A Road to Consciousness

For example, I still frequently got angry when I struggled with my piano playing and golf and with others who didn’t meet my expectations, including my family and friends. Reflecting on this I eventually chose to embrace my mind and its survival instinct to protect me in all facets. I no longer held it as wrong, but actually acknowledged it was designed solely for protecting me, not just physically but also my ego, emotional and spiritual well-being. I just had to stay conscious and remain at choice when its limiting responses kicked in.

This “detachment” from my mind’s survival design allowed me to embrace my failings and self-deprecations without them limiting my engagement with others and what I could accomplish. The possibilities for who I could be and how I could engage in any moment were indeed limitless. I soon realised that this level of consciousness is not a permanent state or fix, and that was fine. It requires a moment-to-moment awareness discipline to its survival-based design, and thereby be open to possibility as the initial engagement whatever the circumstances.

This individual level of consciousness seemed to me to be the ultimate level at which I could engage with others and myself, at choice and free from the ever present self-limiting internal conversations. However, with yet further reflection I recall occasions when I was working with teams and groups, first as a senior manager in a well-known, multinational consumer goods company and then as a consultant working with a myriad of business clients across the world. Nine times out of ten they admitted that their fundamental issue was how to attain the quality of collaboration needed to accomplish their very challenging goals and strategies. “Silo management” was a frequent phrase they used to describe their predicament.

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