Do you also know those cloudy days when you somehow get up on the wrong side of the bed in the morning and it's gray rainy weather, and the day is not very exciting, maybe packed with a few exhausting meetings or maybe nothing special at all? And then the cereal box is empty and you think to yourself that the day is over, even though it hasn't even started yet? And you don't really know what's going on because, dear me, the sun will be shining again and instead of the muesli you could also just grab a sandwich on your way?

And on other days you may jump out of bed, the weather is gloomy, there are stressful meetings coming up and the cereal box might be empty, and maybe the train is late and you arrive late at work, but - you're in a great mood, looking forward to the day, could embrace the whole world, and you catch yourself whistling "your song" inside, and the feeling of excited anticipation carries you into the day, because - who knows what cool thing might happen today? And on the outside, it really may just be a cloudy day with a few mishaps on the way?

Yep, I've experienced that too. And thank goodness it does not mean that we're manic-depressive, but that our consciousness is simply "playing on different levels". Why do we happily shrug off the rainy weather and the empty cereal box on some days, while on other cereal-free rainy days we want to crawl right back into bed? Of course, the cereal box here is a placeholder for everything that can sometimes upset us - and sometimes does not. So why do we sometimes have a nervous breakdown when we miss the bus, but on other days we have a fit of laughter? It's all a question of the level of consciousness we are currently operating at.

What is consciousness anyway?

I think our consciousness is fascinating. We can't really explain it. Sure, scientists are struggling to find a scientific theory that can explain what has to happen in our brain for our consciousness to come about. So that we can, for example, experience what a warm summer breeze feels like on our skin, or think about what we did last summer and how nice it would be if we could lie on a beach right now.

But we also need our consciosuness so that we can ask ourselves why we are actually having this memory of last summer now of all times, and so that we can think about whether the summer was great or not so great for us (or why we were actually so freaked out about the empty cereal box this morning... ). And if we realize that we're thinking about the upcoming unpleasant conversation with our boss and that doesn't feel so great, we can also redirect our thoughts to specifically remember last summer because it feels better. Whether this is the right strategy for dealing with the situation is another question, which we can of course think about. But here again, we can only think about it if - by use of our consciousness - we have become aware that we are perhaps avoiding dealing with an unpleasant feeling and that we have the choice to redirect our thoughts at all. So far, so complicated.

From a spiritual point of view, consciousness is not the result of any processes in the brain, but it was there first - it exists independently of the body and beyond death. From this perspective, we can spend a long time looking for processes in the brain - they are there and can be measured, but they are not the cause of our consciousness. And that's where it gets exciting. Because that could mean that if we work with our consciousness, we might also become a tiny bit independent of our body and be able to go beyond death - in life, so to speak. Wow - mindblowing!

What does it mean to work with consciousness?

So what if we can work with our consciousness in such a way that we can develop it and start to much better understand who we (really) are and what makes us who we are? If we perhaps can have consciousness-expanding experiences that can bring us closer to our true nature? In this sense, consciousness work is simply anything that makes us more aware of ourselves - and everything that goes with it - regardless of whether this is done by means of Trance Journeys, Constellation workmeditation or other spiritual practices - or simply through life itself and its experiences.

And this isn't an ego sh***show - where it's all about "Me! Me! Me!", but the basis of a life in harmony with our true nature. And if you're now wondering - what the heck is my true nature? Welcome to the club of humanity! At least the club of humans who want to become aware: this is precisely the question we can get to the bottom of by working with consciousness.

What can working with my consciousness do for me?

And maybe you're now saying to yourself: "Uh, yes, that's all well and good with true nature and all that, and with self-knowledge and all that, it's certainly important, but I also have to do my job here, pay my taxes and get my life together, what use is that to me in the here and now?" I hear you! Because of course, at first glance this doesn't seem practical at all. Okay, step back:

Perhaps it becomes clearer when we become conscious of (pun intended) what it means when we are not very aware of ourselves and have no idea who we are: we cannot feel our own inner truth, have no inner compass to guide us and thus become like a flag in the wind that follows the prevailing opinion, constantly seeking support and security on the outside, not knowing what to do when, not being able to take decisions, not getting into action and perhaps being easily manipulated. Phew!

Especially at a time when every inanity in the public debate can boil over into a huge controversy, when seemingly everyone is throwing their personal truth at you without asking, in times of narcissists publicly (and sometimes less publicly) spreading lies, AI-generated videos and deliberately spread disinformation at every turn, when we no longer know what to believe, it is more important than ever that we develop an inner compass and don't have to rely on some self-appointed fact checker.

A person with expanded consciousness is powerful, not dependent on the opinions of others, knows what he or she wants, but can also compromise and include others in his or her thoughts and actions, does not feel threatened by the opinions of others and therefore has the ability to let them have their truth, can have mature relationships, can allow love in both giving and receiving, has an open heart and trust in his or her own intuition, knows his or her purpose in life and his or her own place and task in this world, can deal with his or her own emotions and those of others in a mature way, but can also set boundaries where necessary, because he or she knows his or her own boundaries as well as his or her own needs.

Such a person can ask for help if necessary, doesn't have to elevate themselves above others, feel better than others, dominate or belittle others or make fun of others... you get the picture. The list could go on and on. And it quickly becomes clear - we are of course talking about an ideal here, a potential that we may be able to come closer to, and which may not be as unattainable as our ego would have us believe - but which we will probably never embody 100% of the time.

It is therefore also clear that a person who knows him or herself well and is aware of him or herself - with all the facets that may go far beyond his or her personality in this current lifetime - also knows his or her own shadow. That he or she knows their own so-called mistakes and weaknesses, but also their own - perhaps traumatic - history, and at the same time knows that he or she is not alone with these mistakes, weaknesses and injuries and does not have to be ashamed of them. That he or she can simply look at these mistakes and wounds calmly and without shame - perhaps even with a twinkle in their eye - and perhaps also work on them. Without this somehow making him or her less valuable as a person.

From "Me! Me! Me!" to "We"

And finally, a developed consciousness expands and begins to see itself not only as itself, but as part of something bigger. You no longer just ask yourself: what is best for me? Instead, you start to ask: what is best for all of us? And how can I contribute to this?

For example, a nice side effect of constellation work is that we can develop compassion - compassion not only for ourselves, but also for the perceived faults and weaknesses of our fellow human beings, because we understand that they have a history and that nothing comes about by chance. Once we have stood "in the system" of another, as a representative for their narcissistic mother, or for their ancestor who died in war, or for the healed ancestor who existed before the family trauma and who perhaps still embodied the ancient wisdom of our Celtic ancestors, or if we have stood on both sides of a war or conflict in a system - we begin to see a situation through many eyes. At the same time, we step out of space and time and look upon a situation as if from a bird's eye view - and this allows us to understand and open up our minds and hearts.

And this is exactly what an expanded consciousness is all about: we start to look at the world not only through the very limited filter of our ego consciousness in the here and now, we widen our viewing angle like a camera lens that is set to the whole panorama instead of just focusing on a small section. And it is this expanded awareness that can give us serenity, allow us to find peace and not get so caught up in our small and often very limited "story" of the world with which we evaluate a situation. At the same time, we learn to deal with the fact that we can't control everything, because we develop a trust that comes from within - and no one has to give it to us from the outside.

Moreover, it is often the case that we almost always recognize a part of ourselves in the role we represent - however small it may be, and even if we seem to have completely different stories - and we begin to understand that the people around us are not so different from us - even if it sometimes seems that way. And the moment we feel less disconnected from our fellow human beings, something magical happens: with connectedness, we step out of the illusion of a limited ego-consciousness that makes us believe we are alone or worthless, that we have to prove ourselves, be something special to be loved, be better than others, outdo someone, achieve something so that xyz can happen (xyz can really stand for pretty much anything)..... This list could also be continued endlessly.

Empty cereal box or full consciousness - that is the question

Let's go back to the empty cereal box on that cloudy day. An expanded consciousness - or the ability to expand our consciousness - will not always be able to save us from these days. But it can make us aware of how much more we are in control of our experience every single day than our ego would like to tell us, - how much more joy, fulfillment, meaning, inner peace, healing, connection, compassion and love would be possible for us, who we could be - and bring us back into our power in situations where we would have had a nervous breakdown in the past. That would be worth a try, wouldn't it?