Top Tip from Eckhart Tolle to Raise Your Consciousness

Practice daily, and your ego might shrink

Whether you embark on self-mastery or hope to improve your life, the key to success could be raising your consciousness. Of course, everyone alive is conscious. But, in spiritual terms, some are more awake than others.

According to many spiritual teachers, spiritual advancement can come from various life experiences, from immense suffering when you decide you’ve had enough and break free into an expanded state of consciousness to taking lessons that gradually seep into your psyche.

Most people who enjoy an expanded state of awareness adopt the latter approach, step-by-step gaining awareness that shifts them closer to enlightenment.

Of course, no one wants to go through immense suffering with the potential to generate greater awareness. But a few people experience what’s known as the dark night of the soul and find increased clarity of what life is in the broadest sense. They understand that everyone and all experiences connect. So, they learn about the ripple effect and why what they say and do, counts.

But if you want to gain enlightenment, even to a small degree, can you take conscious steps toward your goal? Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle suggests you adopt the practice of not labeling things.

The idea is that your consciousness narrows when you give items you experience via your senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch labels; this is because you apply logic and color them with your perception; that is, what you’ve learned thus far in life.

Your perception stems from many sources, some of which may reflect bias, prejudice, and misunderstandings. As such, after issuing labels, you can only experience things inaccurately.

Eckhart advises you to take up the practice of non-labeling, which is difficult for beginners. People automatically label what they see and hear, comparing it to what they’ve listened to or seen previously and deciding whether it’s good or bad.

So how can you stop yourself from engaging in this act?

One way is to practice feeling experiences in an emotional sense rather than applying labels. To do so, you can intend to see, hear, or whatever other sensory way you experience something without adding a description to the event.

So, instead of letting self-talk tell you there’s a gnarly old tree in front of you, you can pay attention to observing aspects of the tree without your mind offering a narrative.

As you perceive things, whether a car, person or animal, notice there’s a spaciousness in just observing in silence. At that moment, drop the idea you’re a person with preconceived notions and emotional baggage.

If you find the practice hard, ask yourself what exists when there’s no one there to see it. Observing without judgment brings a sense of calmness; as your mind opens, you might perceive things differently than you’ve previously experienced them. At this time, your consciousness has expanded.

Naturally, such an advancement might not stick; you could feel great love and connectedness to everything while perceiving without labels, then slip back into your usual way of seeing the world.

Nonetheless, regular practice will make it easier, and you’ll find yourself slipping into a state of expanded awareness on autopilot. The more you experience sessions in which you don’t label anything, the weaker your ego will be, and your consciousness can grow.

Many people, including spiritual masters, talk about the ego but also mention it as a practical way to describe the illusion of the self created when we, as spiritual beings, slip into our bodies and embark upon a life filled with misconceptions.

Whatever you call the phenomena of the illusion that creates the personality, you will discover it grows weaker as you practice expanding your consciousness.

Eckhart’s teaching of non-labeling is incredibly simple but also tricky if you strain to engage with it. Relaxing the eyes and taking deep breaths will help you enter a calm state where expanding consciousness is possible. So practice daily, and you will see results.

Here’s the man himself describing the practice.

Bridget Webber is a writer, nature lover, and former counselor often found in the woodland, meadow, and other wild places. She writes poetry and stories and pens psychology articles; her love of discovering what rests inside the thicket and the brain compels her to delve deep. She’s appeared in many leading publications and is the author of Nature Poems to Heal the Heart and Nurture the Soul.