I got into my head for a little bit and I'm like,

Oh,

I'm here and I don't like this.

And I could feel some of them working on me and I didn't like that feeling.

So I got into my head and all of a sudden somebody looked up at me and was like,

Oh crap,

He's white as a ghost.

Like I was ready to go out,

Man.

And they're like,

Oh,

Hold on,

We have to stop.

And they're,

You know,

I'm like,

Well,

What happens if you stop?

They're like,

Well,

You'll have to come back and we'll have to finish.

I'm like,

Screw that,

That ain't happening.

So I just says,

Just give me a minute,

Just give me a minute.

And they're like,

Well,

What do you mean?

I was like,

Just give me a minute and let me see if I can reel this in.

So I just relaxed and I started focusing on my breathing and I was just like,

Everything's fine,

It's okay.

And my blood pressure dropped right back down.

My,

You know,

Color came back in my face.

I was fine.

I was like,

Okay,

Go ahead.

And they're looking at me like,

How'd you do that?

I don't know.

I meditate regularly.

I'm more in control of myself because of that.

You know,

This is one of the benefits of meditating.

So it's when we break that spinning wheel and stop the momentum multiple times a day,

And it picks back up and then we stop it.

And it picks back up and we stop it.

What happens is we regain the control over stopping our mind that we lost.

We're supposed to be able to stop our mind.

Like you know,

People don't even know that,

You know,

It's like it runs.

So like our mind is a tool.

It's not us.

We're supposed to use our tool.

We're supposed to be able to be in control of the tool.

We're supposed to be able to tell it to stop when we want it to stop.

You know,

And most people are incapable of doing that and we've lost control over the tool that's supposed to be serving us.

So when we regain that control over it by rising above the level of thinking through meditation or through breathing or you know,

Just doing it for a couple of seconds on a regular basis,

It enhances our life.

And if we're looking at our life and if we get calm and rise above the level of thinking and look at and from there we start looking for solutions to our problems.

That's the space of creativity.

That's where we can connect to divine wisdom and that sounds like,

Ooh,

Connecting to divine wisdom.

We all do it.

We all do it.

You know,

It's like who sings that song?

I don't know.

I can't think of that.

I'll stop thinking and it'll come to me.

When we stop thinking and information comes to us,

That's not thinking.

That's a space of creativity.

That's where information can drop in.

You know,

So it's more of a relaxed state where creative information can drop in.

That's why people go on walks and take a shower and stuff like that.

And that's how people can write whole symphonies at one sitting and songs and poetry and books.

And it's and paint.

This is where all creativity comes from and we all have that capability to some degree.

So it's about quieting that mind on a consistent basis and just being for a little bit,

You know,

Every once in a while.

It enhances our lives in so many ways,

Of course,

Consciously and it puts us back in the driver's seat of our own life consciously,

But it also helps us unconsciously like we saw with your example and then countless others.

Well that'll do it for today.

That'll do it.

That was a good podcast.

I liked that one.

Yeah,

Me too.

You know,

I just had,

This is something that I bring up now and then I've been trying to keep notes and I was like,

Oh,

That'd be a good podcast.

But you know,

I never know how it's going to go or where it's going to go.

So I'm just as surprised as all the listeners,

How wonderful that turned out.

When you said,

We're going to do this one today,

I went,

Okay.

And then like,

As I pointed to you to start talking,

Cause we were recording,

I was like,

I have no idea where this is going to go.

I have no idea if this is a good episode or not.

And it was great.

So thank you very much.

Pleasure.

All right.

And I never plug anything for myself on this show.

Well,

Today you're going to.

Yeah.

You can check out the first episode of my podcast,

Own Your Life.

Anywhere you find this podcast,

Wherever you're listening to this podcast.

Glen is my first guest.

We're going to talk about his story and how he became a life coach and the commonalities that he finds in working with people all over the world.

And a little bit about how we started working together.

So I'm really excited to share that with everybody and hopefully people get a lot of value out of that.

Glen,

You have so many different things right now.

I'm really excited about the book.

Yeah.

Check out the book,

Everywhere Down to Earth,

The Spiritual Guides to a Happy Human Experience.

We're here having a human experience,

So might as well make it a happy one.

So get the book anywhere online,

Digital or paperback versions,

Amazon,

Vibesandnoble.

Com.

Just look around.

It's out there.

If you're having trouble,

Contact me.

We'll figure out a way to get it to you.

And you can find the show and Glen is taking life coaching clients.

So GlenAaros.

Com.

At the moment I'm taking a few life coaching clients.

So reach out for that.

And yeah,

There's blogs and check out the website.

There's so much free content out there.

Sign up for my email list.

You get free video versions of five questions with Glen.

And yeah,

Just put some energy in a direction of this and you're going to open up to all kinds of information and helpful stuff.

And thanks for listening everybody.

Go check out Ben's podcast and we will talk at you soon.

Glen is available for life coaching sessions.

To book an appointment or for more information,

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Reviews

Really good insights. Thanks guys. Love and blessings 💙 x

Great as usual! Thank you!

Thanks Glenn and Ben! Great One!🙏🏻❤️

Really enjoyed this. Easy to understand and practical. Thank you!

Wow it just happened, perspective altered conscious higher level controlled slow calm free your mind space creative thinking state..... me.......