What is the Higher Self and how do you connect with it?
While it might sound difficult to grasp something seemingly otherworldly, spiritual and abstract as the Higher Self, connecting with it is really not so difficult. This is mainly because the Higher Self is YOU and already with you all the time. But it does take some training to overcome the main obstacle to connecting with it — the incessant thoughts coming from a busy mind. This busy mind is what shapes our reality, our identity, and our sense of self. And, it is the main obstacle to connecting with the deeper reality of who and what we are at the core.
The Higher Self is often described as the Soul, one’s True Self, spark of the Divine, and creative life force energy. It exists in a dimension of higher consciousness, living in a perpetual state of peace, love, light, and beauty. Sounds heavenly, right? Who doesn’t want to experience this level of awareness?
And to make it more complicated, the Higher Self is eternal and exists outside of time! It can help to imagine it as the part of ourselves that is existing in a higher, even heavenly realm or dimension of reality that is not effected by time, unlike the world of time that we are physically experiencing.
Retraining The Mind
Spiritual and mental disciplines that train us to quiet and stabilize the mind, allow us to perceive ourselves beyond the conditioned, thinking mind. This quieting the mind process opens our awareness to the deeper layers of our being and consciousness. The process can be difficult at first because it takes practice to reign in the habitual thinking patterns and stories in our heads. This clearly takes some training.
So even though the Higher Self is the deeper reality of who and what we are, many of us have difficulty making the connection simply because the mind is ruling our reality. The good news is we can get connected with our Higher Self. As we retrain the mind to focus inward, to become calm and quiet, we naturally enter into a higher state of consciousness where we have direct access to our Higher Self. With practice, and in a relatively short period of time, the mind becomes calmer, more present in the moment, and our self-perceptions and self-understanding expands into a more holistic image of ourselves.
As you embark on this amazing and rewarding journey of connecting with the Higher Self, the heart and mind naturally open into experiencing the reality that is the Higher Self. And so the love affair begins. As this natural opening occurs, you start to perceive and receive the gifts of the Higher Self — all the love, compassion, joy and wisdom that is far beyond what the mind can even imagine.
As you get more connected with your Higher Self, your consciousness also expands into a growing sense of self that goes far beyond mental concepts about who you think you are into knowing who you truly are. And as you get to know this deeper part of yourself, you will also connect with your own beautiful journey of spiritual growth, wonder, and renewal.
Breathwork To Connect With Your Higher Self
While there are many methods and paths that teach us how to connect with the Higher Self, focused breathwork effectively shows us how to quiet the monkey mind and connect with your Higher Self. In most cases, it can very quickly take us out of the thinking mind and into the body, into higher brain waves states and higher consciousness.
Breathwork, like the Joy of Breathing Method can shift your state of consciousness from the Beta brain (active thinking mind) into Alpha, Theta, Gamma and Delta brain waves. It is in these brain wave states where we begin to access a naturally deeper inward focus and meditative state of consciousness.
As the breathwork transports us out of the thinking mind and deeper within, the brain and body become more balanced, more calm and rejuvenated. The altered brain wave states that we enter during the breathing process encourage our attention inward. This movement inward initiates the balancing and healing process of the brain and body. What all of this means is we are setting the ideal stage in body and mind to access the Higher Self.
So not only does the breathing process get us supercharged with life force energy, it also brings us into balance in body, mind, emotions and consciousness. And as we continue to enter into these elevated states of consciousness, we are creating a deep connection with the Higher Self — with the light, joy, love, truth and wisdom that is inside each and every one of us. Each day we become more and more connected with our true High Self. This is what yogis and spiritual masters have described as Heaven on Earth.
The breathwork is also very beneficial to practice with any spiritual or meditation practice that you might already have. It can be used to enhance and deepen your meditation, prayers, and yoga. It can also be practiced with an intention to connect with your Higher Self, which is the topic of the Joy of Breathing and Higher Self Meditation.
Conclusion
Many spiritual beliefs and traditions, such as Yoga, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, recognize the Higher Self, or Soul, and they instruct us to realize it. For realizing the Higher Self is Freedom, or Liberation from ignorance. And to realize the Higher Self is to realize Heaven is here and now inside of you.
Balancing and quieting the mind is key to learning how to connect with the Higher Self. Practices such as meditation, prayer, yoga, and breathwork are some of the ways to make this connection.
And breathwork, like the Joy of Breathing, is a very effective and immediate way to stabilize the mind and enhance your access to the higher states of consciousness and Higher Self.
