Suspicion, jealousy, anger, and contempt are part of our human experience. Most often we instinctually respond to these emotions in ourselves by attempting to hide them from others—as well as from ourselves. It takes courage to recognize that so-called negative emotions are a part of our human experience.

It takes even more courage and much self-acceptance to see such feelings (what we call in Core Energetics, “Lower Self” reactions) without the need to justify them. We need a fair dose of humility to accept our Lower Selves without either feeling ashamed or justifying our behavior—easier said than done.

Taking responsibility for our thoughts, words, and doings is an integral part of self-evolvement, but equally for the evolvement of any community we find ourselves a part of. Here, of course, our “Higher Self” has a role to play—the part within that loves, accepts, that courageously takes responsibility for our own ineffectual patterns and choices with ourselves and others.

Now I don’t mean literally taking responsibility for the deeds of the others; what I mean is to be aware that the way we think, the words we speak, and the way we treat ourselves and others gets all somehow gets deposited into the “bank of collective consciousness”. If our contributions to the “bank” are judgmental thinking, critical words, distrust, abuse of one’s self and of others, it will inevitably lead to more injustice, more suspicion, a need to control, hatred—and eventually, even violence.

Similarly if our “deposits” consist of positive thinking, encouraging words, support and respect of ourselves and others, this will encourage collective open-mindedness, tolerance, and trust, which will open doors to love and creativity.

At all times, we are choosing to live one way or the other—inescapably. Think for a moment, which reality you’d rather live in, which one you’d choose to create, which one you would wish for the children in your life and future generations.

The next time you have opportunity to voice your opinion; or before you, perhaps out of habit, stay silent and withhold your wisdom; before you make another decision; before you react—pause for a moment. Take a deep breath, and try to imagine what sort of contribution you will be adding to the collective consciousness. Will your words and actions (or lack of them) be adding to a destructive energy or will they contribute to the better world?

Unfortunately answer to this question is not always easy. Each of us carries deeply ingrained images and beliefs that we act on and repeat every day, often without consciousness of what we are doing. In order to become fully aware of who we are, we need to expose our images and confront these beliefs from the past.

To do so requires conscious, focused work to discriminate between what is truly “yours” and what was given to you in the past and that you have made yourself believe is yours to to carry through life; that is, unless we consciously choose otherwise, we will find ourselves repeating hurtful patterns from our family lineage as much as we propagate genetic information—essentially repeating others’ words and beliefs.

As long as we allow ourselves to be steered by this sort of “automatic pilot”, we will find it impossible to create a satisfying and fulfilling life, to feel free and happy. This is precisely the reason why seeking our truth is so crucial. Consciousness come with responsibilities. The more we are aware of our true opinions and thoughts and of what is going on around us, the more difficult we will find it to stay indifferent. Only by living with such conscious responsibility can we realize the potential to change reality we live in.