The Core of Thought Leadership: Chapter 2 - Integrated Consciousness

Integrated Consciousness

The conscious mind has the capacity to have private conversations with itself. These private conversations are called the process of ‘thinking’. This process enables memories, perceptions, conscious awareness and judgements to take root in the mind. This book is about the mind of a thought leader and how it converses freely with the universe and is all inclusive as the universe. A thought leader is an individual who has passion for purpose and strives to realise full potential. The thought leader takes an organisation, society and the self to a noticeable high moral standard to realise progress. This book describes the core of thought leadership.?Before we proceed let us understand some important concepts that will appear frequently in this book.

Broken Conscience: Your conscious mind is a vehicle of your thoughts. It is compartmentalised like a railway train where one section is distinct from the other for a person to retreat into to survive in different situations. Each section has a set way of functioning developed over time and may or may not be recalled while jogging the memory. Each compartment works independently and may or may not recollect the messages that the other compartments generate. This is the result of a broken conscience where thoughts, emotions and behaviours are fragmented.?For example, you are in doubt whether to shake hands with a person you are meeting for the second time, because at the first encounter the person did not extend his hand for a shake. ?Your thoughts and consequent emotions were therefore confused by the influence of the prior experience which eventually took root in your mind.?The person had earlier also mentioned to you, “When I meet a person for the first time, I am naturally uncomfortable to reciprocate a hand shake as you would be breaking into my personal space for an initial greeting without even knowing me. My belief is that once a relationship is established, I am naturally comfortable to extend my hand for a hand shake should you initiate it.” The memory of the first meeting was partially recalled as fragmented thoughts and emotions overlooking the fact that a relationship was already established in the first meeting and that the person had earlier explained his comfort levels. ?If your mind had recalled all the information of the first encounter would you hesitate to extend your hand for a hand shake at the second meeting??Your consequent approach were selecting partial information of the first encounter instead of recalling it in its entirety inclusive of the facts, that is; the tangible experience as much as the intangible experience. These are the pitfalls of a broken conscience which selects partial information or even no information at other times. It does not allow you to see the facts and experiences in entirety. Therefore a broken awareness of morality in regard to ones behaviour and a deformed sense of right and wrong that urges one to act immorally is called a broken conscience. However looking at stimulus and information in entirety can lead to an integrated consciousness.

Integrated Consciousness: As mentioned earlier you have a broken conscience when you think, feel or act in the wrong way (that is, built with partial information) consistently that after a while it does not seem the wrong way anymore. Such is the state of many minds in the world today. This is why when you are placed with the same incident and with the same person in two similar environments your responses are different. Is this your inner mechanism that brings out two separate reactions? Yes!?The fact is that your mind had switched compartments. If you could integrate these compartments (called integrated consciousness) then your responses in all situations would be correctly consistent.?The integration of these compartments is the first step to realizing your true self within. When you integrate these compartments you have access to a healed conscience (as opposed to a broken conscience) that delivers a superior sense of direction, which leads to progress.??

This brings me to another concept called Authenticity. ?Authenticity is to be original. To be original in the self is to be true to your uniqueness. This does not make you unusual instead makes you who you are and ‘who you are’ should be your best achievement. Each individual is unique with a cluster of inborn qualities, genetic qualities and culturally learned qualities. The combination of these makes an individual unique. Authenticity finds full expression in an integrated consciousness.

Absolute Ideas: Thoughts are the beginning to all things realised. You have the presence of absolute ideas as pure potential in your mind. It is as important for what you give out from your mind to what you take into your mind. Your genuine self naturally wants to give the good and your superficial self may pose the bad. Absolute ideas are the blueprint in your mind that awaits action. For example, excellence and consistency are absolute ideas because they exist in its perfection and pure potential within your mind which awaits your action.

Affirmed Meaningful Activities; Virtuous Spirituality Verses Vicious Spirituality:

Affirmed meaningful activities are those things you do within yourself such as – to recognize your talents; influence your thoughts and feelings; monitor your breathing; develop your physical self through self-control, etc.?Affirmed meaningful activities includes your outside self also?such as – to nurture your talents through training and education; meditation for a healthy focused mind; modify behaviour to be accepted by society and the workplaces; and caring for your physical health through meaningful recreational activities and so on.

‘Spirituality’ is affirmed meaningful activities leading to a reformed self to attain perfection. Spirituality can be virtuous where the meaningful activities that are affirmed are progressive towards your goodness and towards the good of society. Virtuous means that an individual has high moral standards. Therefore; ‘virtuous spirituality’ is affirmed meaningful activities leading to a re-formed self to attain perfection through high moral standards in an individual.?Since virtuous spirituality is led by positive thoughts, you can discern correctly.?Virtuous spirituality is a natural disposition that stems from your healed conscience. For example; when you have a virtuous spirituality, you are naturally inclined towards being a good human being and you conduct those spiritual activities like praying, monitored meditation, seeking positive outcomes, looking after your health and the health of your loved ones, being charitable, being honest and respected for your actions etc. These behaviours indicate a virtuous spirituality, as long as the consequences of these are not causing anyone and yourself any harm.

However; Spirituality can be vicious also when the activities are regressive towards wastefulness and in terms of the destruction of the self and society. Vicious means that an individual is deliberately cruel or violent. Therefore; ‘vicious spirituality’ is deliberate cruelty and violence expressed through destruction for unethical short-term attainments. Since vicious spirituality is led by negative thoughts, you cannot affirm any decision as correct.?Vicious spirituality is a deliberate negative disposition that stems from a broken conscience. For example; when you have a vicious spirituality, you are radicalised towards deliberate harm and engage in dark activities of witchcraft, black magic, tantric practices and defeatist behaviours that lead to the regression of yourself and your society.

Therefore, spirituality is for the purpose of this book defined as affirmed meaningful activities that lead to a re-formed self towards perfection. It is vital to know whether your intentions stem out of virtuous spirituality or vicious spirituality; your healed conscience or broken conscience. To be conscious of your prevailing spiritual disposition can help you be virtuous in your spirituality. You recognise this disposition by the prevailing thoughts that appear in your conscious mind, that is; whether these are positive thoughts or negative thoughts. These thoughts tie into your human emotions that can also be part of the spectrum of identifying the prevailing spiritual disposition; whether these are constructive emotions or destructive emotions. It is vital to identify these to consciously recognize and guide your mind towards an integrated consciousness for the good of yourself and for the good of society.

Positive Thoughts Verses Negative Thoughts:

The quality of thought is vital as it establishes the relationship between yourself and the world around you. What you think is what you will breed and express in your actions. You can cleanse your thoughts from negative influences by recognizing the presence of them and move your thoughts away from negative thoughts to positive thoughts. If you try and deny the presence of negative thoughts, then they surface eventually. Whereas when you accept that you are thinking negatively and move away from this consciously without denying its existence, then you are more likely to choose the fruits of thinking positive – at least more often than usual. The shift in thinking is sensitively done with honesty. It naturally exists for an individual to adopt. For example; when your friend is late for a coffee with you, and if you have waited long enough without establishing communication with the friend, then you start to think that you are not respected nor is your time respected. However; if you are able to move away from thinking this way, and gain the realisation that there could have been certain circumstances that did not allow your friend to be there on time, and that your friends arrival does not determine the way you think and feel because those thoughts and feelings are owned by you – then you are in a better position to move on with how to approach the situation upon the next communication with your friend, that is; you respond positively in the situation when you meet your friend.

This boils down to you possessing a certain intellectual maturity, as it is your human intellect that conducts this transition of thought. These are not merely auto-suggestions to the self, these are realistic ideas that you arrive at by seeking positive thoughts, which lead you to constructive emotions and accesses virtuous spirituality – for any course of action. Positive thinking is easier to adapt.?

Positive thinking, as explained above, is a mental technique that must be practiced wisely without repressing feelings and alternative thoughts.?It should be used sensitively. Negative thinking is low spirited, cynical and pessimistic in nature. The presence of these should be recognized and not repressed, so that any prevailing problems can be identified towards change. People make mistakes because they are fallible in their journeys yet they have the potential for perfection.

Constructive Emotions verses Destructive Emotions

Emotions are derived from your thought processes. These thought processes may be conscious or subconscious. Your focus could be to look at emotions as a whole. Subconscious emotions often drive conscious thought. Therefore it is vital to generate positive thoughts consciously so that they are archived in your subconscious to activate constructive emotions for the future. Constructive emotions are those which can be translated in reality in its truest form. Such as emotions like: love and happiness. Other emotions such as anger and sadness can be expressed in its purest form yet can also be expressed in creative ways than for its original state to be accepted and understood constructively in a society.

Constructive emotions are a catalyst for positive change as emotions can be passionate and when constructive can deliver great results. Destructive emotions are a catalyst for unrealistic ideas that are brought to reality through action of the original state of the emotion. For example; if you ever got upset with a colleague who was supposed to deliver a parcel to a particular address and returned not having found the address, then the original state to express would be to get emotionally aggressive with the colleague due to this inability. However if you respond by converting the aggressive emotion into creative action, that is; by guiding the colleague to the right address, retrieving a location map to the address, giving the colleague a contact person at the address to help the colleague reach successfully, this would be directing hostile emotions to what is timesaving, constructive, innovative, realistic and loyal to the situation.?This approach is acceptable but short lived! The correct way to proceed is to reach a point where aggressive or hostile emotions don’t surface through your emotional maturity. This applied shift in conscious thinking helps the mind to archive in the subconscious mind positive experiences which are recalled in the future by default in similar experiences for a way to choose an approach and a response.

A thought leader is responsible for progress from a universal framework and not an idealistic view of one’s own or for a particular community. Therefore I assert that to be a thought leader, you ought to recognize emotions as constructive or destructive and validate it with realistic ideas for action.

Realistic ideas verses Unrealistic ideas:

Realistic ideas are best expressed through positive thoughts, constructive emotions and virtuous spirituality for long term attainments. Unrealistic ideas have its birth in negative thoughts, destructive emotions and vicious spirituality. Ideas are suggestions/thoughts to a possible course of action. It is rooted in your intentions as the aim or purpose of an action.

Realistic ideas and unrealistic ideas have a conflicting relationship for the right action in thought leadership. These influence each other for a possible course of action. For example: when I had conducted a training program for a group of 15 delegates, I recognized that there were a bunch who were negative thinkers and were victims of destructive emotions and introducers of deliberate vicious beliefs about their workplace. However; what kept them in the company they worked in was that they were excellent at the tasks they executed despite the negativity and pessimism they carried. They countered their negativity through creative ways that is by conducting their tasks with high proficiency. They were analytical towards organizational processes by finding creative ways forward with work issues. They viewed competition in an unhealthy way yet chose to overcome it with creative action and excelling in their work.?They chose creative action to their thoughts, feelings and beliefs rather than express those for what it literally was. That is; their pent up anger was a fuel for excelling in the work place. Their anger was rooted in a broken conscience and fragmented thoughts and emotions. However; this approach is acceptable but short lived! It can develop negative people issues amongst co-workers and can bring about unrealistic ideas because it is incomplete and inconsistent being rooted in a negative cycle of thought, emotion and spirituality. In the example the negative people used creative behaviour to counter negative feelings. This is OK for a temporary approach. By choosing the positive cycle of thought, emotion and behaviour for realistic ideas, you can live full potential of creative behaviour with long term benefit rather than short term successes. The full potential of creative behaviour can only be realised by an integrated consciousness through ‘authentic discernment’.

Authentic discernment is to make the right decision. Often times when we think of what would be the right decision to make, we are captured in the intention of the decision rather than the action and the probable consequence, as well. You must justify whether an intention is good for you in the first place. ?However, one does not realise that an intention may be alright for one but not for the other. If we only process an intention in our minds without also processing the action and consequence then we are setting ourselves up for an uninformed and failing decision. To be decision oriented is to make an informed decision. An informed decision is one that has three parts: 1) Intention, 2) Action and 3) Consequence.

But before I explain the three parts it is essential to understand some terms:

* Idea is a thought for a possible course of action?

* Intention is an aim towards a possible course of action

* Action is the process of doing something to achieve an aim?

* Consequence is an important result or effect of an action

* Decision is a conclusion or resolution reached after consideration.

* Fidelity is the degree of exactness with which something is copied or reproduced

* Favourability is the degree of advantage given to a decision

Qualify ‘Decisions’ by asking the following questions before taking it:

* Question 1: is the intention sound towards the decision?

* Question 2: does the action support the intention?

* Question 3: can the estimated consequence of the action be expected with high probability?

* Question 4: Is the intention, action and consequence favourable to the decision?

If the answer is ‘yes’ to all four questions then take the decision and question the results of the decision;

* Question 5: Is the estimated consequence the same or similar to the actual consequence?

* Question 6: does the intention, action and consequence show fidelity to the decision?

However, authentic discernment is to take this to next levels for the thought leader. Wherein the decision consults the seat of the human conscience for answers to the questions above. The human conscience is part of the human mind and relates to an integrated consciousness. For a conscience to deliver a response of a superior kind, it should not be a broken conscience which means the mind should seek positive thought, constructive emotions and virtuous spirituality as often as it can. The seat of the human conscience is where natural goodness comes from – that assists a decision to be well informed and good. This discernment is described as authentic because it comes from a natural source within oneself therefore most genuine, taking into account all factors before a decision is taken – i.e. virtuous spirituality verses vicious spirituality; positive thought verses negative thought; constructive emotions verses destructive emotions; realistic ideas verses unrealistic ideas. The human being is capable of processing all of these within a matter of a few seconds at the least and can even take days at the most dependent on how tuned in is the self to the conscience. Some people claim to have a ‘gut feel’ for some things, this gut feel is your conscience guiding your for or against a decision. It is tied to the human anatomy and therefore described as a ‘gut feel’. The mind sends signals to certain parts of the human body through the nervous system to guide you in processing an external stimulus towards action. A normal human instinctively wants what is good for others before the mind sends signals through the nervous system. Never neglect or ignore a gut feel, take it into consideration for a decision.

The question arises whether there is a right or wrong in an informed and abundant society of today making them truly global. The mind becomes a cradle of the universe. Yes there is right and wrong, good and bad, joy and suffering. These are not idealisms but facts. Authentic discernment will lead oneself to know this. What may seem alright to pursue in the grey may indeed be a confused mind which clutters the space between what is right and wrong, good and bad, joy and suffering.

We all want a peaceful world, yet there are both the positive and the negative elements at play in this world. Just as we all have a virtuous cycle and a vicious cycle at play in our minds, so does the world express itself in these two extremes i.e. it has a virtuous face as much as a vicious face –either through natural environmental causes resulting in abundance or disaster. It may also be through deliberate human interventions to attain what one believes will deliver the self the ultimate good. The fact is that the world is tied to both the virtuous cycle and vicious cycle and there is a constant battle of good and bad. Therefore for natural good we fight against the vices of this world.

You as a thought leader with a mind that cradles the universe, it is imperative to seek authentic discernment for movement forward to translate good intention into creative behaviour.

Creative behaviour is any innovative response to stimuli. We all are naturally innovative, some may recognise it, others may not realise it. Yet innovation is naturally present in everyone. This brings us to the point of recognising the cycle human beings go through at every interaction with stimuli. We seek innovative responses to stimuli because we all intrinsically desire perfection for all things.

‘Perfection’ is the translation of absolute ideas to reality. An absolute idea is the blueprint in our minds for action. For example, excellence and consistency are two pure potential ‘absolute ideas’ as ideal blueprints in our minds that await action. Absolute ideas can be converted to everyday living experiences.

There is a universe within us perceived by us as truth. Similarly, there is a universe outside of us that we perceive as fact and therefore also as truth. Thus, the individual truth of internal perceptions – as much as the truth of external facts of both the frontline thought leader and the stimuli – meet to create the augmented experience. The challenge for a frontline professional is to understand the internal truths and external facts of the stimuli that defines experiences. The thought leader should try to align them for a positive interaction and a meaningful experience.

Absolute ideas as pure potential are present in and born through virtuous spirituality only. For example: during a training program I conducted – the employees were asked to give a demonstration of selling a sample product. Everyone was hesitant except one delegate who was brave and authentically discerned that his demonstration will be his creative behaviour and an innovative response to the stimuli (sample product). Eventually this delegate excelled as he put all his creative and innovative energies into the demonstration – his understanding of the sample product was not perfect, yet his creativity was so profound that he could sell the sample product as demonstration to every delegate. The delegate authentically discerned in a matter of seconds and performed his best since his natural disposition was to honour virtuous spirituality, positive thought, constructive emotion, realistic ideas – also considering his vicious cycle rooted in fears – he overcame this vicious cycle by recognizing its presence and choosing the virtuous cycle. This delegate spurred the motivation in the training room for other delegates to demonstrate their versions of selling the sample product. We consider such delegates as thought leaders at the frontline.

Thought leaders at the frontline are not merely people who spur motivation amongst colleagues but are ultimate agents of change for a business and for society as a whole. The delegate in the example above had explored the blue print in his mind for perfection. Individuals that have the capacity to be this way are thought leaders at the frontline and can therefore be change agents!