529. The 7 levels of awareness: He said, She said

It's like understanding and then pulling out our claws from whatever we feel attached to within it and just letting it be. I think mastery is like accepting everything and then deciding your move from whatever is happening. Welcome to the earn your happy podcast. I'm Lori Harder, founder of The Bliss Project, 3 Time Fitness World champion, fitness expert and cover model, turned self love junkie, lifestyle entrepreneur and author. Each week I'll bring you a guest or a thought that will help you bust through your fears, connect to your soul, and get focused and clear so you can elevate your life, business and relationships. We don't wait until we're ready for someone to tell us we're good enough. We take what we want and we anoint ourselves. Get ready to earn, own and unapologetically rock your happiness every single day. Are you with me? Here we go. Foreign.

Hey, everybody.

We are back for another episode of he said, she said where you get to hear what he said and then how she feels.

I can't believe that.

Which is always better and more understanding and smarter.

Can't believe that's the title that stuck. Okay. Hey, listen, I have something I want to ask you about today. The other day, when we're sitting around doing nothing, because that's what we're doing these days, you were telling me about these seven types of consciousness or these seven types of whatever. I forget what it was, but I thought was really good. And I was wondering if you would walk us through it today. And here's why you when you're telling me about them, I'm like, oh, my gosh. I recognize people that I see in the world and in my life that are handling this current crisis situation, the pandemic and the economy based on where they are at in one of these levels. And so I wanted to make everybody kind of aware of it.

Okay, I love this. I'm super excited. I'll tell you where it came from in one second. And I love that you said that we were doing nothing because you've been busier than ever, or that we've been doing nothing. I'm like, what world are you in?

I mean, on the weekends when you're finally just sitting around doing nothing. Monday, I'm crushing it.

Yeah, it is the best. On the weekends, we have been taking time to do nothing, which has been like the sweetness of life, in my personal opinion, that may have been missing and we didn't even know it. So this came from. I was listening to a podcast with David Nagel. I believe that's how you say his last name. He's actually going to be on my podcast because I wanted to dig super deep into these. So this is going to be the abbreviated version that's going to just, like, get your taste buds going for the longer podcast. And Chris and I have been talking about this because it's never been more prevalent, I feel like, than right now. And it is called the seven levels of awareness, or seven levels of consciousness. You guys, there's so many different versions of this. So this is just the one version that I grabbed for right now. David has a different version that he does of his own, and then there's like tons of different, like, Sufi versions, Buddhist versions, you name it. There's a million versions, but they pretty much all say the same thing. So this one is the seven levels of awareness that Bob Proctor has pretty much coined or reviewed or made his own. And this is actually from something called the SGR program. I just looked it up online, and level one is called animal survival. This is pretty much animals. This is like animal instinct. This is if there was food in the road but a bus was coming, you will still run out for the food because it is short term. All you can think of is surviving. You're not looking outside side of your tunnel vision and what you can currently see for survival.

Okay, so I want to kind of comment, like, where I see different people. I'm not going to say names, but situations where I see this happening in this environment that we're in right now and what you just told me, this animal level of just basic survival, without forward thinking, that's what I see in a lot of the homelessness that I'm seeing in Santa Monica here right now. It's increased significantly for a number of reasons. And we see them walking out in the middle of the road where we have to slam on the brakes. We see them doing different things that we would never do in public, and it's because of somewhere or something in their life. This is the highest level that they've attained.

Or we see a lot of drugs.

A lot of drugs that have maybe kept them at this level. So my first bit of commentary is this. I think when you see someone like that and you judge them, it's very unfair to judge them because they might be working from a different level of consciousness. Is that what you're calling this?

Yeah. Consciousness and awareness?

Yeah. So they're working from a different level of awareness than you've been blessed to have. Mm.

And that's the beautiful part of awareness. As human beings, we can actually the more. The more you move up this chart, the more you actually stop being controlled by your opinions or your judgment. So when you see a level one, you actually. The beautiful thing is to feel mass compassion. So the more that you move up the level of awareness, you stop feeling, you know, the feelings or the irritation or the frustration or the, you know, feeling like, hopelessness or like life's not fair because that's. That's not actually moving you forward either. You can make decisions from a place of. Okay, if I see this within, you know, I'll just use your example. The homeless. Instead of being upset that they're homeless or being upset that, you know, maybe you're frustrated with it. Right. Maybe it's causing problems. You can actually make decisions from. What would I do? From a higher level of awareness? What I. Am I able to help this situation? What is something. Am I able to control the situation? Is this something that I want to put my energy towards or can I allow this to be. So those are, you know, some different ways of thinking.

Okay, what's the second one?

Level two is called the mass. And this is where people are controlled by habit, family, past, friends, media, and everything around them. So. Oh, this is. Well, it's the mass.

Yeah. Okay.

So this is the bulk and it's.

Level two of people are only at level two. That's scary.

Yes, the bulk of people are at level two.

Okay, go ahead.

And a lot of in. There are points in our life when we can even see this in. In ourselves, you know, whether you might still feel that you are extremely controlled by this. That doesn't mean you are not a smart person. It just means that your level of what you think you can control has not. You have not yet had enough experience, which we'll talk about in a bit, to realize that you are in control of the outcome. But level two is the mass. And it is. It is extremely challenging to break out of because of environment, but it takes the next levels to break out of it, which is interesting.

So you're super influential at this level.

Yes.

A little bit of watching the news is going to determine your day and determine your outcome.

It's going to determine what you do.

This is very.

And how you think.

Victims level. Level two.

Yes.

Okay.

It's everyone else's fault. It's that you are just being bounced around and you're not making your own decisions.

I've been dealt a bad hand. Look at all the unemployments. It's not my fault. That kind of thing.

Yes. In the world, no matter What? And this is a starter. This is a starter for a lot of us, pretty much all of us. We go through level two. All right, level three.

Wait, can you transcend these levels as you get older and have more experience? Is that what you're saying?

You can choose to transcend them at any time.

Oh, okay. So if you're listening and you're like, ooh, that's me, you can choose a higher level.

Oh, yeah. They could choose right now to be like, wait, I had no idea that there was actual levels of awareness. And it is not easy to transcend them. That's why a lot of people are in the mask. So level three is called aspiration. And this is just when you become aware that you might be more and be capable of more, that you might be able to leave the masses somehow. So it's just a level of awareness of going, wait, I might be being controlled by my external circumstances and I might be able to make different choices than the masses are making, that I can create a new outcome. So this is really starting to play with that idea and really starting to look and gather evidence that you can become something different than you are right now. And here's the thing about aspiration is. Aspiration is really interesting because it says it's a realization that you are going to have to somehow make yourself stronger and strong enough to move away from the masses.

This reminds me of when we lost everything in 2008, 2009. I had not been to any form of self development whatsoever. I don't know if you had. And you're like, let's go to this weekend retreat thing. And I went there kicking and screaming and judging. And I came out there a different person. This was the first time I was aware. Like, wait a minute, there's stuff I don't know. There's a different way of thinking. And it like, became the tipping point for me wanting to seek out more.

Are you talking about landmark?

Yeah.

Yeah. That was amazing. Great place to start too, because it was that. That blew my mind that particular weekend. Because at first I was like, this is so stupid. Oh my God. These people need this more than I do. It's the typical, like when you are like, o, they need therapy, not me. And then you take it and you're like, wait, this is amazing. Okay, Level four is called individual. And that is when you make the decision to openly start expressing who you are. Because you are making different choices and you're dealing with whatever comes your way. As far as, you know, maybe people saying things to you from the masses who don't agree with you. It's still choosing to express yourself, your opinions and your ideas, choosing something different through following discipline. So this is when you start to incorporate a little bit of discipline and realize what it is. And I'm going to talk about moving into level five, because five is discipline. It's choosing discipline for all of your choices and your decision making lens. So giving yourself a command, like seeing that discipline or a different choice could change your outcome. It's the ability to give yourself a command, a new command than your habits and all of the old things, sticking to it and following through. And I think Rachel Hollis would call this like, don't break a promise to yourself. So it's the ability to choose something, to choose and be disciplined by it and continue to follow a command that you have given yourself. I just thought that was so interesting because that's all we're doing. Like, but, but here's the thing. It's not just giving yourself a command. It's knowing that that new command is going to create a new outcome. That's where discipline comes in. It's like working out. It's the realization that you're not just working out to get a good body. It's also the realization like working out and having the discipline is going to change your overall outcome. Like you're doing it for so many different reasons.

You skipped through two of them. So I want to make sure people caught them. Number four was, I'm going to use my layman's terms, when you finally are willing to stand out against the crowd for what you believe is right instead of keeping your head down.

Absolutely.

And I feel like this is probably the level that most people get stuck at. Because it's one thing to be aware that there's a new way. It's another thing to be willing to stick your head up and catch a couple bullets. Right. So people stick their head right back down. So I bet they get stuck at number four the most out of all these. Number five, you're saying, is when your discipline is stronger than anything else in your life so that you are consistent. And we all know that consistency is the key to any way that you want to feel, to any way, anything you want to achieve, to any way that you want to show up. And so this is. Okay, you know what number five is? Number five is what happened 15 minutes ago. We just finished working out and what I said to you, I'm like, God, I did not feel like working out today. I was not in the Mood. I definitely didn't have, like, the drive or the zest to lift today, but I dragged the weights out and I did it for an hour anyways. And I was glad I did it because I don't know any other way now. That's my discipline totally.

Over and over and over. It's looking at your life and seeing how many things you show up for that you don't want to do over and over, because you know that it's creating a different outcome and you don't have to be a part of the masses. So whenever you see yourself in a place that you don't love, it's choosing discipline to put in. So discipline is seeing something you don't like in your life, whether it's a thought process, whether it's judging people, whether it's. Whether it's a money outcome and saying, I know I'm in control of that and I. I'm going to put a new habit and command in place and follow through with it. So until you get a result. So with that said, you guys actually level four through seven, they all play off of each other, but really, five, six, and seven are huge.

So I was the discipline no matter what.

Yep. So obviously you can't have six without four and five, and you can't have seven with like, oh, five and six, like, they really build off each other.

You can't skip levels.

No. So number six is experience. And this is a place where you understand that trial and error and learning are going to be the things that are going to get you a different outcome. So you stop worrying about failing and you start to know that the more experience that you have, the closer you are going to get to your outcome. So discipline with showing up and making a new habit, understanding that even if that habit fails, it just means that you need a new habit with more experience around it. And you don't mind failing at all, because you know that the more experience that you do with disciplined habits, that's how you get a different outcome. It's the full understanding that you control the outcome no matter what. But you have to have enough experience, trial and error to get that.

There's nothing I can add to that. That's amazing.

So number seven is called mastery. And, you know, we're never masters of our life no matter what, But I do think that you can dabble in level seven for sure. I think I. A lot of people who are in level seven, I think that we have dipped in and out of level seven often. Yes. That's what I'M saying I'm giving myself props. But mastery is just understanding that we have the capability to not let the outside world affect us at all. Now, I want to say we get this right, we can say that. But the second I walk out my door, I might look at somebody who I, you know, I'm irritated with, or somebody might cut us off in traffic, or I might get a really nasty DM or, you know, and that's going to affect me no matter what because I am a human. But if we were going to bring in level seven, what would happen is being able to truly take the emotional charge out of it no matter what and be like, nope, I'm good. Not controlled by that. Like it's not an actual reality. Understanding that the reality that you live in can be controlled completely up to you.

So mastery is mastering your immediate reaction. Not you're such a master that you're not going to feel these feelings at first. And mastery is mastering the outcome from any circumstance, not that the circumstance won't affect you at first.

Oh, my God. You know, I think mastery is this place of. It's like being able to be in the moment, like, let's just say something happens to you. And being able to like shoot into an elevator and soar up 50,000ft to see everything that's going on, like, to take into consideration, oh, that person. Like, let me see what actually happened in this person's day or life to be able to understand. It's like understanding and then pulling out our claws from whatever we feel attached to within it and just letting it be. I think mastery is like accepting everything and then deciding your move from whatever is happening.

Level six and level seven, it just dawned on me. Are the people that think, act and behave based on the big picture?

Yes.

Based on the long term, not on short term pleasure, not on short term reactions, not on short term fears. And listen, we are facing a crisis economy, we are facing a pandemic, and we are facing a wildly unfamiliar situation right now. And I feel like you need to choose and dive into being. What was the level of awareness? Was that three?

Yeah. Three is aspiration. When you become aware that there might be more.

Okay. I feel like at minimum, you need to be throwing yourself into level three and aspiring for level four or higher if you're going to come out of this thing. Okay. And listen for step one is being aware. It's okay if you're level one, it's okay if you're level two. It's okay if you're maybe considering Level three, step one is just being aware of like, oh shoot, here's where I am. Step two is then choosing to go pursue the next level. And you can't jump levels, but go pursue the next level, become good at it, and then pursue the one after that. It's the only way that you're that people are going to be able to come out of this thing successfully.

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It's really, you know, I look at all of just amazing leaders, people who have written incredible books, speakers, just people that you look up to in general in the world and that you want to emulate in world leaders who many people have loved and who've adored. And just thinking, because we had seen some different things the other day on like Martin Luther King and leaders like him, right? Like he had the ability to even see. Like, he understood that he was putting himself in the line of fire for the greater good. So whatever that looked like, he didn't know if he would make it. He didn't know if he would. He had no idea what would happen with his future. But he did know that what he was doing was for the ma. It was because he was doing it for the greater good of the whole. Like, for a lot of people would be like, hell no, I'm not doing that. It's like anti survival, right? And he was able to go up above it all and just be like, how? How am I going to impact the whole. And how can I act and show up to impact the whole? And that's how a lot and a lot of people have to make really tough choices over how am I going to impact the whole and what decisions do I need to make to impact the greater good? Right? Like we were talking about this just super briefly, talking about how nature and evolution or nature chooses evolution of the planet. Like, it wants to move forward, it wants to grow, it wants to keep going no matter what. And sometimes that means, you know, having the tigers get the gazelle, gazelle. And that's horrible to see. I was reading Ray Dalio's book Principles, and he was talking about that it's horrendous to see, but it moves nature's nature forward. Now, I'm not necessarily saying human situations like this whatsoever. I am saying it's about being able to zoom out and look at everything as a giant picture and not getting so emotionally attached to something that feels very small in your world.

And I'm more direct than you, so here's what I'll say. If you're not working your way up through these levels, then, yes, the pandemic and, yes, the economy will take you out. If you are working your way up through these levels, then you're going to increase your chances of survival and even thriving, and that's the way the world works.

So, you guys, I hope you enjoyed this. I am going to have David on the podcast to dive a little bit deeper into all of these, and he's got his different version, so I'm super excited about that. And he talks a lot about business as well, so that will be on the show. But, Chris, thank you so much for diving into these with me. That was fun.

Listen, this was awesome when you're talking to me about it the other day, and I thought it'd be really important for everyone to. To grasp onto on this episode, so thank you.

All right, you guys, let us know what you took away from this. Please tag Chris and I, because I'd love to hear, like, what was your biggest moment during this podcast for yourself? Did you actually feel like you could jump a level even while hearing about it? Because now I think sometimes just learning and understanding and even being aware brings you into more awareness. So until next time, everybody earn. What do we call it? Earn your money. Just kidding. Because what. Your podcast is for the love. Yeah, for the love of money. Earn your money.

Bye, woman.

Thank you guys so much for spending this time time with me on the earn your happy podcast. I am so glad that you stopped by. If you could take one second to share this episode with someone you think would love it, that would be absolutely amazing and we would be forever grateful. Also, please leave us a review if you feel so moved by going to itunes and leaving us an honest thought, an honest comment. Tell us what what you think. Tell us what you want to hear more of. It would really help us out on our journey to helping thousands and thousands of people. Until then, don't forget to earn your happy. Thanks again, guys. Bye. Bye.