What Is Higher Consciousness and How to Achieve It Through Meditation

A woman is going up the stairs. The photo is taken from downstairs, so we look at her from below. It looks like there's a long corridor after the stairs.

Have you ever wondered about higher states of consciousness? What they are, and how some people reach them? Do you ever wonder if you could reach a higher state of consciousness yourself? And if you could, what would that look like? Many people have different notions or ideas about what it means to achieve states of higher consciousness.  Some imagine yogis living high in the mountains, devoting their lives exclusively to the pursuit of higher consciousness. Others imagine it as a spiritual practice that leads to a sudden and complete awakening, or so-called enlightenment. And of course some people think…

Picture Yourself Happy to Make Yourself Happy

A portrait of a young woman smiling with her mouth open broadly. She is wearing glasses. Her hands are on her face. The image is in black and white

Not too long ago, a virtual stranger – a Twitter friend I’ve never met in person but have been interacting with for years – shared with me in private that she’d gotten married. Suddenly, unexpectedly. She found love where she least looked for it or anticipated finding it. It came into her life, she felt it, she embraced it, she claimed it. She was overflowing with happiness. And her happiness flooded into my mind, and my heart. It was the best I’d felt in months. This wasn’t a Buddhist mudita exercise. It was a core experience of being me, and…