There are many areas of life in which we perceive ourselves to have a choice. If we listen to political commentators or to public figures on the national or world stage, we feel free to believe or not believe what we are being told about the state of the nation, the world, or our own specific personal concerns. We do not think we have to believe what we are told. If we have a pain in our toe that does not require emergency measures but is just there, we may choose to believe that the pain will go away on its own and ignore it, or that it should be looked at by a doctor, or that we might apply a home remedy that would alleviate the discomfort. We do not feel that there is only one option open to us.

It is very different with emotions. Because emotions are so seamlessly felt as part of our bodies and our psyches, we believe that they are 'us'. Often, they seem commanding and inevitable, leaving us with a feeling of no choice and no alternative concerning what else we might feel. In relation to emotions, rather than allowing our free choice to define reality, our feelings often define reality, communicating to us as if they were the 'bottom line' - that which is essentially true and is essentially who we are.

A great sense of freedom occurs when we discover, learn, or are awakened to the fact that emotions are only relatively real. They are real from the standpoint of our human, embodied self, but are less real when seen from the standpoint of our higher Self. For our higher or larger Self does not operate on the basis of the common emotions that are part of ordinary daily life. Our higher Self is free of these and therefore can remain faithful to the higher principles of truth, love, hope, and generosity.

Each person has within themselves the capacity to tap into and to align with the higher Self. The road to communication is more open now than ever before, due to the presence of greater light on Earth. With far less difficulty than in the past, if we choose to, we can shift perspectives when we feel bound by a particular set of feelings that we would rather not have. Instead of fear, attuning to the higher dimensions of our being, we may find confidence and strength. Instead of self-criticism, love and acceptance. Instead of anger, we may find trust. The connection to the higher Self of each person is more available today, making possible the letting go of habits that have formerly seemed impossible to let go of, and creating a new ability to see things from a more positive perspective. The trick lies in being able to believe in a different reality.

What does it mean 'to believe in a different reality'?

It means that we have a larger Self and are not composed of just the layer of identity that has many doubts, flaws, and limitations - restrictions that often leave us not knowing what to do.

It means that our higher Self is operating at all times within the planes of pure Spirit, and that it continues on in a pure and uplifted way, even while we, within our human experience, may be feeling quite differently.

It means that we trust that a way can be found to align with our higher Self so that we are less influenced by the lower emotions and can choose what we wish to feel. In all of this, the critical element is believing that we have a CHOICE.

Emotional reality has felt indelible and intractable for as long as we perceived no alternative within ourselves that we could count on. Today, however, the walls between layers and dimensions of the self have become much thinner and more porous. And so we can pray for guidance from the other dimensions of our being and engage in efforts at communication so that we replace whatever we may be feeling on the level of personality with a different option.

Those who deal with self-doubt or self-criticism in a strong way may find it difficult to believe that anything else is possible other than a reiteration of self-blame and an awareness of the mistakes one has made. To get past this, one must be free enough to allow something good to happen. The permission to align with the positive and to release the negative must exist strongly enough so that we can see, and hear, and feel the directives of our higher identity. These directives carry the blueprint of our conscious experience as a soul, minus the deflating or diminishing aspects of our personality-self. If we could but reach toward this level of our being, we would find that we had within ourselves a goldmine of alternative ways of feeling to the ones that seem habitual and that keep us bound and limited.

In the reaching and in the seeking, the energy pathways become stronger, and a greater degree of truth can be found. The choice is up to each and every soul - to become who one is on both a deeper and higher level, or to allow things to remain the same. This is the choice of consciousness and we make it with each breath we take and each decision we make, day by day, throughout our life.

Julie Redstone is a teacher, writer, and founder of Light Omega, a center for spiritual teaching and healing in Western Massachusetts. The purpose of Light Omega is to create an understanding of the sacred transition into light that the Earth is presently going through and the changes this will bring to individual and planetary consciousness.